ENGLISH TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES ON TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY

Abstract

Teaching reading comprehension involves more than simply explaining the reading passages using grammar-translation or lecture methods. In the changing scenario, there is the emergence of several methods and techniques that can be more effective and student-centered so that the students can achieve more in reading comprehension. This research reflects the views of English language teachers about their experiences of teaching reading comprehension at the secondary level in public schools. The main purpose of this study is to explore the English language teachers’ experiences teaching reading comprehension, what problems the students face in reading comprehension, and what strategies the teachers use to solve those problems. I used the interpretative paradigm of research, in which the four teachers from four different schools were asked to share their personal experiences using a narrative inquiry method. The main tool utilized in this study was a set of interview guidelines for teachers, under which they were asked to narrate their real-life experiences to expose vii their perceptions and experiences of teaching reading comprehension at the secondary level in public schools. Because every reading act is a transaction involving a certain reader and a specific text, I applied the transactional theory of reading comprehension. The reader and the text interact to create meaning, which does not already exist in the text or the reader. Reading, therefore, entails giving text meaning to derive meaning from it. This study explored teachers’ experiences with the problems that the students faced in reading comprehension text in their day-to-day classroom and how these teachers addressed those problems. In other words, the primary focus of this research study was on the reading-related issues that the students encountered and the instructional methods that the teachers employed. The findings show that the students had problems with vocabulary, lack of background knowledge of the text in the readers, problems with inference, difficulty in understanding the technical texts, and so on. The teachers addressed these problems by teaching vocabulary through questioning, applying peer assisted learning strategy, and explaining the text in simple language. The results from this study can be applied to provide insights for the teachers and teacher educators to improve teaching reading comprehension. At the same time, the results of this study seem to be useful for the book writers in the sense that they can get insights to some extent regarding the types and suitability of the reading text that can be included in the course.