Teachers' Beliefs In Language Learning Strategies Instruction

Reform efforts in English education stress the importance of pre-service and in-service teacher education in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. All teachers possess beliefs about themselves as teachers, about their teaching, their students, their subject matter, and their roles and responsibilities in the classroom (Pajares, 1992). In order for teachers to understand their own educational practices, it is important for them to examine their own beliefs about their education practices, including language learning strategy instruction. The beliefs of teachers hold influence their perceptions and judgments, which, in turn, affect their classroom practices. According to researchers and scholars in teacher education, it is important for pre-service and in-service teachers to examine and understand their beliefs about strategy instruction in order to improve and expand their professional preparation and practices (Clark, 1988; Feiman-Nemser & Floden, 1986; Fenstermacher, 1986; Munby, 1984; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 199?; Tabachnick, Popkewitz & Zeichner, 1979).This study identified whether pre-service and in-service teachers differed with respect to their beliefs about learning strategies instruction. It also identified whether teacher beliefs held about strategy instruction were related to the teaching experiences they developed for use in their classrooms. The in-service teacher-participants in this study are experienced EFL teachers in public universities in Chongqing. The per-service teacher-participants are observed in one grade from School of Foreign Language in Southwest University. The data gathering tool, questionnaire, is used in this study. Results of a 61-item belief survey in strategy instruction, administered to pre-service and in-service teachers, are used to score instruction examples provided by the teachers. SPSS 13.0 is used to statistic analyze the collected data from two groups.Results from questionnaire indicate that pre-service and in-service teachers have differences from the aspects of knowledge, comprehension, and detailed activities in strategy instruction. For example, the in-service teachers argue that strategy instruction should be woven into teaching rather than being an isolated component. But pre-service teachers dispute about this item. However, they share similar beliefs about the effectiveness of strategy instruction. Another finding proves that teacher training program of strategy instruction and teaching experiences developed the teachers' beliefs. And it also can be regarded as one factor that influences the differences between pre-service and in-service teachers.On the basis of this work, a number of recommendations are made for bringing pre-service and in-service teacher education up to deal with the demands of their field work. These include (1) exploring pre-service teachers' implicit belief systems about strategy instruction, and (2) developing pre-service teachers' awareness and understanding of theories of learning strategy and instruction.