| Teachers and learners often hold diverging beliefs about how to best teach and learn languages. For example, many language learners believe that it is important to have all their errors corrected, to always use precise grammar and to memorize lists of vocabulary in the target language; many teachers disagree with such beliefs (Borg, 1998; Green, 1993; Horwitz, 1985, 1987, 1988; Kern, 1995; Mantle-Bromley, 1995; Peacock, 1998, 1999, 2001; Schulz, 2001; Wood, 1991; Yang, 1999).; Students' beliefs are a significant factor in their efforts in learning a language (Mantle-Bromley, 1995; Yang, 1999), and teachers' beliefs are an important factor in their classroom decision-making and teaching practice (Johnson, 1994; Pajares, 1992). Considering the vital roles that beliefs can play in the language class, this dissertation examines the beliefs about communicative language teaching and learning of a teacher of English as a second language and his adult students. This study was undertaken in order to establish the similarities and differences in the participants' beliefs, to investigate the sources of their beliefs, and to examine the extent to which their beliefs appear to influence their interactions in class.; The teacher-participant in this study is an experienced ESL teacher in an Intensive English Program at a large, public university in the northeastern United States. The 11 students in this study range in age from approximately 18 to 30 years old and come from around the world. They are at the high-intermediate to low-advanced level of proficiency.; Three data-gathering tools---observations, questionnaires, and interviews---were used in this study. The class was observed over one semester, and all participants answered the questionnaires and were interviewed formally.; The categories that emerged from the findings were combined into three themes: converging beliefs about the importance of student participation, diverging beliefs about the importance of accuracy and error correction, and a converging---and mediating---belief in the importance of positive affective factors in the language classroom. Some evidence indicated that beliefs may have influenced interactions in the classroom and vice versa, which supports symbolic interactionist theory.; This study contributes to the growing understanding of second language classroom interactions from the perspectives of the classroom participants themselves. |
