EXPLORING TEACHER BELIEFS IN SECOND LANGUAGE READING INSTRUCTION IN GHANA

Isaac Osei

Abstract


This paper reports on a study investigating the professed or stated beliefs and practices of 61 second language (L2) teachers in Ghana concerning reading instruction. The primary aim of this study was to explore whether the teachers’ stated beliefs and practices reflected the research literature on effective L2 reading pedagogy. The research employed a questionnaire that generated both quantitative and qualitative data. The data analyses revealed little alignment between the teachers’ stated beliefs and practices and the research recommendations for effectively teaching reading. Instead, their stated beliefs and practices focused predominantly on read-aloud/pronunciation and vocabulary, constituting a partial conceptualization of effective reading pedagogy. The results are discussed, and implications for practical L2 reading instructions are provided.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


teacher beliefs, second language reading, reading comprehension, reading instruction, read-aloud

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aebersold, J., & Field, M. (1997). From reading to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second languages classroom. Cambridge University Press.

Acquaroni Muñoz, R. (2004). La comprensión lectora [Reading comprehension]. In J. Sánchez Lobato & I. Santos Gargallo (Eds.), Vademécum para la formación de profesores. Enseñar español como segunda lengua (L2)/lengua extranjera (LE) (pp. 943–967). SGEL.

Akinpelu, M., & Yegblemenawo, S. A. M. (2023). Teaching French as a Foreign Language in Multilingual and Anglophone Contexts: The Experiences of Teachers in Nigeria and Ghana. Educational Considerations, 49(2). https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.2345

Amonoo, R. F. (1988). The Gaft in its early years. Black Mask Limited.

Anderson, N. J. (2012). Reading Instruction. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.). The Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and Practice in Second Language Teaching. (pp. 218- 225). Cambridge University Press.

Bangnia. A. (2020). Challenges of the teaching and learning of French as a foreign language in Ghana: The way forward. International Journal of Advanced Research and Publications, 4 (1) 95-103. http://www.ijarp.org/online-papers-publishing/jan2020.html.

Barcelos, A. M. F. (2003). Researching beliefs about SLA: A critical review. In P. Kalaja & A. M. F. Barcelos (Eds.), Beliefs about SLA: New research approaches (pp. 7-33). Kluwer Academic Press.

Basturkmen, H. (2012). Review of Research into the Correspondence between Language Teachers' Stated Beliefs and Practices. System (40) 282–295. doi:10.1016/j.system.2012.05.001.

Boampong, J. (2014). La presencia del español en Ghana [The Spanish language in Ghana]. Retrieved June 2021, from https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/eeas/capitulo12.htm

Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81–109. doi:10.1017/S0261444803001903

Borg, S. (2015a). Researching teacher beliefs. In B. Paltridge & A. Phakiti (eds.) Research methods in applied linguistics: A practical resource, (pp. 487–504). Bloomsbury.

Borg, S., & Burns, A. (2008). Integrating grammar in adult TESOL Classrooms. Applied Linguistics, pp. 29, 456–482. doi:10.1093/applin/amn020

Cunningham, A. E., & Zibulsky, J. (2009). Perspectives on teachers’ disciplinary knowledge of reading processes, development, and pedagogy. Reading and Writing, pp. 22, 375–378.

Cunningham, A. E., & O’Donnell, C. R. (2015). Teachers’ knowledge about beginning reading development and instruction. In A. Pollatsek & R. Treiman (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Reading, (pp. 447–462). Oxford University Press.

Dörnyei, Z. & Dewaele, J. M. (2023). Questionnaires in second language research: construction, administration, and processing (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Eberhard, D. M., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (Eds.) (2023). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. (26th ed.) SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com

Ediger, A. M. (2006). Developing strategic L2 readers by reading for authentic purposes. En E. Usó-Juan & A. Martínez-Flor (Eds.), Current trends in the development and teaching of the four language skills, (pp. 303–328). Mouton de Gruyter.

Farrell, T. S. C., & Ives, J. (2015). Exploring teacher beliefs and classroom practices through practice: A case study. Language Teaching Research, 19 (5), 594– 610.

Gidalew, T. A., & van den Berg, G. (2018). The relationship between lecturers' beliefs and their actual methods of reading instruction: An Ethiopian case study. Reading & Writing, 9(1).

Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2020). Teaching and researching reading (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2023). Principles for reading instruction. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of Practical Second Language Teaching and Learning, (pp. 357 - 369). Routledge

Grabe, W., & Yashimita, J. (2022). Reading in a second Language: Moving from theory to practice. (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Graham, S., Santos, D., & Francis-Brophy, E. (2014). Teacher beliefs about listening in a foreign language. Teaching and Teacher Education 40, 44‒60.

Hatch, J. A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. State University of New York Press.

Hedgcock, J., & D. Ferris (2018). Teaching readers of English: Students, texts, and contexts (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Jiang, X., Grabe, W., & Carrell, P. L. (2020). Reading. In N. Schmitt & M. P. H. Rodgers (Eds.), An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (3rd ed., pp. 259–278). Routledge.

Kuzborska, I. (2011). Links between teachers’ beliefs and practices and research on reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 23(1), 1.

Lacorte, M., & Canabal, E. (2005). Teacher beliefs and practices in advanced Spanish classrooms. Heritage Language Learning, 3(1), 83-107.

Lezouret, M. (2002). Statut et diffusion du français au Ghana: la formation initiale des professeurs de français en question [Status and popularity of French in Ghana: Initial teacher training of French teachers] [Unpublished doctoral thesis]. Université Paris 8.

Lomotey, B. A. (2020). A Conversational Analysis of Language Practices in the FL Classroom: Data from a Ghanaian University Context. Linguistics Journal, 14(1).

Mfum-Mensah, O. (2005). The Impact of Colonial and Postcolonial Ghanaian Language Policies on Vernacular Use in Schools in Two Northern Ghanaian Communities. Comparative Education, 41(1), 71–85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30044519

Nassaji, H. (2012). The relationship between SLA research and language pedagogy: Teachers’ perspectives. Language teaching research, 16(3), 337–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168812436903

Nation, I. S. P. (2013). Learning vocabulary in another language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Nuttall, C. (2005). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language. MacMillan.

Phipps, S., & Borg, S. (2009). Exploring tensions between teachers’ grammar teaching beliefs and practices. System, 37, 380–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2009.03.002

Rodrigo, V. (2019a). La comprensión lectora en la enseñanza del español LE/L2 [Reading comprehension in teaching Spanish as FL/L2]. Routledge.

Song, S. Y. (2015). Teachers’ beliefs about Language learning and teaching. In M, Bigelow, & J. Ennser-Kananen, The Routledge Handbook of Educational Linguistics, (pp. 263– 275).

Stoffelsma, C. E., & de Jong, J. H. (2015). The English reading proficiency of future teachers in Ghana. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 24(2), 94–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.53228/njas.v24i2.127

Stoffelsma, L., & Spooren, W. (2013). Reading and knowledge transfer in Ghana: The behavior, attitudes and self-concepts of first-year students in Bachelor of Education programmes. Educational Psychology, 33(6), 690-718, https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.785047

Tavakoli, P., & Hunter, A. M. (2018). Is fluency being ‘neglected’ in the classroom? Teacher understanding of fluency and related classroom practices. Language Teaching Research, 22(3), 330-349. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168817708462




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejfl.v8i1.5284

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright © 2015 - 2023. European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (ISSN 2537-1754) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing GroupAll rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms.

All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).