A Case Study On The Relationship Between Senior High School English Teachers' Beliefs About Grammar Teaching And Classroom Practice

Recently,studies on teachers' beliefs have been pervasive at home and abroad in the field of second language teaching.The teacher's belief refers to the view on classroom practice,language,learning,student's role and teacher's role.Abundant evidences have been proved that teachers' beliefs have an impact on classroom practice.As is well known,grammar teaching plays a significant role in our English learning.However,teachers in high school overemphasize the grammatical rules,turning blind eyes to the cultivation of grammatical competence.Therefore,it is vital to investigate teacher's belief about grammar teaching in senior high school and its relationship with classroom practice,if we want to refine the teachers' beliefs about grammar teaching,and improve the efficiency of classroom practice.This study is a case study about the relationship between teachers' beliefs about grammar teaching and classroom practice in senior high school.Four questions are going to be explored: 1)what kind of beliefs about grammar teaching do the teachers in senior high school hold? 2)What are the teachers' classroom practice of grammar teaching? 3)Are the teachers' beliefs about grammar teaching consistent with classroom practice? 4)If there are inconsistencies,what are the factors that would affect the relationship between teachers' beliefs about grammar teaching and classroom practice?The study interviews three teachers in senior high school with different teaching experience,with the purpose to investigate teachers' beliefs about grammar from four dimensions: grammar itself,students' and teachers' roles,grammar teaching method and assessment.Finally,the research methods such as classroom observation,and post-classinterview are conducted in this study to investigate the relationship between teachers' beliefs about grammar teaching and classroom practice,and figure out the influential factors.The results indicate that: the teachers' beliefs about grammar teaching in senior high school have changed a lot under the influence of the National English Curriculum.For example,teachers believe grammar teaching should be taught in the context.However,some traditional beliefs are still resistant to change.Meanwhile,both consistencies and inconsistencies exist in the relationship between teachers' beliefs about grammar teaching and classroom practice,and these inconsistencies can be attributed to many factors,such as the teachers' prior learning experience,pressure from examination and proficiency level of students and so on.Therefore,teachers in senior high school should keep learning from the excellent teachers constantly to refine and enrich their beliefs about grammar teaching.Meanwhile,school authority should provide teachers with more professional training programs to renew teachers' beliefs about grammar teaching,and improve their teaching practice of grammar teaching,so as to improve the efficiency of grammar teaching.