Influence Of Short-term Overseas Study On A Senior High School English Teacher's Beliefs

With the coming of educational globalization and multipolarization,China's foreign language education is undergoing profound changes.In the context of the new era,“the Belt and Road initiative” and the policy of Chinese culture's "Going Out" have put forward higher requirements for foreign language teachers.As the organizers and decision-makers of classroom teaching,language teachers construct their teacher beliefs on language,language learning,learners,classroom teaching,teacher roles,curriculum reform,and teacher professionalism,which have a decisive influence on the teaching practice.Therefore,the study of teachers' beliefs has gradually become one of the topics of higher concern in foreign language education research.According to the literature review,the research on teacher beliefs has focused on the practice of localized education and teaching.At present,overseas learning exchanges and specialized training have become one of the important ways for teachers' professional development.The research on teacher beliefs in this type of environment is mostly concentrated on university teachers in the stage of higher education,and there is little research on the beliefs of teachers in basic education,especially senior high school English teachers.With the increase of opportunities for English teachers to go abroad to study in the basic education stage,this study will focus on the impact of this short-term overseas study on the teacher's own teacher beliefs.This study uses narrative inquiry,explores the teacher beliefs of Ms Zhang,a high school English teachers from a key high school in Linfen,a city of North China's Shanxi Province,who has been studying abroad in Minnesota for 9 weeks.During the 9-week overseas study,the researcher recorded and analyzed this immersive overseas experience for her.There are three main research questions in this study:(1)what the teacher's beliefs are before going abroad;(2)what the teacher's beliefs are after going abroad;(3)how the overseas study has impacts on the teacher beliefs.This study mainly uses the narrative inquiry method to interpret the educational beliefs of a teacher.In this study,the writer will act as the identities of both researcher and cooperator.This study will use interviews,field notes,classroom observations,teacher narratives and other methods to collect information.Through field participation in education,teaching and student management in two middle schools in Minnesota,short-term study abroad has greatly influenced the teacher's belief.It finds that:(1)The teacher beliefs on language teaching were greatly affected.The teacher is concerned about the use of specific teaching strategies and teaching methods in classroom teaching,and can make appropriate changes in conjunction with the Chinese academic situation.(2)The teacher beliefs about language and language learning have also changed from the purpose of domestic examination to the practicality of the language as a communication tool,and reflected in the later teaching classes.(3)The teacher beliefs about teachers' roles and teachers' development have not changed relatively.They still highlight the subjective status of learners,but they have a deeper understanding of the equality between teachers and students.The impact of short-term overseas study on English teachers is a long-term process.The changes in their teaching beliefs reflect the professional development of English language teachers and play an important role in their future language teaching,thus promoting the development of English teachers,schools and basic foreign language education in China.