University instructors’ views about and approaches to reading instruction and reading strategies

Abstract

The present study investigates university preparatory school teachers’ views about and approaches to reading instruction and reading strategies. Fifty instructors who work at preparatory schools of Cag University, Cukurova University and Mersin University in Turkey participated in the study. To investigate instructors’ views about and approaches to reading instruction a questionnaire was given and interviews were conducted with six of the participants according to the diversity of the answers they gave in the questionnaire. The study also investigated how teachers read in a foreign languguage, how they teach reading, the problems they face in reading lessons and whether they teach reading strategies in their reading lessons. It also focused on how and whether instructors’ use of reading strategies’ in their daily lives is reflected in their reading classes. The data were collected with a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. It is found out that the most important problems instructors face in a reading class is the unknown vocabulary and unfamiliar topic. The results showed that instructors thought an ideal reading instruction should include reading strategies; instructors used more pre-reading strategies than post-reading strategies, and participants who used reading strategies in their daily lives made more use of reading strategies in class.