Technology is distracting every student from reading. Now question is how and who will redevelop the reading habit among the students?
BY Hanefan Shaikh
In this digital era every guardian and parents are worried how to get their child towards reading newspapers, journals and books, as the technology is distracting every student from reading. Now question is how and who will redevelop the reading habit among the students? We’ll discuss some important aspects of creating or improving habit of reading.
First of all, we should understand why it is needed to read the newspapers and books? There are several reasons behind it. It is not only for students but every individual must read newspapers and books, as individual get knowledge about world issues and anything which we want to know what is going on here and there, as an American educator and humanitarian Mary McLeod Bethune says, “The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.”
In modern human life it is beneficial to make it a habit. Reading can transform a common person into extraordinary personality having the huge information. Moreover, reading newspapers and books not only make stronger your general knowledge but it improves your language skills whatever language you want to learn. Nowadays, having a good command of English both oral and written is a prerequisite for a successful promotion in every field, therefore students must learn how to communicate by means of a foreign language at a very high level. Globally English language has become a prerequisite for a successful career in every field. The students should have a good command of oral as well as writing English language. Therefore it is needed Students should focus on learning English language to secure their career. In this regards, reading newspapers and books is very essential source to get language proficiency.
Furthermore, most important point is what to read? Every individual has many choices to read. But the basic level to getting it as a habit would be choosing material which is most interesting for individual. It can be current affairs, general knowledge, comic material, entertainment, autobiography, sports, national news etc. You can read more and more information through newspapers which you have in reach. It is very important to choose trustworthy newspapers.
The trend of using social media is growing day by day. All kinds of gadgets, especially mobile phones, tablets, laptops, have replaced the newspapers and other print material. In today’s busy life, not only students but the elders too don’t have time to read newspaper. A very few people still go for a newspaper traditionally during the morning time or are they buy it through newspaper hawker at home. There is correlation between lower score in academic and overuse of gadgets.
It’s a need of time to introduce the interesting ways of reading newspapers to get on students habitual to reading and get over them from over-use of technology. Once you know about the reputable newspaper go on and must motivate your child to read on. Newspaper is full of information so its crucial way to get informed as well as improving vocabulary would play vital role to getting habit of reading newspapers from very early age.
There are some ways you can use to encourage youngsters to read newspaper regularly. As first step you should make a routine to read a newspaper with your child every morning, as the mind is fresh and ready at that time to absorb information more readily. Second, identify your child’s interests with noticing which particular information has been chosen by the kids. Let your child, read the portion, which move to getting interested, for example, entertainment and sports sections are most favorites for child. This will encourage him/her to read the newspaper on daily basis. Slowly and gradually you can draw their attention towards multiple topics like economics, politics, history etc.
Last but not the least – motivate your child to contribute writing on those topics which they are interested in. It would be an effective way to encourage them writing for newspapers in multiple sections. It helps not only for student’s everyday life but they can improve their personality having knowledge about many topics which lead to taking parts in various discussion forums.
As I mentioned above due to numerous distractions, especially due to overuse of technology, pupil feel it’s tricky to make a habit of reading newspapers regularly. At the same technology can play vital role to improve the reading skills if it will used in proper way. In the digital era youngsters can’t live without gadgets so it’s responsibility of parents to protect their children from negative use of technology by keeping an eye on them. To get benefit of technology parents, guardians and teachers should make students habitual of reading e-papers as well as hard copy if they want to secure the career of their children.
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Hanefan Shaikh is Lecturer at Faculty of Management Sciences, ILMA University Karachi Sindh
