An Analytical Study of Teaching EFL Reading at the Primary Stage

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating Egyptian EFL primary teachers' perceptions about teaching and assessing reading at the primary stage. It also examined the effect of teachers' gender, school context, teaching experience, and participation in language teaching and assessment courses on shaping their perceptions about teaching reading. It aimed to explore the reading teaching and assessment methods used by Egyptian EFL primary teachers. Participants comprised a random sample of (n= 354) EFL in-service primary teachers to collect data for the questionnaire, 40 teachers for the observation, and 6 EFL upper primary teachers for the interview. The study adopted an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. The results showed that Egyptian EFL upper primary teachers had inconsistent perceptions about teaching and assessing reading in their classrooms. Their perceptions of teaching and assessing reading were impacted by many variables such as the school context, years of teaching experience, and participation in language teaching and assessment courses. EFL upper primary teachers did not use a wide variety of reading teaching and assessment methods. The most common methods used to teach reading among Egyptian EFL upper primary teachers were reported to be asking students some comprehension questions requiring short answers and asking students questions before, during, and after reading the text. The results revealed that interactive reading tasks of short-answers, perceptive reading tasks of multiple-choice, and reading aloud were the most popular reading assessment tasks among Egyptian EFL upper primary teachers. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research were presented.