Matches And Mismatches Between Beliefs And Practice Of A Novice EFL Teacher In A Senior-high School

Teacher beliefs are fundamental for understanding teacher practice.Researching into the relationship between teacher beliefs and practice has attracted more and more attention.However,few related studies concern novice EFL teachers in China.This qualitative case study explores the beliefs and practice of a novice EFL teacher working in a senior-high school.The purpose is to explore matches and mismatches between this teacher's beliefs about teaching and teaching practice as well as the underlying factors.The data in this study are mainly collected from semi-structured interviews,classroom observation and case documents.The major findings of the study are summarized as follows:Firstly,this novice teacher holds important beliefs about teaching in five different areas,which are interrelated and constitute the complex system of her teaching beliefs.As for the first area of teaching purposes,the teacher believes in teaching for both communicative purposes and examination needs.Accordingly,she holds the belief about teaching content that English teaching should be focused on teaching speaking and grammar.In terms of the third area of teaching methods,the teacher believes that good teaching involves organizing group work to facilitate students' collaborative learning under the guidance of the Autonomy Principle.This belief then reflects part of her beliefs about roles of the teacher and learners that the teacher is the facilitator while students are masters of learning.She also believes that the teacher can act as a joker and create a relaxed teaching atmosphere through joking.With regard to the last area of assessment,the teacher holds that students' progress,learning attitudes,and manner should be paid more attention to.Secondly,the novice teacher has experienced both matches and mismatches between her beliefs and practice,but the experiences of those matches and mismatches vary across the above areas.In terms of teaching purposes and content,the teacher's experiences are particularly complex in that she can only put her beliefs concerning examinations andgrammar teaching into practice;when it comes to teaching for communicative purposes and teaching speaking,she has experienced a belief-practice mismatch.Then,with regard to teaching methods and the corresponding teacher role as a facilitator,the teacher has experienced a belief-practice mismatch generally.However,taking the teacher role as a joker into consideration,the teacher has experienced a belief-practice match.As for assessment,although the teacher has been experiencing a match between her beliefs and practice,the experience has changed from a pleasant one to a suffering one.Thirdly,both internal factors within the teacher and external factors residing in the context contribute to the teacher's experiences of belief-practice matches and mismatches.Looking from the inside,the teacher's failure to truly internalize some theory-based beliefs,lack of both content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge and tendency to be controlled by negative emotions,all impede her from enacting her beliefs.Then looking from the outside,her students' low proficiency in English,negative attitudes to learning and bad manners also prevent her from putting beliefs into practice.Moreover,the school context characterized by formality hinders the teacher's enactment of beliefs,while the broad examination-oriented educational context serves as both a support and a hindrance.In light of the above findings,the researcher suggests that novice teachers learn to compare their beliefs and practice through reflection in pursuit of their professional growth;teacher training courses encourage teachers to read with more critical thinking and engage in more situated learning;also,schools offer more practical support in novice teachers' professional development.