| With the development of research in the field of foreign language (FL) teaching and learning (FLTL) and teacher learning in the past decades, the educational cognitive development of foreign language teachers has been increasingly recognized as the key to their professional development, and the research of teachers’cognitive development has become one of the foci in the field of FLTL. Teachers’teaching belief system is located in the core position of the whole cognitive system, thus teachers’cognitive development is determined by the development of their belief system to a great extent. The present study is an exploration of college English teachers’belief system and its causing factors. The goal of the study is to construct the theoretical framework on college English teachers’ teaching cognition and behavior, and based on which to testify the operating mechanism of teachers’ beliefs causing factors on their beliefs. In order to achieve that research goal, the study is carried out to answer three relevant research questions:First, what kind of theoretical framework of FL teachers’ cognition and behavior can be constructed if it starts from the basic cognitive processing factors? Second, what does college FL teachers’belief system consist of? Third, how do the belief causing factors influence college FL teachers’teaching cognition and their beliefs in particular?Based on the discoveries of relevant researches home and abroad, by means of analysis and inferences, the present study established the following conceptual theoretical framework by starting from the fundamental cognitive processing factors end to teaching feedback reception end:The framework is composed of two parts:teacher cognition and teaching behavior. Teachers’ beliefs are the core in the part of teacher cognition. They are made up of five dimensions:English language (FL) views, English teaching views, English learning views, views of teachers/learners’ roles, English teaching professional views. The causing factors, which are distributed into the categories of teacher’s knowledge, teacher’s ability, teacher’s personality, cognitive environment and others, work collaboratively to form and modify teachers’beliefs in cognitive processing. The causing factors are the basic elements in teacher’s cognitive processing. Among the affecting factors, teachers’ cognition of the external environment influences the formation and development of the causing factors of other categories. Once being formed, teachers’beliefs filter and constraint the further development of their knowledge, ability, cognition of environment, and even personality. Based on their established beliefs and their cognition of the immediate environment, teachers make decisions on teaching, and teachers’decisions is the interface between their cognition and behavior. In the part of teaching behavior, teachers initiate teaching actions according to the ready-made decisions, and those actions call back teaching feedbacks. Some feedbacks can modify teachers’beliefs immediately, and others will, by means of reflections, indirectly modify their beliefs by developing their knowledge, ability, cognitive environment and personality. Teachers’cognition and teaching behavior form a cycling process, and enhance teachers’development continuously.Based on the conceptual theoretical framework established above, the present study is focused on the investigation of the status of college English teachers’belief system and how teachers’ knowledge, ability, personality and cognition of environment influence their beliefs, that is, the second and third research question. Those questions are answered by description, correlation analysis, regression analysis and discussion of the data collected by questionnaire and interview investigation.College English teachers’belief system is made up of five dimensions, and can be categorized into twelve factors according to quantitative analysis. Among them, there is only one factor in the dimension of English language view and English teaching professional view respectively. There are three factors, which are termed as communication-function view, grammar-rule view and oral/aural-skill view, in the dimension of English teaching view. There are four factors, which are termed as English learning difficulty, emphasis, nature and strategy, in the dimension of English learning view. There are three factors, which are termed as teacher/learner roles, position and responsibility, in the dimension of teachers/learners’roles view.According to the data analysis, characteristics of each of those five dimensions of English teachers’belief system can be summarized and presented as followed:(1) In the dimension of English language view:Individual teachers’recognition and admission of various language views are high in general. Among them, the highest ones are tool view, social■ phenomenon view and communicative functional view, the lowest one is gifted organic view. There is no great difference in recognition and admission of the same type of language view among different teachers. (2) In the dimension of English teaching view:There are great differences among individual teachers in their recognition and admission of detailed statements of various teaching views, but the difference is small among the statements belonging to the same factor. There is great difference between three factors in teachers’recognition and admission with the communication-rule view the highest and the oral/aural-skill view the lowest. (3) In the dimension of English learning view:There are small differences among individual teachers in their recognition and admission of detailed statements of various English learning views. There is great difference between four factors in teachers’recognition and admission with the learning nature the highest and the learning emphasis the lowest. (4) In the dimension of teachers/learners’roles:There are small differences among individual teachers in their recognition and admission of the detailed statements of various views, and the general degree is high. There is great difference between three factors in teachers’recognition and admission with the teachers/learners’roles the highest and the position the lowest. (5) In the dimension of English