A Study Of The Differences Between Teachers' And Students' Beliefs Of Effective Foreign Language Teaching

Foreign language teachers and students may have very similar or disparate notions of effective foreign language teaching, and the intersection of the two sets of beliefs has enormous ramifications for language learning and the effectiveness of instruction. In addition, English has become a cardinal part of our public education but the teaching results are not desirable. Thus, investigating the conflicts between students'and teachers'beliefs of effective FL teaching can do great favor in improving college English teaching. However, very little research on beliefs focuses on effective FL teaching and makes comparison between teachers'and students'beliefs. Therefore, the principal purpose of this study is to identify and discuss the differences between teachers'and students'beliefs of effective FL teaching. Three research questions are addressed as follows:1. What are the differences between teachers'and students'beliefs of effective FL teaching?2. Are there any differences between teachers and low-level students, and between teachers and high-level students in terms of their beliefs of effective FL teaching respectively? If yes, to what extent?3. What factors affect teachers'and students'beliefs of effective FL teaching?The subjects of the study were 200 students and 30 teachers in a university in Suzhou. The data were mainly collected by means of questionnaire, from which, the results were sought to the first two research questions. And the following individual interview as the supplementary instrument was conducted to answer the third research question.The findings of the present study are summarized as follows:Firstly, there are remarkable differences between teachers'and students'beliefs of effective FL teaching in the fields of target language use, teaching grammar, assessment, error correction, culture, individual learner difference and communicative teaching strategies.Secondly, teachers'and low-level students'beliefs of effective FL teaching differ largely. The low-level students, on the whole, seem to favor a grammar-based approach, whereas the teachers prefer a more communicative classroom teaching. In contrast, the gap between teachers'and high-level students'beliefs of effective FL teaching is narrower. That is to say, they have very similar perceptions of effective FL teaching.Thirdly, the factors contributing to the discrepancies between students'and teachers'beliefs of effective FL teaching mainly include different personality, lack of communication and the gap of teaching and learning.The findings also offer some pedagogical implications for college English teaching in China: First, it is highly recommended that teachers should pay more attention to the following aspects: target language use, teaching grammar, individual learner difference, assessment, error correction, culture and communicative teaching strategies on which teachers'and students'beliefs differ significantly in this study, and then take measures to narrow the mismatch. Second, teachers should adjust their teaching approaches to the students according to their different English level. Third, it is necessary for teachers and students to know each other's beliefs of effective FL teaching.