TURKISH EFL TEACHERS’ BELIEFS REGARDING READING STRATEGIES

Present study aimed to explore EFL teachers’ beliefs regarding reading strategies. In order to identify teachers’ beliefs on reading strategies, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used. The study was carried out with 50 participants working at English preparatory school of Istanbul Aydın University. Thirty-eight of participants were female and eleven of them were male. Thirty-four participants’ work experiences at the university were between one and five-years. Fourteen participants’ work experiences were between five and ten years. One participant’s work experience was between eleven and twenty years and one participant’s work experience at the university was more than twenty years. Thirty-one participants have been teaching reading for between one and three years. Thirteen participants have been teaching for between five and ten years and six participants have been teaching for more than ten years. Thirty participants have bachelor degree, nineteen participants have master degree and one participant has PHD degree. The obtained data was analyzed by utilizing both qualitative and quantitative analysis to investigate whether there is a relationship between teachers’ use of strategies and such variables as gender, degree, …Etc. The results of the study revealed that there aren’t any statistical relationships between the teachers’ gender, degree, years of teaching reading and the strategies they use in the classroom. On the other hand, there is a statistical relationship between the teachers’ experiences in teaching at the university and the pre-reading strategies they use.