Evaluating the Relationship between Teachers’ Beliefs and Classroom Practices in Reading Instruction in Pakistani Secondary ESL Context

Abstract

The present study investigates beliefs and practices of Pakistani secondary school ESL teachers about text-based and competence-based reading instruction. In this regard, two groups of teachers from Karachi, i.e. public school teachers and private school teachers’ beliefs and practices were examined and finally correspondence between their beliefs and classroom practices was investigated. The study used TORI survey questionnaire for the investigation of beliefs of the teachers and for their classroom practices an observational checklist was used. The Data for the beliefs were collected from 190 teachers and among them 50 teachers’ classrooms observations were conducted for the classroom practices. The study found that both groups of teachers showed no difference in their beliefs regarding both types of reading instruction, but there was a significant difference between their classroom practices. Public school teachers preferred text-based instructional practices and private school ESL teachers showed their tendency for using competence-based reading instructional practices in their class rooms. Moreover, public school teachers showed weak or moderate correlation between their beliefs and practices, whereas private school teachers’ exhibited a strong correlation between their beliefs and practices. The study recommends further training and observation for public school teachers to adopt competence-based reading instruction practices and translate their beliefs into practices.