The Impact Of Pre-service Education And Working Environment On Novice English Teachers' Pedagogical Beiefs

This article aims to study novice English teachers' pedagogical beliefs,with the focus on possible sources of their beliefs and their impact on pedagogical beliefs.Teachers' pedagogical beliefs,influenced by their pre-service learning and teaching practicum,have been formed before becoming EFL teachers.These beliefs will constantly go through changes throughout their teaching practice.Previous research have revealed the relationship between teachers' beliefs and teaching practice,as well as the influence of teacher education programs on teachers' beliefs.However,participants are usually in-service teachers who graduated from teacher preparation programs.In order to know how learning and teaching experiences shape novice teachers'pedagogical beliefs,classroom observation and interview are adopted in this research to study three secondary school novice EFL teachers who have different learning experiences and working contexts.It is suggested that courses in teacher preparation programs allow three novice teachers to know about advanced teaching theories and activity design,the teaching practicum greatly helped them to improve their teaching skills and develop a better understanding of teaching and of students.Besides,three novice teachers gained their initial pedagogical beliefs about teaching,students and teachers by teaching as interns.In general,these teachers believe that student-centered teaching and teacher guidance help students provide language output.By actively engaging themselves with contextual factors,including tight schedules,students' proficiency,pressure from exams etc.,they modify their previous beliefs about students and advocate that providing emotional care to students and maintaining a good student-teacher relationship help develop their interest in learning.