Index IntroductionLiterature reviewThe importance of teachers' beliefsYoung students; who are they?Teaching reading to young learners.The use of the audiobookThe studyThe context of the studyParticipantsToolsData collection proceduresData analysis proceduresIntroductionReading is one of the most important skills that should be acquired by language learners. As Debat stated that “reading is a crucial skill for students of English as a foreign language” (Debat, 2006:8 as cited in Suganda, LA, 2016, p.80); therefore, it is best to be introduced to language learners first. Introducing reading to children at an early age will greatly help them have better reading comprehension skills than those who are not early readers. Furthermore, being able to read as well as write will enable children to achieve their language learning goals, which is to use language communicatively. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In today's educational trend, reading teaching methods have evolved creatively. Teachers sometimes involve other language skills to teach reading to students. Involving other language skills to teach reading seems to be more effective because “pedagogically, no language skill can be taught or learned exclusively, no matter what or how” (Alsamadani, 2017, p.204). Reading aloud is one of the most popular methods in 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 method of reading aloud is updated into the more up-to-date form of audiobook. Facilitate 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 for young students in learning to read, as they present reading to them in an entertaining way. As Willis, in his The Neuroscience of Joyful Education, states that “when students are engaged and motivated and feel minimal stress, information flows freely through the affective filter in the amygdala and achieves higher levels of cognition, establishes connections and experience “aha” moments" (Wilis, 2007, p.1). Considering the potential of audiobooks as a reading tool for teaching, it should be the method of choice for most preschools, but especially in Salatiga , the fact says otherwise. Realizing that audiobook has compelling potential but lacks implementation in Salatiga, this study aims to uncover the factors that underlie the gap between teachers' beliefs towards the use of audiobooks for teaching. reading to young students. From the results of this study, the researcher hopes that early schools in Salatiga will consider adding audiobooks into the school curriculum. The following question is used to focus attention on the research process: “What are teachers' beliefs regarding the use of audiobooks in teaching reading to young students?” Literature Review The Importance of Teacher Beliefs According to Borg (2001), beliefs play a significant role in many parts of teaching, as well as in life. So, what is the importance of teachers' trust in the process ofteaching? First we need to clarify the basic perception: belief. Beliefs determine or guide how people think and act (Xu, 2012). Furthermore, Borg (2001) states that “a belief is a proposition that can be held consciously or unconsciously, is evaluative in 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 upbringing and experience (Johnson, 1994 as cited in Gilakjani, 2017). In teaching context, according to Xu (2012) teachers' beliefs are the result of teachers' self-instruction, which comes from social history and culture, individual experience and education, teachers' and students' teaching ability, etc. . Therefore, teachers' beliefs have a greater effect than teacher knowledge on lesson planning, the types of decisions they implement, and classroom practice (Gilakjani, 2017). Teacher beliefs are a significant concept in understanding thinking processes, teaching practices, and change and learning to teach (Zheng, 2009). The beliefs held by teachers will reflect how teachers think about teaching and learning. While, as Xu (2012) argued, “teachers' beliefs about what learning is will influence everything they do in the classroom, regardless of whether these beliefs are implicit or explicit.” It influences how teachers behave, interact and teach in the classroom. Consequently, teachers' beliefs play an important role in deciding the method or strategy to apply in the classroom. Young students; who are they? Commonly young students are divided into two school levels; nursery and elementary school. As Carol (2011) explained, “young learners” is a period used to refer to children from their first year of formal education (ages 5-7) to when they are 11-12 years old or when they move on to something else. from primary to secondary school. Cameron (2001) also added that young learners are those whose age is between 5 and 12 years. From these interpretations, young learners are assumed to be students between the ages of five and twelve years old who are placed in kindergarten and primary school. UK Essays (2015) revealed some characteristics of young students: their world is based on games and fun, they are not aware of learning yet. Furthermore, UK Essays states that young students learn by imitation rather than awareness in learning and learn faster through movement and the senses. Cameron (2001) added that young students can usually be heard talking to themselves and adapting while doing tasks or playing games, in what is called private speech. In English language learning, Phillips (1993) argued that young learners respond to language based on what it does or what they can do with it, rather than treating it as an intellectual game or abstract system. Therefore, teachers need to make some considerations when teaching students whether the method is understandable or fun for young learners to understand. Teaching reading to young students. According to Olafsdottir (2016) “reading means acquiring understanding over the written symbols represented by the sounds of the oral language”. Furthermore, reading is an interactive process in which the reader dynamically interacts with texts while trying to grasp their meaning and in which various types of knowledge are used (Alyoused, 2006). In general, having good reading skills would enrich students' vocabulary;increase your communication skills and achieve your goal of learning the language. Olafsdottir (2016) divides the reading process into pre-reading activities and reading process, where pre-reading activities deal with students' motivation and awareness to read and the reading process deals with students' reading comprehension. students. Considering the characteristics of young students, the reading process, both pre-reading activities and the reading process, should be organized in a fun way. When discussing teaching reading there are many methods that can be used. Teachers are free to vary and combine them. Paivio's (1971) dual coding theory emphasizes the effectiveness of the combined use of verbal associations and visual images in cognition. Thus, teaching reading through the use of audiobook seems to be more preferable for teaching young students, as it is presented in colorful printed writings and entertaining audio texts. The use of audiobooksAudiobooks were the first to be introduced in 1931 as part of the “Books for Blind Adults Project”. However, the use of audiobooks has worked far beyond its original purpose. It is used as a tool to improve reading comprehension for children (Koskinen, Blum, Bisson, Philips, Creamer, & Baker 2000; O'Day, 2002 as cited in Kartal & Simsek, 2017). The colorful printed script accompanied by a fun audio script read by professional narrators, actresses or the author himself would attract the student's interest and attention in reading the story. There are some differences between the audiobook and traditional reading aloud. Rubery (2008) notes three key differences: First, reading aloud is limited in space and time, while listening to audiobooks has no such restrictions. Secondly, reading aloud requires a face-to-face meeting, audiobooks can be listened to via computers, MP3 players, smartphones, CDs, cassettes, Walkmans and so on. From these differences, audiobooks appear to be more effective in use. Teachers only need to prepare the printed script and play the recorded audio script. The audiobook provides children with a good model of speech patterns. When students follow the printed story script while listening to the audio played by the teacher, children are equipped not only in the decoding process, but also in emulating the sentence, pronunciation, accent, emphasis, tone and other components which is the characteristics of English language patterns (Casbergue and Harris, 1996). Fortunately, in today's era "many courses for teaching English to foreigners published today are accompanied by recorded materials, and it is almost always useful to have them available to support the written text, if only for the teacher who does not is a native speaker of English” (Broughton, Brumfit, Flevell, Hilland Pincas 1978, p. 108). These recorded materials provide good linguistic models for students who allow Therefore, children are the best imitators of what they have heard and seen, the material read by professional narrators would help them to have good and correct basic speech patterns. The setting of the study is private immersion nursery and primary schools located in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia selected from those that use English as a medium of instruction (EMI).ParticipantsThe participants are ten teachers from immersion schools ranging from kindergarten A to sixth grade. The researcher takes them as participants because they have first-hand experience teaching students in immersion..