الملخص الإنجليزي
Purpose of study:
The current study aimed at answering the following five questions: 1. What are the required silent reading skills for first preparatory students? 2. To What extent do first preparatory students master these skills? 3. How much effect do sex and achievement in the Arabic Language have on the students mastery of the silent reading
skills? 4. What are the reasons behind first preparatory students lack of mastery of the silent reading skills in the point of view of the inspectors and teachers? 5. What are the recommended solutions for this problem?
roblem? To answer these questions, the researcher went through the following procedures: 1. Preparing a theoretical framework, which contained the current trends in teaching the silent reading including its nature, notion, uses, skills, objectives and advantages. It also included teaching the silent reading in Oman, the development characteristics of preparatory students, weakness in the silent reading, its aspects and reasons. 2. Review of pertinent literature: a. Studies in Arabic: Studies that dealt with the achievement and diagnostic
tests, which measures the ability of silent reading and mastering its skills. Studies that dealt with the identification of the silent reading skills and developing them in different learning stages. b. Other Studies: Studies that dealt with identifying the reasons behind the reading retardation and its aspects. Studies that dealt with developing the silent reading skills and the relationship between the speed and the understanding the silent reading. 3. Designing a test to measure the silent reading skills after making sure of its validity by showing it to some referees together with measuring its reliability through piloting. Through measuring X by using test-retest method as for males and females, the reliability coefficients reached (0.98.7). The researcher identified eight skills that the test measured; stating objectives, visualizing the expected results, differentiating between facts and opinions in the reading passage, differentiating between the basic ideas and the secondary ones, choosing the suitable title, knowing the new word for the same meaning, recognizing the meanings of the new vocabulary from the passage, and understanding the general idea behind the passage." 4. Designing a questionnaire to identify the reasons for the first preparatory students lacking the mastery of silent reading skills in the point of view of the inspectors and teachers. The researcher made sure of the validity of the questionnaire by distributing it to some referees. He also used Pearson's Correlation coefficient for measuring the reliability coefficient that reached (0.95). 5.Designing a questionnaire to explore some remedial proposals for the first preparatory students lacking the mastery of silent reading skills through the views of the inspectors and teachers. The researcher made sure of the validity of the questionnaire by distributing it to some referees. He also used Pearson's Correlation coefficient-for--------- measuring the reliability coefficient that reached (0.87). Population and Sample: The sample of the study was formed of (607) first preparatory students representing (6%) of the basic population of the study, which was (10126) students. The teachers sample, however, was (85) teachers representing (20%) of the original population of the study which was (425) teachers. The inspectors' sample was (9) of them representing (65%) of the population of the study which was (14) inspectors for 1998/1999. The researcher used the percentages and frequencies to get the results of the first question trying to reach the skills of the silent reading for the first preparatory students. He also did the same with the second question through the students' performance in the silent reading test. In addition, he used standard deviation and means to answer the fourth and fifth questions, which dealt with the responses of the inspectors and teachers to the questionnaire items. The researcher used the co-variance analysis to know how much effect do sex and achievement have on the student mastering the silent reading skills. Furthermore, he used the Sheffe test to get the differences between the means.
Results:
1. There are some suitable skills that can be used to construct a test to measure the mastery of the first preparatory students of the silent reading skills. These skills are stating the objectives, visualizing the expected results, differentiation between the main ideas and the secondary ones in the reading passage, cause and effect relationship, choosing a suitable title for the passage, knowing new words for a meaning, recognizing the meaning of the new vocabulary from the passage. 2.First preparatory students lacking the mastery of the silent
reading skills in general. Their achievement reached (70%), which is less than the minimum for the mastery identified by the study (75%). The study also found out that the first preparatory students lack the mastery of each silent reading skill: . There were no statistically differences between the genders and the students' mastery of the silent reading skills in general (P < 0.05). There were also statistical differences between the achievement in the Arabic Language and the students' mastery of the silent reading skills in general (P <0.05). There were no, however, statistical differences between the sex and achievement on the mastery of the first preparatory students of the silent reading skills (P <0.05). 4. The most important reason was the local environment which
contributed in the first preparatory students' lack of the mastery of silent reading skills (X=4.39) out of the maximum means (X=5.00). The second reason was the student (X=4.26). The next reason was the school curriculum (X=4.00) followed by the educational environment (X=3.93) in the point of view of the inspectors. On the other hand, as far as the teachers are concerned; the most important reason was the student (X=4.38) followed by the local environment (X=4.31). Then the school curriculum (X=3.75) and the educational environment (X=3.61) come at the end. 5. The most important remedial proposal for the first preparatory
students' lack of the mastery of silent reading skills was the students themselves (X=4.67) out of the maximum means (X=5.00). The second proposal was the local environment (X=4.65) followed by the educational environment (X=4.56). The last one was the school curriculum (X=4.49) in the point of view of the inspectors. The same proposals were in the same order as for the teachers with the following means respectively (X=4.72), (X=4.69), (X=4.47), (X=4.45).
Recommendations:
One of the important recommendations that the study suggested is that educators should pay enough attention to the silent reading teaching programs. In addition, it is necessary to conduct workshops to train the teachers on the different available ways for developing the silent reading skills of the students. It is also important to choose the content of the reading books abreast with the students' interests, abilities, aptitudes, and development characteristics. To add more, a concern should be developed towards the school library and taking care of the current trends in the teaching of silent reading. New more field studies about the silent reading should be encouraged as well
