CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Teachers’ beliefs about cognitive reading strategies
The following presented data were extracted from the questionnaire (Section II and III) together with teachers‟ interviews. In the first place, teachers self-assessed their degree of familiarity with the concept of reading strategies.
Very
Somewhat
Slightly
Not at all
The results of the first question show that half of the teachers considered themselves as being „very‟ familiar with the concept of reading strategies. Among 10 participants, 4 of them said that they were „somewhat‟ familiar whereas only one teacher indicated the „slightly‟ option for this question. As a whole, teachers reported having been familiar with the reading strategies and having some ideas about them.
The results from the semi-structured interviews also supported those from questionnaires in which teachers were asked what the concept of reading strategies meant to them. They defined reading strategies as:
- “the strategies used by readers to read the text effectively” (Teacher 1) Figure 3.1. Teachers’ familiarity with the concept of reading
strategies
(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction
- “the strategies that help readers do reading comprehension tasks with the best results”
(Teacher 2)
Similarly, teacher 3 said,
“Reading strategies are to make reading tasks easier for a student and make the student gain speed while reading.”
It can be said that the interviewed teachers have a basically similar concept in their minds regarding the reading strategies. They had a general idea about what reading strategies were, which was quite similar to the definition of reading strategies in the literature review, i.e. specific actions consciously employed by the learner for the purpose of reading.
The questionnaire results further clarified teacher‟s opinions on the importance of reading strategies instruction by asking them the reasons why they taught reading strategies (Question 2, Section II). In this question, participants were presented various reasons for teaching strategies to choose, together with one extra option where they could write their personal reasons, if any, other than ones presented.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Figure 3.2. Teachers’ reasons for teaching reading strategies at
(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Teacher’s.attitudes.towards.and.practice.in.cognitive.reading.strategies.instruction
As seen in Figure 3.2, all the participants agreed that teaching reading strategies helped students understand texts better, develop sub-skills, improve the students‟
enjoyment of the texts and prepare for the test. Nine of the participants appreciated the importance of teaching reading strategies to students‟ awareness of the language. The advantage of saving time when reading strategies were instructed was agreed by most participants (8 teachers). Surprisingly, only 6 of them reported that teaching reading strategies enhanced autonomy or helped students to be independent readers. None of the respondents gave a reason other than the ones provided.
In the interviews, the benefits of teaching reading strategies on time saving, skill development and test preparation were emphasized again by the three participants.
- “Without teacher’s instruction on reading strategies, students may do not know how to complete the reading tasks in a limited time” (Teacher 1)
- “Reading strategies instruction is essential to equip students with important reading skills” (Teacher 2)
- “Students should be taught the reading strategies so that they could apply various strategies for different reading texts in the tests” (Teacher 3)
Further than general attitudes on reading strategies instruction, the researcher continued to seek data on teachers‟ beliefs about the importance of each reading strategy in Section III of the questionnaire. Below are means and standard deviations given to each item in the three categories of pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading strategies.
Pre-reading strategies
Items Mean SD