The teaching of inference-making skills in reading comprehension in post-basic schools : Omani EFL teacher's perceptions, challenges and practices

Abstract

Inference-making skills are crucial for reading comprehension. They represent the ability to combine explicit information from the text with background knowledge or experiences to build a coherent representation of intended meaning. Inferencing is seen by many researchers as the heart of the comprehension process, and therefore failure to teach it properly may contribute to students' failure in reading comprehension. However, Omani EFL students are still facing many challenges affecting their reading comprehension, including a lack of background knowledge, a limited repertoire of reading strategies, and a poor ability to infer meaning from written text. Empirical observations also show that teachers lack knowledge and skills to build students’ inferencing ability adequately. Building on this, a mixed-method study sought to conduct an in-depth exploration of the perceptions and practices in the Omani EFL context in order to have empirical data on post-basic education teachers’ perceptions and instructional practices when dealing with inference-making in reading lessons. Also, the study aimed at investigating the challenges teachers face when developing inference-making ability among students. In addition, the study aimed at exploring the extent to which curriculum and assessment facilitate the development of students’ inference-making ability. The data were collected through different instruments: a questionnaire, an observation checklist, and a semi-structured interview. Also, the data were collected from two primary informants; EFL teachers and specialists of curriculum and assessment. Quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire and classroom observations. So, the questionnaire was administered to Omani EFL teachers in post-basic schools and received 324 responses. The classroom observation was limited to 10 EFL teachers from Batinah North and Batinah South governorates. Each teacher was observed during two reading lessons, for a total of twenty reading lessons. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the same EFL teachers and two specialists from the curriculum and assessment Departments. The findings mainly show that Omani EFL teachers hold a good understanding of the relationship between students’ comprehension skills and inference-making ability and of the importance of inference-making. However, they had very limited knowledge of the best ways to teach and assess students’ inference ability. Also, they have a narrow view of explicit reading instruction and lack a common definition of inference. These findings revealed a discrepancy between teachers' stated perceptions and observed practices. A limited number of strategies were used to develop students’ inference-making ability when building meaning from reading texts. Also, the study revealed challenges regarding the implementation of inference-making instruction during reading lessons. These challenges include the lack of explicit instructions in the teacher's guide on implementing inference-making strategy, the difficulty of some reading text, and students’ low level of language proficiency that makes it difficult to teach them advanced skills like inferencing. Participants attributed their lack of awareness of implementing inference-making strategy systematically to the lack of training. Based on the challenges, the teachers reported some useful suggestions that may improve the current situation. The study also provides some directions for policymakers, curriculum developers, supervisors, and teachers to improve the current situation.