A Study On The Relationship Between English Teachers’ Grammar Teaching Beliefs And Practices In Senior High School

The education in senior high school has a great impact on students’ life-long development.And English is a key subject during the time in senior high school,as for Chinese students,grammar learning can be a shortcut way to learn English well and to perform well in English exams.With the further development of the New Curriculum reform,English teachers in senior high school have gradually developed their own beliefs of grammar teaching and put various ways into grammar teaching practices.Under this circumstance,it is meaningful and significant to study the relationship between English teachers’ grammar teaching beliefs and practices in senior high school with the purpose of refining teachers’ grammar beliefs and improving their grammar teaching practices and teaching effects.Based on the related studies,three research questions were put forward:(1)What beliefs of grammar teaching do the English teachers hold in senior high school?(2)What is the relationship between English teachers’ grammar teaching beliefs and practices in senior high school? Whether are the two items consistent?(3)If there are inconsistencies,What are the reasons for those inconsistencies between English teachers’ grammar teaching beliefs and practices?The participants in this study are 207 English teachers from different senior high schools in Nanchang,Jiangxi Province,4 of which are chosen to do the case study.This study got both quantitative and qualitative data from questionnaires,semi-structured interviews,stimulate interviews and classroom observations.There are two questionnaires: the Teachers’ Beliefs Questionnaire and the Teachers’ Practice Questionnaire.They are all from Gao Qiang’s doctoral dissertation in 2008.As for the quantitative data,the SPSS 17.0 is used to analyze it.As for qualitative data,interviews and classroom observations are all taken transcripts and analyzed by the author.Based on the results of analysis,the study has the following three findings:(1)those English teachers in senior high schools have reasonable and positive beliefs towards grammar teaching.And their grammar teaching beliefs are very complex.Not only do they accept the principles of communicative language teaching,but also they think that traditional teaching methods are also important in practical teaching.(2)In general views,teachers’ beliefs of grammar teaching are significantly correlated withtheir practices.And there are also some inconsistencies between the two items.(3)There are many reasons for the inconsistencies: the actual situation of students,the time limitation of the English class,other teachers’ suggestions,the school’s management system,the Gaokao Exam,teachers’ further teaching training and so on.With the results above,this study is significant for grammar teaching in senior high,teachers’ self-development,L2 teaching research.