This paper investigates how reading and reflecting upon research published by other teachers could impact pre-service teachers in a language teacher education programme at a university in the west of Turkey. Adopting a holistic single case as the qualitative research approach, the study involved 53 first-year pre-service English teachers who were taking the course Reading Skills at the time for the current research and used data collected through written reflections and think-aloud protocols. We analysed the data through thematic analysis which revealed two major impact-based themes including conceptions of being a teacher and exploring teacher self. These helped us qualify the dimensions of the impact of reading and discussing stories of exploratory action research on the process of learning and development of pre-service language teachers. Drawing on our study, we offer implications for English language teachers and educators in pre-service language teacher education programmes.