Chinese College EFL Teachers' Beliefs About CALL

Teachers' beliefs represent a complex and inter-related system of personal and professional knowledge that serves as implicit theories and cognitive maps for experiencing and responding to reality. Recent years have witnessed an explosion of enthusiasm in using computers for language teaching and learning. Naturally, teachers' beliefs about CALL(Computer-assisted Language Learning) will undoubtedly influence their implementation of CALL in class and finally their achievements in teaching. Based on this consideration, this study provides Chinese college EFL teachers with the opportunity to present their experience with CALL. Its first concern is to present how the Chinese college EFL teachers are using CALL in class. Secondly, it aims to profile their beliefs about CALL, specifically, their beliefs about the advantages and challenges of CALL.The potential of the Internet as a tool for research is exploited by the present investigation which relies on e-mail correspondence and online interview with some of the participants. And a software called Statistic Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) was employed to analyze the statistics and the data was interpreted in relation to the historical and conceptual framework outlined in Chapter 2 of this study.The main findings of the study are:1. The use of CALL in Chinese colleges is still in its first evolutionary stage-the Behaviorism CALL, far behind its advanced stage-the network-based language learning. The behavioristic language learning theory most teachers hold and the lack of computer resources and training can account for this phenomenon.2. It also revealed that teachers' beliefs about CALL are heterogeneous and thus reflect a wide range in terms of the evolution of approaches and technology use.The thesis concludes that teachers should evolve their beliefs on a constructivism conceptual basis to be more compatible with the use of the more advanced network-based language learning. Suggestions were made for the provision of professional development forums to present opportunities for exposure to beliefs that provide alternatives to knowledge transmission and to teacher-centered pedagogies, for the provision of training and extensive computer resources and a new system to evaluate teachers' professional performance to take full advantage of CALL.