APPROACH AND DESIGN: A METHOD ANALYSIS OF EFL READING COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION

Harison Mohd Sidek,Hasimah Ja’Afar

doi:10.18769/ijasos.336548

Abstract

There is an ongoing phenomenon among non-English speaking students, particularly at the university level who struggle with reading in English in content areas. One way to alleviate reading problems in English language among non-native speaking students is by ensuring that the English language reading curriculum is coherent at all levels. The purpose of the present study was to explore the type of (EFL) reading comprehension instruction reflected in the Malaysian English language reading curriculum at the levels of Approach and Design, and its alignment with the communicative label. The data for the study were collected from two main curriculum documents, which were the Form Five English Language Curriculum Specifications document and the Form Five English language textbook. A document review was conducted in order to obtain the data, which were in the form of reading tasks elicited from the selected curriculum documents. Manifest content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings show that non-communicative whole Language instructional approach was the most prominent type of second language acquisition (SLA) instructional approach while for the second language reading instructional approach, the non-interactive reading instructional approach was highly reflected with teacher role primarily inferred as a director. The findings suggest that the instructional approaches reflected in the Malaysian secondary English language reading curriculum is not in alignment with the communicative grounding as an approach to instruction.

Highlights

IntroductionWithin the Malaysian setting, numerous studies in the field of English language teaching and learning (e.g., Sidek, 2010b—English as a foreign language (EFL) reading attitudes; Sidek, 2012—EFL personality traits; Sidek & Rahim, 2013; 2015— cross-linguistics; Abdullah & Sidek, 2012—writing feedback; Saad et al, 2016a; 2016b—EFL learning experience; Baharun et al, 2016—Task-based learning; Sidek et al, 2016a—EFL reading fluency; Sidek et al, 2016b—abstract writing in EFL) had been conducted in order to improve the English as a second language (ESL) instructional approach
The present study examined the reading tasks in the Form Five English language reading curriculum, which was extracted from the curriculum documents related to the Form Five English Language Curriculum developed in 2003, with regards to its alignment at the Approach and Design levels with communicative theoretical underpinning in terms of second language acquisition (SLA) instructional approach, L2 instructional approach and teacher role
RQ2: What L2 reading instructional approaches are reflected in the Malaysian Form Five English language reading curriculum?

Summary

Introduction

Within the Malaysian setting, numerous studies in the field of English language teaching and learning (e.g., Sidek, 2010b—EFL reading attitudes; Sidek, 2012—EFL personality traits; Sidek & Rahim, 2013; 2015— cross-linguistics; Abdullah & Sidek, 2012—writing feedback; Saad et al, 2016a; 2016b—EFL learning experience; Baharun et al, 2016—Task-based learning; Sidek et al, 2016a—EFL reading fluency; Sidek et al, 2016b—abstract writing in EFL) had been conducted in order to improve the English as a second language (ESL) instructional approach. Connecting the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and language teaching, a teacher’s selected instructional approach will reflect a certain theory Edward Anthony (1963) originated the definition of language teaching as a framework of hierarchical components, which entails Approach, Method and Techniques. Using Anthony’s definition of language teaching, Richards and Rodgers (2001) constructed a model of Method for language teaching. According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), Method can be defined as comprising three components: Approach, Design and Procedure. The Approach level denotes theory of language and language learning. The Design level can be characterized by elements such as language skills, learning tasks, learner roles and teacher roles. The Procedure level entails elements such as classroom techniques, classroom observation, and interviews with educational stakeholders. Using Richards and Rodgers’ (2001) model of Method as a guideline, Sidek (2010a), developed the Method of the teaching of reading

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion