A Study Of Chinese Primary School English Teachers’ Beliefs And Practices In Grammar Teaching

The aim of this study is to investigate six EFL elementary school English teachers cognitive beliefs in grammar teaching. Conceived under the qualitative research paradigm, this study collected the data from interviews, classroom observations and stimulated recalls to explore and compare the practices and beliefs of two groups of teachers from the rural area and the urban city. A key finding is that in terms of beliefs in grammar teaching, teachers from the urban city tend to be more oriented towards the constructivist approach whereas teachers in rural area more traditional. Despite this difference, they do share some common beliefs, i.e. they will not follow the traditional Grammar Translation Method, but put practices into priority. It is also found that the perception of students’ role in grammar learning affects teachers’ beliefs and grammar teaching. Beside this, contextual factors also exert a powerful influence on the teachers’ beliefs as well as their grammar teaching practices. Finally, the results also suggest that teachers’ beliefs should be taken into serious account before or during the teacher training program.And the teachers from the rural area perceived a need to be informed of innovative theories and children-friendly teaching techniques in grammar pedagogy.