Reading Online and Offline: Language Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Reading online is different from reading offline. Are language teachers’ strategies for reading electronic texts and reading printed texts different? Do language teachers have different attitudes toward reading printed texts and reading electronic texts, particularly web-based reading materials? Several groups of in-service language teachers enrolled in a postgraduate course on computer-assisted language learning offered by an Australian university were asked to respond to these questions in online discussion forums. This article presents data from the discussion forums and investigates the teachers’ perspectives on online reading, while exploring the differences between online reading and offline reading and the advantages and disadvantages of the two forms of reading. Findings indicate that many teachers liked to download and print study materials for both physical and academic reasons. While most teachers preferred to read online for accessing study materials, they preferred to print out copies for more detailed reading of journal articles. These results have implications for language teacher education and professional development in e-learning environments.