Teaching beliefs of teachers in training on learning to read at L2: theoretical bases and a research proposal

Abstract

In the last years, teacher cognition studies have developed as a remarkable research area in second or foreign language acquisition. This is mainly due to the fact that many experts believe that mental processes influence considerably in their teaching practice (Abad, 2012; Borg, 2003; Ferreira & Kalaja, 2011). Numerous studies have focused on teacher beliefs in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), but very few have focused on the beliefs of teachers who are speakers of other languages (Díaz, Alarcón & Ortiz, 2012; Tagle, Díaz, Alarcón, Quintana & Ramos, 2014) and even less studies have focused on pre-service teachers´ beliefs about EFL learning (Barahona, 2014). Additionally, the obligatory nature of English teaching in Chile in early school years has made us question about the training pre-service teachers have to teach young learners to read in English, especially, when these learners are just starting to read in their mother tongue (Inostroza, 2013). For this reason, this study aims at describing the theoretical underpinnings regarding this issue: teacher beliefs and the different approaches regarding the teaching of literacy skills to students in their early school years in Chile. The objective of such study is to later design an inter-university study, which can tackle this issue.