Reading in English is Like Neutral: A Qualitative Study of TEFL Undergraduates’ Experiences of Reading in EFL in Chile

My study delves into the English as a foreign language (EFL) reading identities of 20 Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) undergraduates and their experiences of EFL reading interest in class. My project initially started by designing and conducting an intervention that consisted of the use of extracts of literature-to-film adaptations of 2 short stories in 2 consecutive, routine EFL extensive reading (ER) sessions at a university in Chile. Participants were assigned to either join a film or no-film group; only the former watched these extracts before reading the source, written texts in class. I realised that participants’ reading practices and interest to read in English were rooted in their identities as EFL readers. For this reason, my project also delves into EFL reading identity, namely self-efficacy, self-perception, self-esteem, and motivations for reading in English to get a deeper understanding of their general EFL reading practices, as well as behaviour in the intervention. This study followed a qualitative research design, employing both qualitative and descriptive quantifiable data. A multilayered data analysis approach was employed for answering the research questions (RQs), including descriptive statistics, thematic, narrative, and discourse analyses. I argue that there is an interconnection between EFL reading identity and behaviour in their general EFL reading practices, nevertheless only self-efficacy seems to correlate to EFL reading behaviour in the intervention. I illustrate the connection between EFL reading identity and behaviour by means of an EFL reading tree. The roots represent the influence of widespread beliefs about English in Chile and preconceptions of reading, the stem represents their EFL reading personae, and the top represents their reading behaviour. I argue that literature-to-film adaptations do not show significant differences to written, short descriptions of the texts in relation to participants’ reading interest in class. It was found that textual, psychological, and cognitive factors, such as imagination, are more influential in their reading behaviour.