M01154

Teachers’ Beliefs about Extensive Reading: An Important but Neglected Factor

Anita Kurniawati

Satya Wacana Christian University

anita.kurniawati@staff.uksw.edu

Regardless how extensive reading is integrated into second language programs, teachers play a significance role in running the programs. While the impact of extensive reading on language proficiency has been well documented, little research has been conducted to examine the teachers‟ roles. Trying to fill the gap, this study is intended to identify the teachers‟ beliefs about extensive reading. The participants of this study were six extensive reading teachers from the Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University. A semi-structured interview was used to get in-depth information from the participants. The findings show that the participants only view extensive reading as reading a large number of materials for pleasure. They put emphasize more on the students‟ rather than teachers‟ behavior. It is expected that the findings can enrich our understanding on how teachers‟ beliefs can influence the implementation of extensive reading.

Keywords: teachers‟ beliefs, extensive reading

INTRODUCTION

Many researchers have corroborated the value of extensive reading in improving students‟ language proficiency (see among others Renandya 2007; Elley 2000). Considering the potential benefits students can achieve, extensive reading has been included in a second or foreign language curriculum in different schemes (as a separate course, as a part of an existing reading course, or as an extracurricular activity).

Regardless on which scheme extensive reading is implemented, teachers play a significance role in running the programs. Extensive reading, as claimed by Day and Bamford (1998), is not only a matter of assigning students to read large quantities of book but building a reading community in the classroom. To reach this goal, extensive reading needs teachers who are passionate for reading. They need to become role models and be able to build the community of reading.

The fact that teachers‟ beliefs influence the classroom practice leads to another challenge. Zacharias (2005) claims that there has been positive relationship between teacher‟s beliefs and classroom practice. This was due to fact that teachers have significant authority to implement their beliefs into the classroom practice. The teachers‟ views toward extensive reading, therefore, will influence their decisions during the teaching and learning process, which will certainly have an impact to the successful of the program.

Hsi-Chi and Su-Ling (2010) define teachers‟ beliefs as their values on teaching, learning, knowledge, role as a teacher and classroom environment. Teachers‟ beliefs, moreover, are shaped by various factors, such as the teachers‟ own experience as learners in classrooms, their prior teaching experience, classroom observations they were exposed to, and their previous training at school (Richard 1998 as cited in Shinde & Karekatti 2012), contextual factors and professional coursework (Macalister 2010)

Considering the significant role of teachers‟ beliefs in classroom practices, to obtain an optimum result of extensive reading programs, the teachers‟ beliefs need to be understood very well. Little research, unfortunately, has been conducted to explore the teachers‟ beliefs about extensive reading. Trying to fill this gap, this study was intended to identify teachers‟ beliefs about extensive reading. It is expected that the findings can provide insights into how teachers‟ beliefs can influence the implementation of extensive reading

THE STUDY

Participants

The participants of this study were six teachers from the Faculty of Language and Literature. They had ever taught extensive reading course at least once. They were Yanti, Rino, Tina, Beni, Tya and Ivan. All were pseudonyms.

Methodology

The data was collected through the use of semi-structured interviews. The aim of the interview was to identify the teachers‟ beliefs about extensive reading. The questions asked were used to explore the participants‟ past experience on reading in general and extensive reading in particular, their reading habits, and their views on extensive reading. Each interview took about 20-25 minutes. The participants were free to use either Indonesian or English.

Data analysis

The interview data were transcribed and coded as the main source of this study. Some points or themes emerged were then grouped. The quote examples from the data collected were given to support each point in the process of analyzing the data. The data was analyzed descriptively, and some supporting theories were included to carry out the analysis.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Extensive reading is reading extensively for pleasure

Macalister (2010) groups the ten principles of extensive reading into the nature of the reading material, the nature of reading, the learners‟ behavior, and the teachers‟ behavior. The interview data indicates that all participants only view extensive reading from the nature of material, the nature of reading, and the learners‟ behavior; but not yet view it from the teacher‟s behavior. Below are several examples of their views on extensive reading.

Yanti : Reading extensively is, I think, based on my experience is like what I have already done. Just do the reading. Reading anything and anywhere.

