Arab Educational Information Network

This study investigated the perceptions of the English teachers concerning their use of various reading strategies and identified the possible factors that limit them in applying the concerned strategies in the UAE Cycle 2 Grades (6-9). The study focused also on obtaining any significant conflict that may be appreciable between English non-native teachers (i.e., Arab) and English native teachers view with respect to their usage of reading strategies. The participants were drawn from Cycle 2 EFL English teachers (n=211). Two questionnaires were incorporated in collecting the required data; the first questionnaire aimed at gleaning the perceptions of the English teachers regarding their usage of reading strategies. The second questionnaire is concerned with screening the potential elements that may hinder them from applying these strategies. The Collected data analyzed quantitatively using a t-test to carry out a comparison between the perceptions expressed by English Non Native teachers and English Native teachers. The answers from the first questionnaire revealed that the responses of all English teachers concerning the role of various reading strategies were found to be a mean of (M =4.08), which considered a high mean score in this regards. The results of the second questionnaire revealed that the responses of the English teachers concerning the possible factors limiting the use of some of the reading strategies were found to be a mean of (M=3.94), which considered a significant mean score. However the differences in using various reading strategies among the native and non-native English teachers were found to be six reading strategies; Non Native teacher preferred to set a purpose before reading and ask students to read silently and respond to questions, whereas Native teachers preferred to teach new vocabulary before reading, encourage students to use dictionaries during reading, rephrase difficult sentences or concepts found in the text, and ask students to write reflections about the text. Nevertheless, there were five significant limitations facing both English teaching groups, namely, lack of reading habit, student English language proficiency, large class size, student Misbehavior and L1 interference.(Author's abstract)