A Study Of EFL Teachers' Instructional Achievement Attributions And Teaching Beliefs

Against the background of globalization, the interest and need in EFL learning have been increasing in the present opening China. This makes EFL teaching a significant part at levels of education and puts a great demand on EFL teachers' professional development. The rising of cognitive psychology and constructive psychology in the world directs scholars' attention to teachers' professional development, especially teachers' mental world. While a collection of studies have been devoted to the exploration of teachers' beliefs and the influence of teachers' beliefs over observable practice, little research has been made on teachers' instructional achievement attributions, especially in the EFL context. To better understand EFL teachers' internal world and help them reflect upon their teaching effectively, this study focuses on EFL teachers' instructional achievement attributions in relation with their teaching beliefs.Based on a comprehensive review of previous studies, the present study did a questionnaire survey of 128 high school EFL teachers in two cities. The results show that in general, teachers attached different importance to different attributional causes in the same achievement situation and had different attributional patterns in different achievement situations; teachers' genders and educational backgrounds had partial influence over their failure attributions, while teachers' teaching years had partial influence over both their failure and success attributions; teachers' achievement attributions were partly predicted by teachers' teaching beliefs.Based on the discussion of the findings and results, some tentative suggestions are made for both teachers and school administrators. Teachers are advised to frequently make attributions for their teaching outcomes, strengthen communication with colleagues and students, and consciously reflect upon teaching beliefs. School administrators are advocated to attend to female teachers' mental and physical health, provide teachers with platforms for communication, and help teachers study teaching materials.