Table of contentsIntroductionLiterature reviewThe importance of teachers' beliefsYoung learners; who are they?Teaching reading to young learners.The use of audiobooksThe studyContext of the studyParticipantsInstrumentsData collection proceduresData analysis proceduresIntroductionReading is one of the most important skills that should be acquired by learners in languages. As Debat stated, “reading is a crucial skill for students of English as a foreign language” (Debat, 2006: 8 cited in Suganda, LA, 2016, p. 80); so it is better to be introduced to language learners earlier. Introducing reading to children at a young age will greatly help them develop better reading comprehension skills compared to those who are not early readers. Additionally, being able to read and write will enable children to achieve the goals of language learning, which is to use language communicatively. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In the current trend in education, the methods of teaching reading have evolved in creative ways. Teachers sometimes use other language skills to teach students reading. Involving other language skills to teach reading seems to be more effective because “pedagogically, no language skill can be taught or learned alone, no matter what or how” (Alsamadani, 2017, p.204). Reading aloud is one of the most popular methods of teaching reading that involves visual and auditory skills. Teachers will read a script or story to students expressively, while students will follow the script or story by reading the printed script themselves. However, in today's digital age, the reading aloud method is enhanced in the more current form of the audiobook. It provides students with a recorded audio script and a printed script. Students can read the script while teachers only need to play the audio. Audiobooks appear to be very effective in teaching young learners to read because they present reading in a way that is enjoyable for them. As Willis, in his book The Neuroscience of Joyful Education, stated that "when students are engaged and motivated and experience minimal stress, information flows freely through the affective filter of the amygdala and they reach levels of higher cognition, make connections, and experience “aha” moments” (Wilis, 2007, p.1). Considering the potential of audiobooks as a reading teaching tool, this should be the method chosen and implemented in most primary schools, but especially in Salatiga, the fact says otherwise. Realizing that audiobook has compelling potential but lacks application in Salatiga, this study aims to uncover the factors underlying the gap through teachers' beliefs towards using audiobooks to teach reading to young learners. From the results of this study, the researcher hopes that primary schools in Salatiga will consider adding audiobooks to their schools' curriculum. The following question is used to focus the research process: “What are teachers' beliefs regarding the use of audiobook in teaching reading to young learners?” » Literature reviewThe importance of teachers' beliefsAccording to Borg (2001), beliefs play an important role in many areasin teaching, as well as in life. So, how important is teacher confidence in the teaching process? First, we need to clarify the fundamental perception: belief. Belief defines or directs the way people think and act (Xu, 2012). Furthermore, Borg (2001) stated that “a belief is a proposition that can be adopted consciously or unconsciously, is evaluative in the sense that it is accepted as true by the individual and is therefore imbued with emotional commitment; furthermore, it serves as a guide to thought and behavior. » Beliefs are formed early in life as a result of people's education and experience (Johnson, 1994, cited in Gilakjani, 2017). In the educational context, according to Xu (2012), teachers' beliefs result from their self-learning, which arises from social history and culture, individual experience and education, the ability to teaching of teachers and students, etc. “Beliefs have a greater effect than teacher knowledge on their lesson planning, the types of decisions they implement, and classroom practice (Gilakjani, 2017). Teacher beliefs are an important concept for understanding teachers' thought processes, teaching practices, and teaching practices. change and learning to teach (Zheng, 2009). Teachers' beliefs will reflect the way they think about teaching and learning. Whereas, as Xu (2012) argued, “teachers' beliefs about what learning is will affect everything they do in the classroom, whether those beliefs are implicit or explicit.” This influences the way teachers behave, interact and teach in the classroom. As a result, teachers' beliefs play an important role in choosing the method or strategy applied in their classroom. Young learners; who are they? Generally, young learners are divided into two grade levels; nursery and primary. As Carol (2011) explained, "young learners" is a period used to refer to children from their first year of formal schooling (5-7 years) until the age of 11-12, or until 'the moment they move on. from primary to secondary. Cameron (2001) also added that young learners are those aged 5 to 12 years. From these interpretations, one could assume that young learners are students aged five to twelve years placed in kindergarten and primary school. UK Essays (2015) revealed some characteristics of young learners: their world is based on games and fun, they are not aware that they are still learning. Furthermore, UK Essays said that young learners learn by imitating rather than relying on their awareness of learning and that they learn faster through movement and senses. Cameron (2001) added that young learners can usually be heard talking to themselves and adapting as they complete tasks or play, in what is called private speech. In learning English, Phillips (1993) argued that young learners respond to it according to what it does or what they can do with it, rather than treating it as an intellectual game or an abstract system. Therefore, teachers need to take some considerations into account when going to teach students whether the method is understandable or fun for young learners to understand. Teaching reading to young learners. According to Olafsdottir (2016) “reading means acquiring understanding of the written symbols represented by the sounds of spoken language”. Furthermore, reading is an interactive process in which the reader interacts in waysdynamic with texts trying to extract meaning from them and in which various types of knowledge are used (Alyoused, 2006). Generally speaking, having good reading skills would enrich learners’ vocabulary; increase their communication skills as well as to achieve the language learning goal. Olafsdottir (2016) divides the reading process into pre-reading activities and reading process, where pre-reading activities deal with learners' motivation and awareness to read and the reading process. with the learners' written comprehension. Considering the characteristics of young learners, the reading process, both the pre-reading activities and the reading process, should be delivered in an enjoyable manner. When discussing the teaching of reading, many methods can be used. Teachers are free to vary and combine them. Paivio's (1971) dual coding theory highlights the effectiveness of the joint use of verbal associations and visual images in cognition. Then, teaching reading using audiobooks seems to be more preferable for teaching young learners because it is presented in the form of colorful printed scripts and pleasant audio scripts. The use of the audiobook The audiobook was first introduced in 1931 as part of the "Books for Blind Adults Project". Nonetheless, the use of audiobooks has worked well beyond its original purpose. It is used as a tool to improve children's reading comprehension (Koskinen, Blum, Bisson, Philips, Creamer and Baker 2000; O'Day, 2002 cited in Kartal and Simsek, 2017). The colorful printed storyline accompanied by an entertaining audio storyline read by professional narrators, actress or the author himself would attract the student's interest and attention while reading the story. There are some differences between the audiobook and traditional reading aloud. Rubery (2008) finds three key differences: first, reading aloud is limited in space and time, whereas listening to audiobooks is subject to no such restrictions. Second, reading aloud requires a face-to-face encounter, as audiobooks can be listened to via computers, MP3 players, smartphones, CDs, cassettes, portable music players, etc. From these differences, audiobooks seem to be more efficient to use. Teachers only need to prepare the printed script and play the recorded audio script. Audiobook providing children with a good model of speech pattern. When students follow the printed storyline of the story while listening to the audio played by the teacher, children are equipped not only on the decoding process, but also on emulating phrasing, pronunciation, accent, emphasis, tone and other components that are characteristics of English speech patterns (Casbergue and Harris, 1996). Fortunately, in today's era, "many of the courses for teaching English to foreigners published today are accompanied by tape-recorded material, and it is almost always useful to have these available to support the written text, if only for other reasons - especially for the teacher whose mother tongue is not English” (Broughton, Brumfit, Flevell, Hilland Pincas 1978, p. 108). These recorded materials provide good speech models to learners that enable them to express themselves better in English. Therefore, children are the best imitators of what they have heard and seen, the exploited material read by professional narrators would help them to have basic models of good and correct speeches. The study context of the study.