Exploring Prospective EFL Teachers' Beliefs About Teachers and Teaching Through Metaphor Analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 131-147
Author(s):  
Anıl Rakıcıoğlu-Söylemez ◽  
Ayşe Selmin Söylemez ◽  
Amanda Yeşilbursa
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Prior Beliefs ◽  
Mentoring Practices ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers

This study aimed to explore prospective EFL teachers' metaphors of “teachers, teaching and being a prospective EFL teacher” at the beginning and the end of a ten-week practicum course. A total of 110 Turkish prospective EFL teachers voluntarily participated in the study. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and metaphor-elicitation forms. Results lead to three major conclusions. First, the participants' prior beliefs about the role of an EFL teacher and teaching were affected by their previous experiences as language learners. Second, although the content analysis of the metaphors revealed a limited change throughout the practicum experience, the analysis of the interviews showed the dynamic nature of beliefs held by the prospective teachers. Finally, data analysis of the interviews revealed that the variation in beliefs and practices mainly derived from individual experiences with mentoring practices of the cooperating teachers and the socio-professional context of the practicum school.

Exploring Prospective EFL Teachers' Beliefs about Teachers and Teaching through Metaphor Analysis

2016 ◽  
pp. 220-237
Author(s):  
Anil Rakicioglu-Soylemez ◽  
Ayse Selmin Soylemez ◽  
Amanda Yesilbursa
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Prior Beliefs ◽  
Mentoring Practices ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers

This study aimed to explore prospective EFL teachers' metaphors of “teachers, teaching” and “being a prospective EFL teacher” at the beginning and end of a ten-week practicum course. A total of 110 Turkish prospective EFL teachers voluntarily participated in the study. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and metaphor-elicitation forms. Results lead to three major conclusions. First, the participants' prior beliefs about the role of an EFL teacher and teaching were affected by their previous experiences as language learners. Second, although the content analysis of the metaphors revealed a limited change throughout the practicum experience, the analysis of the interviews showed the dynamic nature of beliefs held by the prospective teachers. Finally, data analysis of the interviews showed that the variation in beliefs and practices mainly derived from individual experiences with the mentoring practices of the cooperating teachers and the socio-professional context of the practicum school.

Exploring Prospective EFL Teachers' Beliefs About Teachers and Teaching Through Metaphor Analysis

2018 ◽  
pp. 2068-2085
Author(s):  
Anil Rakicioglu-Soylemez ◽  
Ayse Selmin Soylemez ◽  
Amanda Yesilbursa
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Prior Beliefs ◽  
Mentoring Practices ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers

This study aimed to explore prospective EFL teachers' metaphors of “teachers, teaching” and “being a prospective EFL teacher” at the beginning and end of a ten-week practicum course. A total of 110 Turkish prospective EFL teachers voluntarily participated in the study. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and metaphor-elicitation forms. Results lead to three major conclusions. First, the participants' prior beliefs about the role of an EFL teacher and teaching were affected by their previous experiences as language learners. Second, although the content analysis of the metaphors revealed a limited change throughout the practicum experience, the analysis of the interviews showed the dynamic nature of beliefs held by the prospective teachers. Finally, data analysis of the interviews showed that the variation in beliefs and practices mainly derived from individual experiences with the mentoring practices of the cooperating teachers and the socio-professional context of the practicum school.

scholarly journals Realizing Learner Autonomy in Pakistan: EFL Teachers’ Beliefs about Their Practices

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Musarat Yasmin ◽  
Ayesha Sohail
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers Training

Learner autonomy (LA) has been a key area of interest in foreign language learning and teaching for more than three decades, but a limited space has been awarded to the investigation of teachers’ practices in fostering LA. Following an interpretive paradigm and a qualitative approach, present study intended to unearth the strategies teachers of English use to make their learners autonomous. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with sixteen English teachers from four public universities of province Punjab. Findings revealed that, in general, teachers use teacher-centered approach while participants’ practices and use of various strategies showed their preference for the role of facilitator more than of counselor or resource. Results of this research imply that the goal of LA can be achieved through offering teachers training to make them aware of the significance of making their learners autonomous and incentives for the promotion of LA in their classroom.

