Reading habits and attitudes in first-year EFL student teachers and their implications for literature course design in an Austrian study programme

This paper reports results from a quantitative curriculum study on literature modules in Austrian undergraduate teacher education programmes. In order to optimise course delivery in literature classes at the University College of Education Upper Austria (PHOÖ), reading habits and attitudes of 153 first-year EFL students for secondary school education were assessed in an online-questionnaire. The questionnaire examined students’ exposure to literary texts, their self-assessment as avid readers, their performative literacy, and their preferred reading stance. Results show rather limited avid reading, a self-centred performative literacy as well as a profoundly pragmatic reading stance. Such habits and attitudes could not only jeopardise success within the current teacher education study programmes but also aggravate the well-known Peter Effect, rendering prospective EFL teachers incapable of inspiring enthusiasm for literary reading in their future students. After discussing these results, the paper concludes with potential ramifications for curricular revisions as well as avenues for further research.