LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:8 August 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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EFL Teachers’ Cognition and Actual Classroom Practices of
Reading Instruction in Secondary Schools at
Akaki-Kality Sub-city Addis Ababa: Grade 9 and 10 in Focus

Fetene Getaw

Abstract

Knowing teachers’ cognition and practices is important for understanding and improving educational processes. Over the last four decades, researchers have emphasized the significance of disclosing teachers’ cognition and their actual classroom practices in better understanding the reality of the classroom and improve educational process. The main purpose of the study was to investigate secondary school EFL teachers’ cognition and classroom practices of reading instruction at Addis Ababa City. To this end, the study employed descriptive research design. To gather data, three data gathering instruments, i.e., questionnaire, interview and classroom observation were used. The questionnaire and interview were used to explore EFL teachers’ cognition of reading instruction whereas classroom observation was conducted to see teachers’ actual classroom practices of reading instruction. Regarding the research site and participants, 70 English language teachers of grade nine and grade ten across eight secondary schools at Akaki-kality sub-city were made to involve in filling the questionnaire. Interview and classroom observation were arranged with eight teachers (one from each eight schools). To gather the required data, the participants of the study were selected purposively. Finally, the data attained by using questionnaire, interview and classroom observation was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data (data from questionnaire) was analyzed by using SPSS version 20, whereas the qualitative data (data from interview and classroom observation) were narrated and described.

The finding revealed that EFL teachers’ conception of reading instruction was found to be the bottom-up lower level process approach of reading instruction which gives much priority to the language clues the text supplies in understanding a text. The finding also showed congruence between teachers’ cognition and their actual classroom practices.

Keywords: teachers’ cognition, reading instruction, classroom practice, secondary school, Addis Ababa

Introduction

Up to the late 1970s, L2 teaching was considered as a skills-based profession. During this period, teachers were not considered as having ‘mental lives’ (Freeman, 2002). Teacher education programs consisted of prescriptive techniques in which teacher trainers determined the desirable teaching behavior by carefully shaping teaching skills. In this case, until the mid-1970s teachers were viewed as performers and skill learners who were reciting other people’s ideas. This thinking saw teachers like robots which did not have thought of themselves but programmed to perform.

Parallel to this, the focus of research on teachers’ education prior to the 1970s was on teachers’ observable classroom behavior which was called the process-product approach to the study of teaching. This approach was mainly concerned with the relationship between teachers’ classroom behavior, students’ classroom behavior and students’ achievement (Clark & Peterson, 1986). This paradigm viewed teacher behavior as the cause and student learning as the effect. From this perception, learning was seen as a product of the behaviors performed by teachers in class (Borg, 2006). Teachers’ thought processes, i.e., their thinking, decision-making, and judgments, were massively ignored during that period (Erkmen, 2014).

Later, in the 1970s, influenced by the advances in the cognitive psychology, the popularity of ethnographic and qualitative methodology, and the conception of teaching as a thoughtful profession, teacher education researchers have demonstrated an unprecedented interest in and enthusiasm about certain aspects of teacher cognition and their relationship to sound pedagogical practices in the classroom (Fang, 1996). This marks a new dimension of research in second language teaching. So, from this period onwards, the focus of research on teaching learning shifted from observable teacher behavior with student achievement to a focus on teachers’ cognition ( thinking, beliefs, planning and decision-making processes.)

The emergence of a substantial body of research now referred to as teacher cognition is the most significant advancement in the field of L2 teacher education. These studies of teacher cognition have helped capture the complexities of “who teachers are, what they know and believe, how they learn to teach, and how they carry out their work in diverse contexts throughout their careers” (Johnson, 2006). According to Harste and Burke (1977) Teachers make decision about classroom instruction in light of cognition they have about teaching and learning. Hence, teachers’ cognition influences their goals, procedures, materials, classroom instruction patterns, their roles, their students and the school they work in.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Fetene Getaw
Department of English Language and Literature
Institute of Language Study and Journalism
Wollega University, Nekemte, Ethiopia
1234fetene@gmail.com Mob: +251953938106
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