scholarly journals Teachers’ Perspectives of the use of CLT in ELT Classrooms: A Case of Soran District of Northern Iraq

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Serwan Husein Taha SHERWANI ◽  
Mehmet KILIÇ
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Teacher Factors ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers Attitudes ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

This mixed-method study aims at exploring Iraqi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The study was conducted in Soran town, in the northern part of Iraq. The participants of the study were 58 EFL teachers from secondary and high school classrooms. In the first phase, a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire was administered (Karavas-Doukas, 1996) to examine the participants’ attitudes towards CLT principles: “place/importance of grammar, group/pair work, quality and quantity of error correction, the role of the teacher in the classroom, the role and contribution of learners in the learning process.” The second phase of the study was qualitative and consisted of semi-structured interviews to examine the reasons behind the implementation of CLT in terms of the factors that hinder and encourage the implementation of CLT in the Iraqi setting. The results of the quantitative analysis revealed that the teachers held overall positive attitudes towards the use of CLT. The findings of the interview phase concluded that the main factors that cause the failure and success of the implementation of CLT in Iraq can be categorized under four headings: educational factors, teacher factors, student factors, and CLT factors. The results of the study suggest that the educational system and the teachers’ communicative competence are essential to promote the employment of CLT in Iraqi EFL classrooms.

Teacher agency in pragmatic pedagogy

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zia Tajeddin ◽  
Mehri Bagheri
Keyword(s):  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Beliefs About Teaching ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
Pragmatic Instruction

Despite the existence of a large body of research on pragmatic instruction, teachers’ beliefs about teaching and assessing pragmatic competence have received scant attention. The present study sought to investigate Persian-speaking EFL teachers’ beliefs and perceived knowledge about pragmatic instruction and assessment and their self-reported instructional practice. To achieve this aim, a questionnaire was administered to 204 EFL teachers and 30 of these teachers also participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings showed that even though the teachers were aware of the importance of pragmatics, they did not consider themselves highly competent in teaching the subject to learners or in the assessment of learners’ pragmatic abilities. The most frequent method they reported having used was pragmatic corrective feedback. Further, the teachers believed that their colleagues and institute directors also gave little weight to the improvement of learners’ pragmatic abilities, and they further argued that textbooks and exams, while containing some pragmatics-related sections, failed to enhance and measure learners’ pragmatic knowledge. These results have critical implications for teachers’ pragmatic awareness in their professional development and for the inclusion of more explicit pragmatic activities in textbooks.

scholarly journals Women's social space and the reference for breastfeeding practice

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Márcia Spanó Nakano ◽  
Márcia Cristina Guerreiro dos Reis ◽  
Maria José Bistafa Pereira ◽  
Flávia Azevedo Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Family Context ◽  
Care Model ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Breastfeeding Practice

This study aimed to identify agents or institutions taken as reference by women when breastfeeding. A qualitative study was carried out on 20 primiparous who were assisted, for reasons not related to breastfeeding, in the five health services selected by this study. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews carried out in the participants' households and were analyzed by content analysis in the thematic mode. We identified that health professionals play a standardize role of breastfeeding based on scientific knowledge. In the daily breastfeeding routine, the family is the first reference for women, transmitting beliefs, habits and behaviors. We believe in the valorization of the family context by the health professional, in which actions and interactions in the breastfeeding issue are developed in order to constitute the foundations for a new care model in breastfeeding. This model should, therefore, consider the practice diversity, adapting actions to the multiple roles of being mother/fortress/wife/worker in the social context.

scholarly journals EFL Teachers’ Cognition of Teaching English Pronunciation Techniques: A Mixed-Method Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melor Md Yunus ◽  
Hadi Salehi ◽  
Mahdi Amini
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Method Approach

