A Study On Teaching & Learning Beliefs In College English

Teachers’teaching beliefs and learners’learning beliefs, intertwined reciprocally,play a dominant role in teaching-learning process. However, in China most previousstudies on beliefs explored teachers’beliefs or learners’beliefs respectively, instead ofresearching them together with comparison. Therefore, the present study conductsempirical investigations simultaneously into both teachers’teaching beliefs andlearners’learning beliefs, in the context of college English curriculum.Firstly, this study specifically defines and classifies college English teachers’teaching beliefs and college English learners’learning beliefs, and identifies their sixcommon components, including teachers’and learners’beliefs about English as alanguage, college English curriculum, learning, teaching, teachers’roles and learners’roles. Then this study compares the previous empirical researches on beliefs in Chinaand finds that there is an inadequacy in the studies on teachers’beliefs about learningand learners’beliefs about teaching and curriculum.With intent to fill the gap in previous studies, an empirical research is conductedinto both college English teachers’and learners’beliefs about the three aspects ofteaching, learning and curriculum, meant to explicit the common beliefs respectivelyheld by most teachers and students, find out the similarities and differences betweentheir beliefs, identify the causes and analyze the influences of conflicts in beliefs onteaching. Participants are 32 college English teachers and their 345 students fromDaqing Normal University. The major instruments are multi-dimensionedquestionnaires and in-depth interviews.Findings show that there are common beliefs held by teachers and learnersrespectively within their own groups in the above three dimensions. Similarities anddifferences can be identified between teachers’and learners’common beliefs. Thesimilarities consist in their beliefs about curriculum and learning. Most of bothteachers and learners hold the core beliefs of cognitive process, social reconstructionist, humanistic, and technological curriculum. Most of them objectivelyevaluate the difficulty of learning English, but underestimate the time required tolearn a foreign language well, meanwhile they stress the whole English learningenvironment. Differences consist in their beliefs about teaching, curriculum andlearning. Concerning teaching approach, teachers are more meaning-oriented, whilelearners are more skill-oriented. More learners than teachers support an academiccurriculum. More teachers than learners tend to recognize individuals’differentaptitude for learning English, and perceive learning English as a comprehensive task.The correspondence between their beliefs can promote teaching and learning, whereasthe conflicts would have negative effect.The research findings can offer some implications for college English teaching:teachers should strengthen their theoretical learning to establish a scientific beliefsystem; aiming at shortening the gap between teachers’and learners’beliefs, teachersshould investigate their students’beliefs regularly and often compare learners’beliefswith their own, to find the differences and similarities, and explore what causes thedifferences and similarities; teachers have responsibilities to correct their students’inhibitive beliefs; teachers should make reflections through reflective journals,discussions, and classroom investigations, and also encourage their students to writereflective journals.