Rino : To my understanding, extensive reading is reading for pleasure. Reading without any assignments to do. If I found difficulty when reading the book, I could stop reading and choose another book. The important point is the exposure. I don‟t need to finish reading the whole book. (My own translation)

Tina and Yanti emphasize on the nature of the reading material. To them, extensive reading is reading a large quantity of materials. While Tina limits the idea of extensive reading as one of the courses offered in our department, Yanti has broader view on extensive reading. In Tina‟s statement, the materials are the graded readers. Rino emphasizes more on the nature of reading, i.e. reading for pleasure, reading for the sake of reading, and the students‟ behavior, i.e. to stop reading when the book is too difficult.

The participants still hold traditional views when assessing the students’ progress

The principles of extensive reading value learner‟s autonomy. Students are given more opportunities to involve themselves in their own learning process (Benson 2001). They have freedom to control and monitor their own progress. However, the fact that extensive reading is a required course makes the participants feel difficult to give the freedom to their students. They believe that they need to control the students‟ behaviors. As Rino states:

What is the goal of passing this course? This is hard because the students have freedom to choose. At that time, the grading system consists of several components such as the number of pages, and other things. I think if it is only from the number of pages, I can‟t control it. Did the students really read the book? I have to read each of their journals. There are plenty to read. (My own translation)

In Rino‟s statement, there is also an issue of trust to the students. He believes that he needs to be convinced whether the students really did the reading. Reading the students‟ journals is one of the ways to check the reading activity.

Yanti also shares a similar view. She believes she has to feel convinced first, before being able to assess the students‟ work. To convince her, she gives many kinds of assignments.

I don‟t really feel comfortable in the classroom as it is only a matter of formality. Every week we use reading list forms to report how many pages students have read. I could not really check the truth. To check it, I give assignments to the students, such as writing a summary. I gave them additional assignments. … I gave more assignments than other classes. I ask the students to write weekly summary every week. After they have read, I ask them to write something. That is how I trace the students‟ reading activities. I don‟t care with their grammar. Sometimes even the story is not okay. But I could see their efforts to read and retell what they have read.

since the students are interacting themselves with the texts. She then questions whether it is fair enough to assess the reading process based on the students‟ product.

I always have conflict with scoring because of my idealism. The importance point of asking the students to read is they do the reading. But, I have to assess their reading assignments. What has to be assessed is the product. I can‟t assess the process. I don‟t know how to assess the reading process yet, especially for extensive reading. (My own translation)

Day dan Bamford (1998) mention several activities that can be used to develop a community of readers, such as answering questions, writing summaries, writing reaction reports, oral reading report, and many more. However, it could be seen here that Yanti has used those activities to test the students‟ reading comprehensions rather than to build a reading community.

Teachers’ roles is like a ‘police officer’

Considering the principles of extensive reading, which values learners‟ autonomy, teachers are expected to guide the students. The concept of involving more on their own learning progress is probably new to the students. Therefore, to be able to monitor and control their learning progress, the students need the teachers‟ guide. After checking the students‟ reading progress, for example, teachers can provide any necessary assistance to the students who still need it (Day & Bamford 1998).

The participants believe that the students need to receive the grades they deserve to. To achieve this, they have to make sure that the students really do the reading. This makes them act more like a „police officer‟ who tries to check everything and to give ticket when „crimes‟ are found. As Benny states:

I don‟t know about other teachers, but I write all the books from the students‟ list into my own list. So, I know for sure what book they have read. So, when they submitted their lists, with their book report, I can check it. This is to avoid being cheated by the students. Otherwise, they only found a book and wrote down the number of pages in their list without reading the book. So, I check it again with my own list. (My own translation)

Yanti also experienced a similar thing. Once she found out from the journal that a student did not really read the book. She then acts like a police officer who gives a parking ticket to a driver who does not follow the regulations.

I gave them additional assignments. Once I caught a student did not do the assignment well. He did not read the book, but he submitted the report. … I told him that I knew what he was doing. He took the story from another source. I accidentally found the source. I showed him the evidence and told him that I could not assess the work he didn‟t do.(My own translation)

The participants have less value on modeling the reading

(2009) claims that teacher modeling of reading has a positive effect on student learning. To build a reading community whose members value and engage in reading, the teachers themselves need to be highly engaged.

