A Study Of The Impact Of English Teaching Practicum On Student Teachers’beliefs Among MED Students

Teachers’beliefs have a crucial impact on their teaching behavior, and in turn, teachers’teaching behavior reflects their beliefs. So it is quite significant for teachers to hold relatively advanced beliefs rather than traditional ones. Master of Education (MED) students of English education belong to pre-service teachers. They have to conduct teaching practicum before graduation. For these would-be teachers, English teaching practicum has great significance in shaping their views about teaching, about students, and about themselves.This study takes 22 MED students of English education who will graduate from Central China Normal University (CCNU) in June in 2015 as participants. These students began their teaching practicum from the middle of September to the end of October in the third semester. And they are the first group of students to conduct teaching practicum in three newly established practicum schools by the Foreign language Department of CCNU.The purpose of this study is to explore the following three questions:1. What teachers’beliefs do MED students hold after English teaching practicum? 2. What changes have occurred on teachers’beliefs because of English teaching practicum? 3. What possible causes have led to changes of teachers’beliefs during English teaching practicum? In order to find answers for these three questions, questionnaire and interview are adopted in this study. The questionnaire consists of 30 statements about teachers’ beliefs in five dimensions (English, learning, learners, teaching and teaching as a profession) and two open-ended questions. It is mainly to answer the first two questions, and the interview is mainly to answer the third question. Three MED students of English education from different practicum schools are interviewed.This study finds that first, teachers’beliefs of every MED student have been affected more or less by English teaching practicum, and the five dimensions of teachers’beliefs have been affected to different extent, but not all beliefs have been influenced; second, English teaching practicum brings student teachers mainly positive effects on their teachers’beliefs; third, reasons why changes of teachers’beliefs have appeared can be roughly attributed to instructors’teaching behavior and instruction, students’response and reaction, student teachers’ observation and teaching practice; fourth, the three teaching practicum schools bring a bit different influences on student teachers.