A study of technological-institute English teachers'' beliefs and knowledge about reading instruction

• Main Authors: Shu-ren Wu, 吳庶任
• Other Authors: Shi-guey Joe
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1999
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/44890895075139507246

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 87 === This study was done to explore technological-institute (TI) English teachers'' beliefs and knowledge about reading instruction at TIs. Eight English teachers from four TIs participated in this study. Two open-ended interviews were conducted with each of them. Data subject to analysis included transcripts of the interviews with the eight teachers, as well as interview transcripts from Joe and Hung''s study (1998).The researcher subsumed this study under the recent tendency in TESL/TEFL research to use qualitative methods to capture a holistic understanding of language teachers'' mind. Qualitative procedures were thus employed to analyze the interview data. The analysis focused on (a) the major themes that constituted teacher participants'' beliefs and knowledge, and (b) teacher participants'' pedagogical perspective of English reading instruction at TIs.Findings were summarized as follows. First, four major themes were identified that characterized teacher participants'' beliefs and knowledge: (a) teaching learners with particular needs, (b) bridging and extension, (c) striving for recognition, and (d) pedagogical Inter-Actionism. To begin with, due to the particularity of TI students'' cognitive and affective needs, most teacher participants implemented the instructional design of teaching from the basic and adjusted their views toward the students. Next, TI reading instruction was considered as serving the function of bridging and extending students'' learning of English reading. It was intended to re-build students'' ability and confidence and also to help students learn beyond the language. Moreover, teacher participants had been making efforts in anticipation of the recognition from both the students and the educational milieu. Their efforts and aspiration for teaching effectiveness interacted with their expectations of more involvement and support from the students and external conditions. Finally, teacher participants'' pedagogical thoughts and action constituted a system of "Actionism." It was concerned with how teachers and students could act in a way that was beneficial to each other. It involved the ways to get students to take action for their own learning, and it also involved the management of learner-centeredness.Second, teacher participants'' pedagogical perspective was identified and entitled as "Actionism,"which represented a system of thoughts and action intended to create the instruction in which both the teacher and students are active and both act in response to the needs and expectations of each other. Two elements were identified of this perspective: "#34 and "learner-centeredness." "#34 referred to how teacher participants thought and acted to get students to take an active role in their learning English reading. "learner-centeredness"was about how teacher participants kept the balance between the teacher''s principles and students'' learning preferences, and about how they mediated between the teacher''s pressure and students'' growth. It was also concerned with the dynamic allotment of responsibility between the teacher and the students.The researcher suggests that TI English teachers may try (a) to understand TI students'' reading proficiency, learning styles and their affective characteristics, and give them encouragement frequently; (b) to focus on students'' interests and confidence as a major concern in setting instructional objectives, selecting materials, designing instructional tasks, and evaluating; (c) to do activities or integrate reading with other language skills, in order to induce students'' motivation and increase learning effectiveness; and (d) to minimize perceptual mismatches between the teacher and the students, and release responsibility to students gradually by designing appropriate tasks, thus increasing teaching/learning effectiveness.