Teachers’ Practices And Students’ Preferences Of Reading Instruction: Its Implication On Reading Comprehension and Fluency

Abstract

The teachers’ practice of effective reading instruction may not be the one that students perceive as useful and effective reading instruction. This qualitative case study research examines the reading instruction practices of teachers and the preferences of students with that of its implication on reading comprehension and fluency. Classroom observations and Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 2 experienced teachers and 6 students of a school in Gondar town, Ethiopia. The collected data were analyzed thematically. The findings of the study showed that teachers practice the traditional way of teaching reading whereas students prefer the interactive process to reading. Thus, it was found that there is a discrepancy between teachers’ practices and students’ preferences for reading instructions. It was also found that the teachers and students do not believe that the actual classroom instruction positively impacts students' reading comprehension and fluency. Based on the finding I argue that teachers should tune their way of teaching reading with the present theories as well as the students’ preferences so that students improve their reading comprehension and fluency. Teacher educators also should train pre-service and in-service teachers to use the reading models that are up to date.

Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Reading Fluency, Reading Instruction, Students’ Preference, Teachers’ practices