The attitudes of one teacher and her students towards using Internet sources to develop students' reading skills

Abstract

This study investigated students’ and the teacher’s attitudes towards the benefits and challenges of using Internet sources to develop students’ English reading skills. The data was collected through questionnaires distributed to 42 students, interviews conducted with a teacher and 12 students in the Preparatory School at Cumhuriyet University and a journal kept by the teacher. Student questionnaires and interviews investigated students’ and the teacher’s general attitudes towards the benefits and challenges of using Internet sources to develop reading skills and their opinions about three different Internet-based reading tasks: teacher-centred, teacher-facilitated and learner-determined. The teacher journal aimed to provide in-depth information about the teacher’s perceptions on each Internet based reading task and her observations of the students. The data gathered from all instruments were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Findings revealed that both students and the teacher have positive attitudes towards using Internet sources to improve reading skills. In addition, the teacher and the students believe that reading skills can be developed by means of Internet sources. The data gathered from both qualitative and quantitative analysis showed that students have positive attitudes towards doing all types of Internet-based reading tasks. With regard to the teacher’s attitudes, although she has positive attitudes towards using teacher-determined and learner-determined tasks in her classes, she has negative attitudes towards using teacher facilitated task. Both the teacher and the students think that the most challenging task among all the Internet-based reading tasks is the teacher-facilitated one. However, although both the teacher and students found it challenging, they think that it is beneficial to developing students’ reading skills.