Fast mapping describes the cognitive skill of mapping new information onto its appropriate referent, from minimal exposure. It has been researched primarily in the field of word learning and evidence suggests that a pre-school child can link a novel word with its referent and retain this link up to 1 month later (e.g. Markson & Bloom, 1997). In 4 experiments, I investigated the retention of fast mapped novel words and facts after 1 week in 3- and 4-year-old children. In the fifth and final study, I investigated extension of object labels and facts. In study 1, participants demonstrated an impressive rate of retention of a link between a novel object label and its referent novel object after one week. In contrast, retention of colour labels, shape labels, texture labels and linguistic facts was no better than chance, despite good short-term performance. These data suggested that object labels are retained more easily than other word types and facts. Studies 2, 3 and 4 investigated why facts were not retained after one week in Study 1. Studies 2 and 3 explored whether fast-mapped facts are only retained in the long term if they are associated with novel rather than familiar objects. Neither study found any significant differences between conditions suggesting that the familiarity of the referent object has limited effect on the long-term retention of fast mapped facts. Study 2 evidenced poor retention whereas, Study 3 found good long-term retention in all conditions. Study 4 examined whether the experimenter’s naming of familiar objects and the participant selecting the target object, during exposure to a novel fact, affects retention. Retention of facts was weak and no different from chance in all conditions. These results indicated that long-term retention of fast-mapped words and facts was much more difficult than the early literature suggested. A thorough analysis suggested several factors may have affected retention e.g. repeat testing and gestural cues. A final study examined extension of object labels and facts to other similar-shaped novel objects. Children spontaneously extended a newly learned novel object label, but not a specific fact ("my uncle gave this to me"). However, they extended a more generalisable fact, ("it comes from a place called Modi") to other members of the same object category, to the same extent as object labels. This indicated that facts can be as extendable as words and supports the conclusion that learning words and facts utilize similar cognitive mechanisms.

Although the significant influence of lecturers’ beliefs on their practices in the classroom is well known, not much is known about teachers’ beliefs and the extent to which they influence reading instructional techniques (Woods, 2006). Furthermore, no comprehensive studies have been carried out in the context of Libyan universities, where lecturers in English are non-native speakers of the language and have only minimal resources and limited access to published research and scholarship regarding this topic. The present qualitative study aims to fill this gap in knowledge, considering contextual factors such as limited access to expert knowledge, a fixed curriculum, time restrictions and the isolation of lecturers, in an analysis of the beliefs that lecturers in English hold and the correspondence between these beliefs and their teaching practices. The study explores the factors that shape lecturers’ beliefs and examines the relationship between their beliefs and practices. Twenty-three unstructured observation sessions were conducted with male and female lecturers teaching English reading. Each class was observed 3 times, giving a total of 69 classes. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty male and female lecturers. The observation and interview data were analysed inspired by grounded theory. The findings revealed that lecturers held a variety of beliefs, and these did not always inform their practices in the classroom. This study provides a more in-depth understanding of the multifaceted relationship between what lecturers believe and what they practise regarding the teaching of English reading. The study acknowledges the themes of the differences and similarities between lecturers’ beliefs and practices, with observations such as ‘lecturers knew, but did not do’; ‘lecturers did, but were not aware that they did’; and ‘lecturers did, and they knew’. In addition, the study demonstrates that correspondence between beliefs and practices does not necessarily result in positive pedagogical consequences, while a lack of such correspondence may not have negative results. The research also reveals that, irrespective of the relationships between beliefs and practices, the underpinning rationales are linked to the complex relationship between lecturers’ beliefs and practices and a range of other factors. The findings of this study could be of benefit to both current and future EFL lecturers of reading and should also provide directions for further research in this field.