EFL Teachers’ Phonological Awareness Beliefs and Practices: Help or Prevent EFL Children Developing Reading

EFL teachers’ proficiency seems to contribute to the reading difficulties that early graders encounter. This paper investigates the knowledge, beliefs, practices and awareness in phonological awareness (PA) of two-hundred and ten ramdonly selected EFL in-service teachers and then examines the impact of teachers’ experiences, qualifications, and gender on shaping teachers’ instruction. The researchers used a four-section survey to collect teachers’ demographic information, perceived and actual knowledge of phonological awareness and classroom practices related to PA, phonics, and syllabication. The results reported teachers as moderate level in the beliefs, practice and awareness of PA. In terms of teachers’ knowledge in PA, however, results showed teachers lacking the basics in teaching reading. Implications for EFL teacher education and preparation are highlighted. Keywords: EFL, in-service teachers, deficits, reading, phonological awareness. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-12-09 Publication date: April 30th 201