A Study On The Relationship Between Young Teachers’Beliefs And Their Textbook Use

It is known to all that textbooks are very important in the teaching and learning process. But most of researches on the textbook highlight the quality of the textbook, very few researches have been conducted to investigate how the teachers actually use the textbook in classrooms. Even fewer researches have been done to find out why the teachers use the textbook in the particular way. But what does it matter what the content of the textbook is and how perfect it is if teachers do not make use of it? With the development of education in our country, the teachers’group is expanding rapidly. The young teachers account for a large part of the English language teaching force. They are becoming a new-born power in the language teaching. It is of great significance to find out how the young teachers do and think in language teaching research. Therefore, this thesis explored the young teachers’ways of using the textbook and further discussed why they used the textbook in that certain way from the perspective of teachers’beliefs, which aimed to infer the factors hiding behind the textbook use that may influence the teachers’practices. Hope that the study can contribute to foreign language teaching, young teacher’s professional development and textbook design.Firstly, this study investigated how three young teachers from Zhixing College Hubei University used the college English textbook-Zooming In:An Integrated English Course in their first-year college English lesson. To get a multi-dimensional picture of textbook use, the study investigated three teachers’views about the textbook and their beliefs in terms of the nature of English, language teaching and learning as well as teachers’and students’roles. A variety of data collections methods were used in the investigation, which included classroom observation, audio-recording of the lessons, retrospective interviews, in-depth interviews and textbook content analysis. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The three teachers’actual uses of the textbook were compared with the sections of the textbook to trace the changes and reinterpretations that had taken place. The results of this level were further analyzed using the retrospective interview and in-depth interview data.The results of the study show us that textbook use is not a straightforward and page-by-page or section-by-section process. Rather, there are changes and reinterpretations when teachers decide (1) which sections to teach,(2) the order in which the sections are presented,(3) how much time to spend on each section and (4) whether other supplementary materials and activities should be used. Moreover, teachers’ways of using the textbook are influenced by their beliefs and some other factors such as previous teaching and learning experience, textbook arrangement, textbook contents, and the classroom and college context.At last, besides pointing out the limitations and the need for further research, the study brings some implications for enhancing foreign language teaching level, promoting teacher’s professional development and improving textbook design.