| Within both general education and second language teaching field since the 1960s, there has been a movement away from teacher-dominated modes of learning to more learner-centered approaches. In fact, under the influence of this movement, of unquestionable importance for language learning has been the development in recent years of learner-centered models of education. In a provocative article, Basanta (1996) states: "in recent years two parallel processes have been at work, with the role of the learner being steadily upgraded, and that of the teacher moving in the opposite direction". This can be seen from the fact that while books and articles concerned with learner are in abundance, there is still little research on what the teacher brings to the process of second language education. However, this 'learner-centeredness' movement does not deny the importance of the teacher, nor imply that there is no role for the teacher in a learner-centered classroom, quite the contrary, it led to a reexamination of traditional teacher roles, for even the so-called innovative methods still require teachers to carry out particular roles in the classroom in order to facilitate the language learning processes the method is designed to activate. Similarly, learner autonomy is a welcome goal for education, but it does not mean the absence of the teacher in the learning process. For language teachers, "there is a new, more evolved role which can be, if in some ways more challenging, also more exciting and fulfilling." (Jane Arnold 2000) There are also clear signs today that the importance of the teachers' role in the language learning processes has not diminished. This can be seen in some of the publications on teacher development (Richards and Freeman 1996; Woods 1996) and the emphasis in current second language acquisition studies on qualitative research in which teachers are active participants or initiators. Unfortunately, even among the "few who go against the trend by looking at the other side of the desk", the process-product research paradigm has been dominant in their studies. In this research paradigm, teaching is approached from the outside, that is, from the perspective of a researcher or observer looking at observable classroom teaching processes or teaching behaviours, such as strategies used in opening lessons, questioning behaviours, ways of giving praise and feedback, error correction, and other quantifiable aspects of classroom interaction. This approach has attempted to understand the nature of teaching through identifying and describing sets of discrete teaching behaviours. The assumption is that specific teaching behaviours could be identified with particular learning outcomes and the teaching behaviours characteristic of effective teachers could be used as a basis for the training of other teachers. A different research paradigm is illustrated in the present study, an approach which is based on a qualitative or interpretative approach to teaching research and which seeks to understand teaching from the inside rather than from the outside, that is, from the point of view of the EFL teachers themselves. Rather than depending on quantification of teaching behaviours, we focus on how teachers' knowledge systems, beliefs, values and principles shape their understanding of teaching and how they arrive at instructional decisions in teaching. Through classroom observation, on-going interviews with teachers, analysis of their stories they tell about their teaching, and retrospective interviews based on video-taped recordings of their lessons, the present research tries to present an account of the pedagogical reasoning and classroom teaching practices employed by Chinese EFL teachers in their work. The whole dissertation is composed of six chapters, including the introduction at the outset and conclusion at the end.Chapter 1 provides a general introduction of sources of the current research and why the present topic is chosen. Only when we have a clear picture of what others have done...
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