Teacher Cognition and Extensive Reading at Tertiary Level in the Turkish Context

21st INGED International ELT Conference, Kayseri, Türkiye, 3 - 05 Kasım 2023, ss.35, (Özet Bildiri)

Teacher Cognition and Extensive Reading at Tertiary Level in the Turkish

Context

The need for better English learning has increased individuals’ efforts to find ways to extend

learning beyond classrooms (Choi & Nunan, 2018). As reflections of these efforts, Extensive Reading

(ER) has been integrated into many ELT contexts. Accelerated with Krashen’s (2004) idea that

comprehensible large amounts of input in L2 help learners better in the new language, ER involves

learners reading easy-to-understand material that they choose without outside help (Susser & Robb,

1990). ER aims for incidental learning (Grabe and Stroller, 2002) through exposure to new words and

structures in large quantities of texts organized according to the level, type of the program and other

variables (Susser & Robb, 1990). Investigation of teachers’ perceptions is vital for effective

implementation of ER programs (Al Aghar, Demirci, Houjeir, McMinn & Ali Saif Alzaabi, 2023;

Macalister, 2010). This paper reports the results of a study conducted at tertiary level Intensive English

Programs in Turkey to find out what teachers know, think and do about ER in their contexts. 79

language instructors teaching at different universities voluntarily participated in the study and answered

seven open-ended questions in writing. The data were analyzed with a quantitative content analysis

approach, and the results revealed that even though language instructors know what ER is and are

aware of its contributions to language learning, they do not always put it into practice. Also, differences

between the commonly held expert opinions and what Turkish language instructors think about ER

regarding evaluation, follow-up activities and material selection appeared.

Keywords: extensive reading, teacher cognition and extensive reading, extensive reading in Turkey