Task-oriented reading instruction in a foreign language context: Adoption, challenges, and opportunities

Abstract

Over the past decade, numerous studies have explored students’ reading practices in the EFL context. However, we lack evidence on how undergraduate students use task-oriented reading to understand complex academic texts like journal articles. This phenomenological case study investigates the adoption of Task-oriented Reading Instruction (TORI) in educational reading practice, concerning students’ experiences, benefits, and challenges in the EFL landscape. Out of the 30 undergraduate students in the cohort, four females (19-20 years old) were recruited as the research participants on a voluntary basis. Data were from their reflective journals, interviews, and classroom observations. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the TORI reading guide enabled the students to enhance their academic reading skills in identifying research issues, analyzing previous research, finding research gaps, and studying the research design of a journal article. Pedagogically, this finding implies that teacher educators may adopt it as an instructional approach in EFL academic reading practice in teacher education contexts.