English Teacher's Beliefs about Reading and their Classroom Practices

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify teachers’ beliefs about reading and how these are related with their practices. This study was carried out through a qualitative case study research design which involved three in service English teachers in a public school in the northern coast of Colombia with ethnographic data collection methods which included semi structured interviews, classroom observations and document analysis. A questionnaire also was used. The analysis revealed that the participants have strong beliefs about the methodology that should be used to teach reading, about their own role and students´ role in teaching and learning process of reading and about the criteria to choose a text. Also the analysis revealed teachers’ self confidence of their own practices and some tensions between what they believe and what they do in class . Contextual factors were also analyzed in this study since these become essential part of the analysis between teachers’ beliefs and practices and therefore help us to understand in a broad sense what is happening in this relation.