A Study On Current Situation Of English Teachers’ Beliefs In Senior High Schools

Teacher education research has made significant contributions to the exploration ofteachers’ beliefs. Teachers’ beliefs direct teaching practice and play a significant role in English teaching development. A substantial body of research has been extrapolating the study of teachers’ beliefs and the complex relationship between teachers’ beliefs and teaching behaviors. However, poor conceptionalizations and various understandings of beliefs and belief structures caused the difficulty in studying teachers’ beliefs. Domestic studies mostly focus on the case study of outstanding college teachers to explore their beliefs and the relationship between their beliefs and practices. The study on senior high school teaches’ beliefs, however, is relatively scarce. It is necessary to make the clear understanding of teachers’ beliefs in senior high schools. The research questions of this study are: 1. What is current situation of senior high school English teachers’ beliefs? 2.What is the relationship between senior high school English teachers’ beliefs and their teaching behaviors? 3. What are the influential factors of senior high teachers’ beliefs?Questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations were employed as three research instruments in this study to explore teachers’ belief system. Five dimensions were designed in the questionnaire for teachers, which were involved in beliefs about English, beliefs about teaching, beliefs about learning, beliefs about program and curriculum, and beliefs about language teaching as a profession. 50 English teachers were involved in teachers’ questionnaire while 210 students from different grades were selected to complete the questionnaire for students. Additionally, five representative English teachers who are different in gender, age, years of teaching, educational level in three different senior high schools were selected to get involved in semi-interview and classroom observation to deeply investigate the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and teaching behaviors, and the influential factors of teachers’ beliefs in senior high schools. There are 49 effective questionnaires for teachers, and the recovery rate of the effective teachers’ questionnaires is 98%. The recycling effective students’ questionnaires are 196 copies, and the rate is 93.3%. The questionnaires for teachers were analyzed by SPSS 20.0 with descriptive statistics to detect the current situation of teachers’ beliefs and its influential factors. Spearman Correlation analyzes the correlation between teachers’ beliefs and the variables, like gender, age, years of teaching and the educational level. Additionally, both the Pearson Correlation and the comparison table of classroom observation examined the consistency between teachers’ stated beliefs and observed teaching behaviors.By the qualitative and quantitative analysis, the major findings were drawn out as follows:1. The majority of English teachers agree the items as follows:(1). It is important to speak English with excellent pronunciation.(2). It is necessary to know about English-speaking cultures in order to speak English.(3). If learners understand some of the basic grammatical rules of the language, they can create lots of new sentences on their own.(4). The teaching materials basically conduct English teachers’ teaching in senior high schools.(5). Language teaching is a profession. The correlation coefficient between teachers’ beliefs and the variables, like the gender, age, years of teaching and the educational level is insignificant(r=-0.271, r=0.049, r=0.104, r=-0.054, r=-0.165,p>0.05)2. Teachers’ beliefs are related to teaching behaviors on the whole in senior high schools, but there is no one-to-one correlation between them. The correlation between teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior is insignificant(r=0.720, p>0.05). There is a gap existing between teachers’ beliefs and teaching behaviors in senior high school. Some beliefs are difficult to put into senior high school English teaching through the comparison table of teachers’ beliefs and teaching behaviors.3. Both teachers’ own experience as language learners and their experience of what works best were accepted as the main influential factors of teachers’ beliefs. The identification of personality factor and principles from an approach and method was also made basically through the investigations. However, quite a few English teachers disagree that established practice by school exerts an influence on the construction ofteachers’ beliefs.