A Study On The Writing Teaching Beliefs And Teaching Behaviors Of High School English Teachers In Wanzhou Distric

As one of the major skills in language learning,writing plays an important role in English teaching in senior high school.A large number of studies have demonstrated that teachers’ teaching beliefs directly affect teaching behavior.Although research on teaching beliefs is quite abundant,few studies have been conducted on beliefs and practice in English writing-teaching courses.In addition,teachers at different stages of professional development have different teaching characteristics.By studying their beliefs and practice in English writing teaching,teachers at different stages can make reflections on their own writing-teaching,improve their writing-teaching practice,and enhance the quality of writing instruction.Therefore,this study aims to answer three research questions:(1)what are the characteristics of senior high school English teachers’ writing teaching beliefs and teaching practice?(2)what is the relationship between them?(3)what are the impacts of senior high school English teachers’ writing teaching beliefs and practice on students’ writing abilities?In order to answer the above questions,a four-month study was conducted in which three English teachers from the same senior high school in Wanzhou were investigated.These teachers are at different professional development stages(Teacher A is at the stage of focusing on students’ development,Teacher B at the stage of focusing on teaching situation and Teacher C,at the stage of focusing on personal adaptation).The methodology includes interviews,classroom observations,teaching reflections,and materials such as teaching evaluations,students’ assignments.The study employs the qualitative analysis tool of NVivo11 to code and analyze all the data.The results show that there are only small differences among the three teachers’ writing-teaching beliefs.Both Teacher A and Teacher C believe that the goal of writing teaching should be inclined to cultivate students’ thinking ability,while teacher B focuses on the improvement of students’ writing performance.In terms of teaching practice,the author finds that teacher A tends to adopt student-centered teaching method and pays attention to the cultivation of students’ thinking abilities,and her practice is highly consistent with her teaching beliefs.However,Teacher B tends to adopt the traditional teacher-centered teaching mode,and the role of teacher tends to be the knowledge transmitter,so her practice is highly inconsistent with her teaching beliefs.Teacher C ’s teaching beliefs tend to be student-centered,but his practice still focuses on imparting knowledge,so his practice is also highly inconsistent with his teaching beliefs.By comparing the writing performances of the three teachers,this study finds that the class taught by teacher A,who is student-centered and has high consistency in teaching beliefs and practice,has the best writing ability.By comparing the above results,it is found that the three teachers’ writing teaching beliefs and practice are both consistent and inconsistent,and teacher A with high consistency of writing teaching beliefs and practice has the greatest impact on students’ writing ability.The findings of the study have some implications for the teaching of English writing in senior high schools.First of all,no matter what stage a teacher is at,he should constantly improve his/her teaching abilities and teaching reflection,adjust and update teaching beliefs and practice with the passage of time.Secondly,the government should organize more training courses for senior high school teachers to help them improve their teaching ability.