A Study Of College English Teachers’ Beliefs

Nowadays, English, as an international language, is becoming more and more important. Thus, English teaching has received extensive attention. College English teaching is a very important part of China’s foreign language education strategy, and college English teachers have become a very large group in the education system of our country. Because teachers’ beliefs directly determine the teaching behavior and teaching effect, the studies of College English teachers’ beliefs are especially important. From different angles, scholars have carried out a lot of researches on teachers’ beliefs. However, the researches on the teachers’ beliefs in the western regions of China are a few, and the related researches in Guizhou province are very rare.The present study investigates beliefs held by English teachers from Guizhou Minzu University in Guizhou Province. And this study intend to: ⑴ explore the college English teachers’ beliefs by employing the constructivist perspective to present the general orientation of teachers’ beliefs in six dimensions: language, teaching and learning, resources, evaluation, roles of teachers and students, and sources of teachers’ beliefs; ⑵analyze the difference of beliefs held by teachers of different age, different education background and different teaching years; ⑶provide some pedagogical implications for college English teachers’ professional development.This study adopts both the qualitative and quantitative approaches. Two instruments, a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, are employed. And SPSS 21.0 is used to analyze the result of the questionnaire to explore:⑴What are the orientations of college English teachers’ beliefs in Guizhou Minzu University?⑵What are the differences in beliefs held by college English teachers of different groups with respect to age, education background and teaching years?⑶What are the implications of this research to college English teachers’ professional development?By comprehensively analyzing the quantitative and qualitative research results, the author finally concluded the major findings of the study:⑴English teachers’ beliefs in Guizhou Minzu University are more in line with constructivist orientation. But both traditional and constructivist perspectives exist simultaneously.⑵There is no difference in teachers’ belief about teaching and learning, resources, evaluation, and the role of teachers and students with respect to age, education background and teaching years. But there are significant differences in college teachers’ belief about language caused by teaching experience. The study shows that among teachers of different teaching years, teachers with 16-25 years of teaching are most open in receiving the language view of constructivism.⑶There are some implications of this research to college teachers’ professional development. Firstly, teachers should have a clear idea of what kind of teaching beliefs they hold; secondly, teachers should be conscious of the great impact of teachers’ beliefs on their teaching practices and try their best to make their teaching practice consistent with their teaching belief; lastly, the decision-makers in the field of college English teaching should provide more opportunities for English teacher to take part in in-service teachers training program.This study has certain theoretical and practical significance. First of all, in the aspect of theory, the study used constructivism theory as a guide to study college English teachers’ beliefs, which further prove the practicability of using constructivism to study teachers’ beliefs. Secondly, in terms of practical significance, this study enhances our understanding of College English teachers’ beliefs. The findings provide inspirations for the university English teachers’ professional development.