<p>In recent years, a great number of attempts have been made on teachers’ cognition with the aim of understanding the complications reinforcing the teachers’ cognitions and their classroom practices. Such studies shed light on how teachers’ cognitions expand over time and how they are reflected in their classroom practices. The aim of the present study was to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ cognition particularly in terms of the pronunciation techniques they apply in the oral communication classrooms and their knowledge about their language learners’ characteristics. To achieve the goals of the study, the cognitions of five English teachers in the oral communication classrooms were explored. The teachers were requested to answer two semi-structured interviews to obtain the data about their cognitions regarding the pronunciation techniques. Furthermore, their students were asked to fill out a questionnaire to express their opinions about the techniques applied by their teachers during instruction of English pronunciation. The qualitative and quantitative results showed that there was an intricate relationship between language teachers’ experience with their cognitions about their language learners. Moreover, those teachers who were in higher level language courses showed to have broader cognitions about both the techniques they used in classrooms and the language learners’ characteristics as well.</p>

scholarly journals Explorations of Beliefs about EFL Teachers’ Roles from Both Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives through Metaphor Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (29) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharihan Shawkat Azeez
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The University

Metaphor acts as a window into comprehending teachers’ experiences through providing insights into complex concepts of teaching and learning. As a result, it plays a crucial role in exploring beliefs about teachers’ roles in the teaching and learning process. To elicit ideas and beliefs which both teachers and students held about the role of English teachers, questionnaires were given to 30 teachers and 85 students in the University of Duhok, English Department. The questionnaire asked the subjects to provide their beliefs about English teachers’ roles by using a sentence completion task “An English teacher is…. because….”. Eight conceptual categories are introduced from the linguistic metaphors and example metaphors for each category are given in the results tables. The eight conceptual categories include: teacher as devotee, teacher as nurturer, teachers as provider / source of knowledge, teacher as cultural transmitter, teacher as authority, teacher as guider, teacher as a friend, and teacher as a nice beautiful soul. All participants expressed the same conceptual categories, but still they use different metaphors to express their views. An interesting feature of these results is that there are some parallel and overlaps of metaphors among different subjects. The findings of this study suggested subtle differences between students’ and teachers’ beliefs. This study will benefit teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers. Researchers may carry out comprehensive studies using metaphor as an investigating tool to better understand both students and teachers’ perceptions of the teachers’ roles. The results will help develop comprehensive and inclusive methods of teaching. Larger samples with variables such as gender, age, different locations, and proficiency of participants should be taken into consideration during future studies.

scholarly journals THE INFLUENCE OF CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE ON TEACHER BELIEF SYSTEMS: NEW FRENCH SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT PROGRAM OPTIONS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katy Arnett ◽  
Callie Mady
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Learning Difficulties ◽  
Teacher Belief ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Teachers Beliefs

This longitudinal case study examines four new FSL teachers’ beliefs regarding the best and worst FSL program for English language learners and students with learning difficulties; the data are drawn from qualitative semi-structured interviews that occurred at the end of the participants’ Bachelor of Education program and near the end of each school year of their first three years of teaching. The case study considers how the teachers did or did not change their views as they gained experience in the classroom.

scholarly journals Teachers' Beliefs and Practices Regarding Young Children's Leadership: A Comparison Between New Zealand and Honduras

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Maria Auxiliadora Cerrato Corrales
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Teachers Beliefs

<p>The main purpose of this comparative study was to explore how teachers of four to five year old children in New Zealand and Honduras translate their beliefs regarding children’s leadership into practice. This study has the potential to increase our understanding of beliefs and practices that will assist teachers in supporting children’s leadership. The study used a comparative case-study design in order to look at similarities and differences between the two cases, focusing on two early childhood centres from low socio-economic areas in the capital cities of each country. Two teachers from each centre were asked to be participants in the study. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and documentation. The findings suggest that both New Zealand and Honduran teachers translate their beliefs regarding children’s leadership into practice. However, the findings showed significant differences between New Zealand teachers’ child-directed and Honduran teachers’ teacher-directed beliefs and practices. The teachers in the New Zealand settings encourage leadership by empowering the children to deliberately take a leadership role, while the teachers in the Honduran settings encourage leadership by allocating opportunities for the children to take a leadership role. In addition, the teachers in New Zealand highlighted their belief and practice concerning children sharing leadership, while the concept of sharing leadership was not emphasized by the Honduran teachers. This study suggests the importance of teachers reflecting on their beliefs regarding children’s leadership and how these guide their teaching practice in order to support children’s leadership.</p>

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