teaching professional view:Teachers’recognition and admission are high in general and the difference among teachers in detailed statements of professional view is small.Teachers’knowledge, ability and cognitive environment consist of seventeen factors in total. There are seven factors in teacher’s knowledge dimension, and they are termed as teaching experiential knowledge, educational knowledge, college English teachers’demonstrative knowledge, middle school English teachers’demonstrative knowledge, English language knowledge, teaching methodological knowledge and teaching strategic knowledge. There are four factors in teachers’ ability dimension, and they are termed as English language self-efficacy, teaching routine self-efficacy, teaching strategy self-efficacy and learning interest arousing self-efficacy. There are six factors in teachers’cognitive environment dimension, and they are termed as teaching subject, salary and welfare, inter-personal relationship, learners, teaching requirement and professional development. Besides teachers’knowledge, ability and cognitive environment, there is a fourth dimension, that is, teacher’s personality. In the present study, the teachers’personality is investigated by employing "the Big Five" questionnaire, which measures people’s personal traits from five aspects:neroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The characteristics of the belief causing factors, which are based on the analysis of the data, can be summarized and presented as followed:(1) In the dimension of teachers’knowledge:There are small differences in teachers’recognition and admission of the detailed statements of various types of knowledge in general and within groups of factors. There are great differences among seven factors with the teaching experiential knowledge the highest and educational knowledge the lowest. (2) In the dimension of teachers’ability:There are very small differences in teachers’recognition and admission of different types of self-efficacy in terms of both detailed statements and factors. The differences between four factors are significant with English language self-efficacy the highest and learning interest arousing the lowest. (3) In the dimension of cognitive environment:Teachers have high recognition and admission of environmental factors’influence on their beliefs. Teachers vary greatly from each other in their recognition and admission of detailed statements belonging to the same factors. The differences between six factors are significant with students the highest and teaching subjects the lowest. (4) In the dimension of teachers’personality:In general, the traits of individual teachers vary greatly from each other both in general and in terms of five aspects. The aspect of neroticism bears the greatest difference, and agreeableness the smallest. There are great differences among five aspects of personality. In general, the most distinguished trait of college English teachers is conscientiousness, which is followed by agreeableness, extraversion and openness, and the most unconspicuous trait is neroticism.The correlation and regression analysis of the collected data justified the influence of teachers’ knowledge, ability, personality and cognitive environment on their beliefs as proposed in the theoretical framework. The operating mechanisms are explained as followed:(1) English language views and their causing factors:Four factors can significantly cause the formation and development of teachers’English language views, and they are college teachers’ demonstrative knowledge, teaching strategic knowledge, teaching routine self-efficacy and learning interest arousing self-efficacy. Those factors and teachers’English language views are positively correlated. (2) English teaching views and their influencing factors:Seven factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’communication-function teaching views, and they are college teachers’demonstrative knowledge, teaching experiential knowledge, teaching routine self-efficacy, learning interest arousing self-efficacy, professional development conditions, openness and extraversion personality. Except for openness personality trait, the other six factors are positively correlated to teachers’communication-function teaching views. Seven factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’grammar-rule teaching views, and they are college teachers’demonstrative knowledge, teaching methodological knowledge, teaching experiential knowledge, English language self-efficacy, learning interest arousing self-efficacy, student conditions and agreeableness personal trait. Among the seven factors, except for teaching methodological knowledge, student conditions and agreeableness, the other five factors are positively correlated to grammar-rule teaching views. Eight factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’oral/aural-skill teaching views, and they are college teachers’demonstrative knowledge, educational knowledge, teaching experiential knowledge, English language knowledge, teaching subjects, student conditions, agreeableness and openness personality. Among the eight factors, except for college teachers’demonstrative knowledge, student condition, agreeableness and openness personality traits, the other four factors are positively correlated to teachers’oral/aural-skill teaching views. (3) English learning views and their influencing factors:Seven factors form cause-and-effect relationship with the view of learning emphasis, and they are teaching experiential knowledge, middle school English teachers’demonstrative knowledge, teaching routine self-efficacy, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness personality. Among the factors, except for middle school teachers’demonstrative knowledge, other factors are negatively correlated to the view of learning emphasis. Six factors form cause-and-effect relationship with the view of learning nature, and they are college English teachers’demonstrative knowledge, teaching routine self-efficacy, learning interest arousing self-efficacy, professional development conditions, conscientiousness and extraversion personality. All the six factors are positively correlated to teachers’view of learning nature. Four factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’view of learning difficulty, and they are English language self-efficacy, learning interest arousing self-efficacy, salary and welfare conditions, and openness personality. Except for openness personality, other three factors are positively correlated to teachers’view of learning difficulty. Five factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’view of learning strategy, and they are English language self-efficacy, learning interest arousing self-efficacy, teaching subject, openness and agreeableness. Except for openness and agreeableness, the other three factors are positively correlated to teachers’view of learning strategy. (4) Teacher/learner roles views and their influencing factors:Six factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’view of teacher/learner responsibility, and they are teaching experiential knowledge, middle school teachers’ demonstrative knowledge, teaching requirements, salary and welfare conditions, openness and conscientiousness. Except for middle school teachers’demonstrative knowledge, openness and conscientiousness, the other three factors are positively correlated to teachers’view of teacher/learner responsibility. Four factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’view of teacher/learner position, and they are learning interest arousing self-efficacy, salary and welfare conditions, openness and agreeableness. Except for openness and agreeableness, the other two factors are positively correlated to teachers’view of teacher/learner position. Five factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’view of teacher/learner roles, and they are teaching experiential knowledge, teaching strategic self-efficacy, teaching routine self-efficacy, learning interest arousing self-efficacy and student conditions. All the five factors are positively correlated to teachers’view of teacher/learner roles. (5) Six factors form cause-and-effect relationship with teachers’English teaching professional view, and they are college English teacher’s demonstrative knowledge, teaching methodological knowledge, teaching experiential knowledge, learning interest arousing self-efficacy, openness and agreeableness. All the six factors are positively correlated to teachers’professional view.In theory, the study established the theoretical framework on the interrelationship obetween teachers’cognition and teaching behavior, proposed the constructing dimensions of college English teachers’belief system, and categorized the factors which can influence teachers’beliefs. In practice, light can be shed on college English teachers’learning and teacher development administration from the findings about college English teachers’belief system, its causing factors and operational mechanisms. For teachers, the enlightenment is summarized as followed:(1) In teachers’development of their language views:Teachers can treat various language views equally and learn to know more of the views that they were not familiar with. Based on similar acquaintance with different theoretical language views, teachers can make their own judge and choice by referring to and testified with their own English teaching and learning experience, they can also develop their own language view by continuous observation, experiment and reflection. Teachers can develop their language views by enlarging their college English teachers’demonstrative knowledge, teaching strategic knowledge, and improving their teaching routine self-efficacy and learning interest arousing self-efficacy. (2) In teachers’development of their teaching views:Teachers need to enhance their learning of foreign language teaching methodological knowledge and make reflections of them. The means of developing teaching views are to enlarge the college English teachers’demonstrative knowledge and teaching experiential knowledge, to increase the learning interest arousing self-efficacy, to raise their sensitivity to students and teaching subjects change, and to balance the openness, extraversion and agreeableness traits in their personality development. (3) In teachers’ development of learning views:Teachers need to develop the learning emphasis view the most. The increase of middle school English teachers’demonstrative knowledge and teaching routine self-efficacy can be used as the starting point of teachers’learning view development. (4) In teachers’ development of teacher/learner roles views:Teachers can actively recognize and develop multiple roles that they should play in teaching, and do more experiments, thinking and reflection on teacher/learner position in classroom teaching. The increase of teaching experiential knowledge, learning interest arousing self-efficacy and sensitivity to salary and welfare conditions can be the starting point of development in teachers’teacher/learner’s roles views. (5) In teachers’development of their professional views:Teachers need to take professional attitude as the priority in their professional development. The development can be made by enlarging college English teachers’ demonstrative knowledge, teaching methodological knowledge and teaching experiential knowledge, by increasing learning interest arousing self-efficacy, and by balancing personality development in openness and agreeableness.For college English teachers development administration and administrators, the enlightenment is summarized as followed:Teaching and research administrative departments can initiate and organize such activities as public teaching observations and discussion to assist teachers’development of language views. Teacher training and administrative departments can provide foreign language teaching training programs on a regular basis to assist teachers’development of teaching views. Teaching and research administrative departments can initiate and organize teaching research activities to assist teacher’s development of learning views. College and school can play their guiding and assisting role in a macro way to help teachers to develop their teacher/learner roles view properly. Teaching administrative department can play their guiding and assisting role to help teachers to develop their professional view. |
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