Foreign language teachers and the teaching of reading: what activities designed by student-teachers reveal

Abstract

This work focuses on teacher education and aims at investigating what views of reading are revealed in activities designed by student-teachers of foreign languages (English) and to what extent these views are influenced by the Academy. The participants were in-service teachers who were finishing their (first) English teaching degrees in 2009 and, in 2010, were doing a post-graduation course at the same higher education institution. The student-teachers were asked to design reading activities, for we understand that the production of teaching material for their own lessons gives teachers an opportunity to reflect on their teaching practice and situation, besides revealing the theoretical framework that underpins their practice, even when they are not aware of it. The results indicate that the discussions and theories proposed at the Academy do emerge in the activities, even though these are still far from language work which follows a critical and discursive perspective. We believe that these results point out the need for teacher education programmes to provide student-teachers with opportunities to make connections between theory and practice.