The Future of Education

The current study investigates teachers’ beliefs around academic reading instruction in the Algerian context. It focuses particularly on reading because it has been less researched than writing in academic literacies studies. (Riggs 2008; Lillis and Harrington 2015).  In particular, in the EAP context, research around Academic reading in the Algerian context is lacking. The existing studies about reading investigated other aspects of reading such as the influence of environments on reading, reading attitudes and motivation. (AMMOUR and Fodil 2018; Mellit and Idri 2019).  However, very little has been looked at in terms of teachers’ beliefs around academic reading as a skill in the Algerian context. For this reason, this study aims to investigate Algerian EAP teachers’ understanding and beliefs of academic reading instruction, the factors that influence and shape their beliefs. This study adopts a mixed method approach drawing on document analysis, online survey questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews.The overall findings indicate that academic reading is given less attention compared to other modules in the English department’s programmes across different universities in Algeria while an integrated approach is adopted for teaching academic reading. This paper looks at what academic reading means in the Algerian context from teachers’ perspectives as well as perspectives uncovered in documentations from the Algerian Ministry of higher education. These findings bring useful data to higher education institution in Algeria and will give recommendations on how to improve the teaching of academic reading in Algeria and globally. It will also make changes into the current situation of teaching academic reading. 

Key words: English for academic purposes (EAP), teachers’ beliefs, academic reading, academic reading instruction.

Reference list:

1. AMMOUR, M.K. and Fodil, M.S. (2018) 'Algerian EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills across Paper and Screen: A Sociocultural Approach', الخطاب, 13(2), 371-386.

2. Chali, G.T. (2020) An investigation of EFL teachers’ beliefs on teaching grammar and reading and their practices in secondary schools in Ethiopia, unpublished thesis, Ghent University.

3. Cheung, A. and Hennebry-Leung, M. (2023) 'Exploring an ESL teachers’ beliefs and practices of teaching literary texts: A case study in Hong Kong', Language Teaching Research, 27(1), 181-206.

4. Lillis, T. and Harrington, K. (2015) Working with academic literacies: Case studies towards transformative practice, Parlor Press LLC.

5. Mellit, D. and Idri, N. (2019) 'The impact of EFL Algerian university students’ attitudes on literary texts reading motivation: The case of second year English students at Setif 2 University', Traduction et Langues, 18(1), 98-114.

6. Nurkamto, J., Drajati, N.A., Ngadiso, N. and Karlina, Y. (2021) 'Teachers' beliefs and practices in teaching reading at Islamic secondary schools in Indonesia', Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(3).

7. Riggs, M. (2008) 'Lucia Thesen & Ermein van Pletzen (eds.), Academic literacy and the languages of change. London: Continuum, 2006. Pp. xii, 212. Hb $160.00', Language in Society, 37, 483-484, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404508080718.