The concept of reading literacy as one of the elements of students' functional literacy is considered. On the basis of modern teaching materials aimed at learning German as the first and second foreign language in secondary school, an analysis of the problems faced by teachers and students in the process of forming reading literacy in the classroom in a foreign language (German) was carried out and ways to overcome them were proposed. The tasks for the development of meta-subject skills and the ability to actually read, depending on the level of development of reading competence, are considered.