Exploring Language Teachers' Beliefs About the Medium of Instruction and Actual Practices Using Complex Dynamic System Theory

This paper explores the relations between teacher beliefs and practices about the medium of instruction from the perspective of complex dynamic systems theory. Through a functional framework of teacher classroom discourse, mixed analytical models were adopted to fully describe the close interaction and non-linear relations between teacher beliefs and practices. Data were collected through classroom observations and semi-structured interviews from three college teachers working in a typical research-based university in northeast China. The findings revealed the complex and dynamic relations between teacher beliefs and practices about the medium of instruction. The consistency and inconsistency between the analysis of interviews and classroom observations represented the tensions and changes between teacher beliefs and practices about the medium of instruction. The study calls for attention to the socially situated and co-evolving relations between teacher beliefs and practices and how they develop with contextual affordances, attractor states, flexible goals, and high dependence on initial conditions.

Exploring Teachers' Beliefs About Listening in a Foreign Language

There is a substantial amount of research in the field of language teacher cognition reiterating that teachers' beliefs influence their classroom practices; however, teacher beliefs and practices do not always correspond because of the differences in both researchers' and teachers' conceptualization of beliefs and practices. This study aims to investigate the beliefs and practices of 96 language teachers in Turkey. A mixed-method research design was employed to answer the questions to what extent teachers' beliefs and practices reflect the issues stated in the literature on second language listening, what their beliefs and listening instructional practices are, whether their beliefs and practices converge, and if so, what factors underpin them.

Collaborative Teacher Inquiry for Inclusive Education

Taking an inquiry approach for professional learning in support of inclusive education is both pragmatic and powerful, although it has certainly not been the norm throughout much of teacher education in North America. Much research in inclusive education has focused on teacher beliefs and practices, school structures, and service delivery models, and such foci often position teachers as technicians, implementing outside experts’ ideas about “best practices,” thus marginalizing educators as mere consumers of research and methods, rather than developers, designers, and architects of inclusive practices. To foster full participation and membership of all learners in their classrooms, teachers often engage in trial and error, puzzle solving, and creativity, to build productive and participatory communities of learning. Although consciousness, criticality, and questioning are the foundation of an inclusive stance, awareness alone does not necessarily generate practices of critical inclusivity. The work of moving recursively from framings (ideological and affective) to specific, embodied practices requires continuous action and reflection, which is well supported by practitioner inquiry. The practice of inquiry requires that teachers engage in persistent, reflective work; take risks; and use failures as points of departure for new learning and teaching approaches. The content of the inquiry, when focused on capacity and inclusivity, has the potential to work against the dominant discourses that marginalize and exclude particular students and populations, whereas the process of inquiry can position teachers as creative, intellectual problem-solvers, thus working against the dominant discourse of teachers as technicians. Inquiry for inclusivity is most often taken up as a collaborative practice, supporting educators to make their problem-solving public, gaining both friendly critique and affirmation. The collaborative inquiry group can also serve as a space for ideological and affective clarification, as striving to design teaching and learning for inclusion involves challenging many of the norms of schooling, including individualism; meritocracy; competition; and sorting, leveling, and ranking students.

Language teachers’ reported first and second language use: A comparative contextualized study of England and Spain

There is now extensive theoretical and empirical literature on the place of the first language (L1) and the second language (L2) in the foreign language (FL) classroom. Although this body of work includes related teacher beliefs and practices, less attention has been paid to the factors that may influence these practices across different national contexts. Through an extensive survey of secondary school teachers of a FL in Spain and England we investigated teachers’ reported L1/L2 practices and the possible influence of pre-service training on these practices. We found that teachers in England reported greater use of the L1 than teachers in Spain across virtually all language functions. In both groups there was no evidence of the influence of advocated teaching approaches within pre-service training courses on teachers’ reported L1 and L2 use. Differences in teachers’ reported practices seem to be better explained by contextual factors influenced by and derived from national policy and the social value of the L2.

EXAMINING INSTITUTIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM: ENGLISH TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES

The issue of what the role of grammar is and how it should be taught is still considered a dilemma among English teachers. Though various schools of thought and methodologies were discovered, the convincing postulations and effective practices in language learning are still in constant exploration. As an attempt to alleviate this dilemma, this research aims to identify teacher beliefs and practices when it comes to grammar. Utilizing a single case study method, perspectives and methodologies were studied from an English teacher in the Philippines. Findings revealed that grammar was still an important aspect in the language learning and teaching. However, fluency was greatly emphasized over accuracy. In practice, Communicative Language Teaching was the most commonly observed method utilized in teaching grammar. It is suggested that there should be a balance between form and function aspects of teaching grammar.