A Research Of College English Teachers’ Grammar Teaching Beliefs In The Context Of Curriculum Reform

Grammar teaching in foreign/second language context has always been acontroversial topic. Grammar plays an important role in language acquisition. Thedevelopment of grammatical competence will promote language learners’comprehensive language application ability. In the context of college Englishcurriculum reform, college English teaching emphasizes the cultivation ofstudents’ communicative competence. Less emphasis is laid on grammar teachingin college English teaching. Language learners’ deficiency of grammaticalcompetence is not conducive to the advancement of students’ comprehensivelanguage use ability.In recent years, teachers’ pedagogical beliefs gradually become an importantresearch topic. However, few studies are dedicated to college English teachers’grammar teaching beliefs. Based on literature and documents reviewed, thefollowing hypotheses are proposed:1) Chinese teachers who are teaching Englishin universities and colleges hold positive beliefs about grammar teaching incollege English class. The change of teachers’ grammar teaching beliefs wouldlead to the change of their teaching decision and teaching practice.2) Teachers’individual differences, including gender, years of teaching experience, overseasexperience, teaching context, and teaching courses, would have an influence ontheir grammar teaching beliefs.3) There might be inconsistency between collegeEnglish teachers’ grammar teaching beliefs and their teaching practice.Based on quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, this paperinvestigated grammar teaching beliefs of college English teachers. In this researcha questionnaire was adopted and an interview was conducted.55college Englishteachers participated in the questionnaire survey. The questionnaire of English grammar teaching beliefs is designed on the basis of questionnaires adopted byAndrews (2003) and Gao Qiang (2007). Later, four teachers were involved in theinterview part. The interview outline is designed based on the questionnaireadopted in this research. SPSS13.0was employed to analyze the quantitative data.Independent-sample t-test analysis and One-way ANOVA analysis were conductedwith SPSS13.0.Investigation results of this research indicate that:1). In general, the majorityof participant teachers agreed that grammar plays an important role in languageacquisition. It is necessary to teach grammar in foreign/second language teaching.But in actual English teaching practice, teachers and students, to a certain degree,neglect the teaching and learning of grammar.2). Individual differences do havecertain influences on grammar teaching beliefs in this investigation. Comparedwith experienced teachers, novice teachers in this research tend to explaingrammar rules and use English grammatical terminology more frequently. Theyfocus more on language form. Teachers with6to15years of teaching experiencemight correct students’ grammar errors more often. Teachers without overseasstudy/visit experience tend to use native language to help with the grammarteaching practice. Those who have been abroad more than one year pay moreattention to error correction.3). There is inconsistency between college teachers’grammar teaching beliefs and their teaching practice.This study is intended to get a general understanding of college Englishteachers’ grammar teaching beliefs. The investigation results have implications forcollege English teachers in grammar teaching, self-development and theadvancement of college English teaching.Teachers’ teaching beliefs are influenced by many factors. There are also unavoidable drawbacks in the questionnaire survey. Limitations of the presentresearch are given and suggestions for further studies in future are also elaborated.