Exploring the Reflection of Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Theories and Strategies on Their Classroom Practices

Abstract

their beliefs, which in turn impact the ways they plan their lessons, the kinds of decision they make, and the methods they apply in their classrooms. The present study aims, first, to investigate the construct of teachers’ belief systems about reading theories and strategies among university instructors, then to explore the _x000D_ degree of discrepancies or consistencies between teachers’ beliefs about reading theories and strategies and their practical teaching activities in the EFL setting of Taiwan. The questionnaire adapted Likert scales, containing three parts--the _x000D_ importance of reading theories and strategies in reading comprehension, the necessity of reading theories and strategies in teaching practices, and actual employment of reading theories and strategies in classrooms. Forty-two English _x000D_ instructors from two universities in central Taiwan participated in the current study. _x000D_ The results have shown that the instructors emphasized linguistic knowledge, cognitive strategy and metacognitive strategy. The data also provided strong evidence that reading theories and strategies in the three domains–the importance of _x000D_ reading theories and strategies in reading comprehension, the necessity of reading theories and strategies in teaching practices, and actual employment of reading theories and strategies in practical classrooms, were positively correlated with each other.