Dubai: Instilling the reading habit in children is a challenging task given the overwhelming influence of mass media like television on young minds, an educator says.
"The reading habit faces powerful rivals, including TV and other electronic gadgets that attract the minds of young children", Dr Gassoub Sharif Mustafa, an English faculty member at the Higher Colleges of Technology, said.
"Selling reading to this generation is as bad as selling ice to an Eskimo," Dr Mustafa said.
Research projects
Dr Mustafa, who teaches at the Dubai Women's College, has served as the head of the research committee at the college and has been involved in various research projects on improving the quality of teaching and learning of Arab students.
"No skill is more crucial to the future of a child or to a prosperous society than reading. It is a basic tool for living a good life."
A number of factors have resulted in the decline of reading among children, especially in the Arab world, he said. "The lack of the culture of reading at home, the fact that reading is often associated with hated topics such as exams, and limited first language reading material, etc, are a few of them."
Quoting a UN survey in 2008, Dr Mustafa said that the average Arab citizen in the Middle East reads approximately four pages of literature a year — which corresponds to learning five words a day. In comparison, an average American reads 11 books a year and a Briton eight books.
Encouraging parents and teachers to instil the passion for books in children, Dr Mustafa said that cultivating effective reading habits would make children lifelong learners.
"The training should begin when the children are as young as two or three years." Once they become young adults, it will not be easy to instil the reading habit then, he added.
According to Dr Mustafa, many children tend to see reading merely as a school task and thus a necessary evil, rather than seeing it as a source to derive happiness from.
Oral learning tradition
He found in his research that the lack of a rich vocabulary is something that hinders reading in Arabs. "The difference between the Arabic used for writing and the dialect of the reader is another aspect." The oral culture of Arabs does not help either, he added.
"When Arabs were dev-oted readers they were the world's great leaders," he said, calling for a reawakening of the dormant passion for reading.
Why read books?
- It hones critical skills such as problem-solving, reasoning and decision-making
- Improves self-esteem and confidence
- Improves mental health in children
- Promotes good writing, proper spelling and grammar
- Helps children become articulate
How to encourage reading in children?
- Be a model to your children
- Set family reading time
- Make it look like a shared enjoyable activity - not a chore
- Surround them with books
Does your child like to read? How do you think children be encouraged to read more? Tell us at readers@gulfnews.com or fill in the form below
