Exploring Chinese Novice EFL Teachers' Beliefs On Foreign Language Learning:An Activity Theory Perspective

To inquire into novice EFL(English as a foreign language)teachers'professional development.it is quite essential to have a deep understanding of how their beliefs on foreign language learning(FLL)were formed and developed.Thus the present empirical study makes an attempt to explore Chinese novice EFL teachers'beliefs on FLL by drawing upon Engestrom's(1987)activity theory as an analytical tool.The application of activity theory was used to display a detailed and in-depth understanding of the complexity of a teaching context.Two novice teachers participated in the present study,one is a senior English teacher and the other is a university English instructor in Haidian district in Beijing.Classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect the data concerning the research questions.This study intends to answer the questions of what novice EFL teachers' beliefs on FLL were like before and after their first year of teaching and how their beliefs affected their participations in their workplaces.The findings of the present study are presented from two aspects.First,having been formed and internalized during their previous learning experinces,novice teachers' beliefs on FLL are relatively stable and resistant to change.Second,their beliefs,as mediating tools,may conflict with the contextual factors in the new teaching environment,and the resulted tensions may further bring about emotional changes in their teaching professions.Therefore the implications of my study are as follows.First,when novice teachers' beliefs on FLL conflict with their teaching contexts,they may have a positive or passive emotional change towards their teaching.In this sense,both university and school administrators are expected to pay more attention to novice teachers' emotional changes so that their transitions from a student to a novice teacher can be smoothed over.Second,novice teachers' emotional changes may serve as another mediating tool in their future professional development,and deserve further research attention.