Thai EFL Teachers’ Beliefs on Teaching Reading through Text-Based and Competency-Based Reading Approaches in an International University
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Abstract
This study explored Thai EFL teachers’ beliefs about teaching EFL reading regarding text-based and competency-based reading approaches and examined whether the teachers’ demographic factors had an impact on their beliefs. The participants were 24 Thai EFL teachers from the Business English department in an international university in Thailand. The adapted teachers’ orientation to reading instruction (TORI) questionnaire was employed to explore teachers’ beliefs about the text-based and competency-based methods of teaching reading. A series of Independent Samples T-Tests and a One-Way ANOVA were conducted for analyzing whether the teachers’ demographic factors had an impact on their beliefs. The results showed that these teachers strongly believe in the concepts of competency-based and text-based teaching, instead of applying “teacher-directed instruction.” Furthermore, differences existed among teachers’ demographic factors which indicated that the teachers’ gender, educational background, and years of teaching experience impacted their beliefs. These findings reinforced the importance of exploring beyond teachers’ beliefs. Teachers should not only be self-reflective and self-aware of their beliefs, but also of the impacts of their demographic factors. This awareness could lead to improvement in their teaching practices in EFL reading, and subsequently students’ learning. The findings suggest that further research is necessary regarding the text-based reading approach as well as comparing teaching practices to teachers’ beliefs.
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