A Study On English Teachers’ Beliefs And Their Classroom Teaching Practices In Newly-Built Colleges

The study of teacher’beliefs have received much attention in recent years. It has become a part ofthe process of how teachers understand their work. However, there are still inadequacies on researchabout EFL teachers. Few studies appeared to research on teachers in newly-built-college.On the basis of the review of previous studies, both quantitative and qualitative methods areadopted. By means of questionnaire, classroom observation and interview, the present study explore thebeliefs held by newly-built-college teachers of non-English major undergraduates, their classroompractices, and the relationship between beliefs and practice. The scopes of the research include:teachers’beliefs and corresponding classroom practices about English learning and teaching andteachers’and learners’roles.There are 67 English teachers answer the questionnaires. They are from three newly-built-collegesin Shanxi Province. We select three teachers of them as the participants of classroom observation andsemi-structured interview. They are in different age, teaching years, and education degree. The interviewand observation of the teachers centered on their core beliefs and the relationship between theirclassroom practices and beliefs.Statistical package (SPSS 17.0) is utilized to analyze the data of questionnaires. The epsilons ofinterview and observation scales are transcribed, classified and analyzed.The main findings of the qualitative and quantitative studies from classroom observation, interviewand questionnaires can be summarized below: firstly, most teachers in newly-built-colleges share thesame core beliefs on English learning and teaching, and roles of teachers and learners; secondly,classroom practices of non-English major teachers are both consistent and inconsistent with their beliefs;thirdly, the factors attribute to the inconsistencies between beliefs and practices concerns about learners,teachers and colleges.Based on the study, some suggestions are made for EFL teachers, education managers andresearchers. Teachers should reflect their teaching regularly especially the factors for inconsistenciesbetween their beliefs and classroom practices. Education managers and researchers should help teachersto adapt new teaching context so as to promote their beliefs and classroom practices.