In regard to modeling the reading, only Yanti, who claims that she did the activity in her classroom. She shared how she motivated the students to read.

… This is the list of books you have to read. I have passed this level, so I will read this book. I showed them the book I had been reading. You read that, and we can share it later. We are in quotation mark competing each other. You read your novel, I read mine.

Through her instructions, Yanti tries to set up a role model to her students. She tells her students that she is also reading a book and she will do the reading together with the students. They will later share what they have read in the classroom. Here, Yanti implements what Day and Bamford (1998: 136) states “being role models also means that teachers participate in the extensive reading program with their students.”

Tina, however, says that “The hardest part from extensive reading is I have to read.” Here, her main problem is the time constraint. She does not do modeling because she does not have time due to her work. Although she keeps on encouraging the students to read, it may not have a significant effect.

I keep on telling the students the principle of extensive reading. Reading should be easy, easy and easy. I emphasize on that. If you are not interested, you don‟t need to read that. And every week, when they submitted their number of pages, I help the, count. I remind them how many more weeks. If you have a week, how many pages you have to read. I remind them about that. (My own translation)

This will probably motivate the students to read, but this is not modeling. Students tend to follow the example of their teachers. If they see their teacher enjoys reading, they are more likely to do the same (Nutall 1996 in Day and Bamford 1998).

To Rino, although he admits that he does not do modeling, he thinks it is worth trying.

They do the sharing. I never give a model. They read, but I don‟t. Probably it will be more interesting if I also model it. When we ask them to share what they have read, we also share our reading. It will be interesting. But it needs more time. (Rino)

CONCLUSION

This study is aimed at identifying the teachers‟ beliefs toward extensive reading. As teachers‟ beliefs influence the classroom practice (Shinde & Karekatti 2012; Macalister 2010; Zacharias 2005), to obtain maximum results of extensive reading, teachers‟ beliefs need to be understood very well.

the bigger concept of extensive reading, i.e. to build the reading community. From six participants, four of them never experienced extensive reading approach while they were students. For the other two participants, the extensive reading course they experienced was quite similar to the condition found in this study. Their teachers did not really emphasize on teacher modeling. Therefore, the idea of building community of reading is quite new to them.

In addition to that, giving freedom to the students are not easy tasks to the participants since all of them grew up in the era where the teachers controlled all the teaching and learning process, and testing was the only tool to measure the students‟ academic performance. Instead of using the post reading tasks (e.g. writing summary) to build a community of reading, the participants use that to test the students‟ reading comprehension. As the participants believe that they need to be convinced whether the students really read the texts, they act more like a police officer rather than a guide.

The participants have less value on modeling. Only Yanti, who seems to be able to adapt modeling in her classroom. This is because she grew up in a family who loves reading. Reading becomes something enjoyable for her. She models what her family usually do into her classroom. While Tina and Rino also claims that they like reading, they admitted that they read more in the past than they do at present. This is similar to what Shu-Ping (n.d) found. When the teachers themselves are not committed readers, they will be unable to establish a good role model in extensive reading.

Considering how teachers‟ beliefs influence the classroom practice, it is suggested that the top management could provide not only trainings on the principles of extensive reading, but also build a community of reading in the working place. It has been noted that it is not easy to change someone‟s beliefs as they have been influenced by many factors. However, as Macalister (2010) claims that contextual factors and professional coursework shape the teachers‟ beliefs; it might be good to develop the initiative from the top management.

Moreover, teaching an extensive reading class sometimes requires teachers to break their previous beliefs. For example, the concept of learner autonomy might be new to some teachers. In such a case, the teachers are expected to be open minded and be willing to explore more on what extensive reading is.

Last, as this research is based only on one particular context, the results cannot be generalized. Therefore, further research with a broader context is necessary to conduct. It is also suggested to explore how the teacher‟s beliefs on extensive reading are reflected into a classroom practice through observation.

REFERENCES

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