Teachers’ Views on EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension Approaches. A Comparative Study of Different Educational Stages

Abstract

Bottom-up and top-down approaches have been perceived as vital in further developing EFL students’ reading comprehension. This study aims to investigate whether teachers choose one approach to implement or if they integrate them both. Six teachers, three at high school level and three at middle school level, were interviewed to find answers to the study’s question. The data was collected through qualitative research method by conducting individual interviews with all six teachers. Afterwards, the data collected from high school teachers and middle school teachers was analyzed using a comparative method. The findings in the current study show that teachers find both bottom-up and top-down approaches to be important in further developing EFL students’ reading comprehension, but since these two approaches develop different reading-skill components, they should be given equal importance through the integration of them both.