Efl teacher's beliefs about teaching/developing speaking skills and their effect on classroom practices: a case study

The role and importance of beliefs have been studied by different authors who have pointed out the strong relationship between what the teacher thinks and what they do in the class. There is enough theoretical research to indicate that beliefs influence the pedagogical decisions made. In the case of this study, we intended to determine how the teacher’s beliefs about teaching speaking affected the teaching of this skill in a group of technician students. For that we conducted a qualitative research in a Technical Institution. Several instruments were applied in order to identify one teacher’s beliefs and compare these beliefs with his actual teaching. The methodology of a case study was selected, and a high amount of information was gathered through different kinds of instruments. To identify and analyze these beliefs, a Beliefs about language learning inventory – BALLI, observations, a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used to collect and analyze the data. The main findings of the research show that teachers’ beliefs about their role as educators, the learning processes, the language learning process in this case, and what they want their students to learn have significant implications in the way they teach. Identifying and understanding these beliefs, practices and attitudes are an important contribution to the improvement of the educational processes.MaestríaMagister en la Enseñanza del Ingle

Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do

This paper reviews a selection of research from the field of foreign and second language teaching into what is referred to here as teacher cognition – what teachers think, know, and believe and the relationships of these mental constructs to what teachers do in the language teaching classroom. Within a framework suggested by more general mainstream educational research on teacher cognition, language teacher cognition is here discussed with reference to three main themes: (1) cognition and prior language learning experience, (2) cognition and teacher education, and (3) cognition and classroom practice. In addition, the findings of studies into two specific curricular areas in language teaching which have been examined by teacher cognition – grammar teaching and literacy – are discussed. This review indicates that, while the study of teacher cognition has established itself on the research agenda in the field of language teaching and provided valuable insight into the mental lives of language teachers, a clear sense of unity is lacking in the work and there are several major issues in language teaching which have yet to be explored from the perspective of teacher cognition

Covid-19 outbreak response: Tracing EFL teachers’ beliefs & practices of TPACK in teaching writing

Little is recognized regarding teachers’ beliefs about teaching with the appropriate framework integrating technology into language instruction, particularly during the COVID-19 outbreak. TPACK is a framework for apprehending knowledge domains required by EFL teachers nowadays. The preliminary study indicated that among the four English skills taught to middle school students, teaching writing was the most challenging. Therefore, it is essential to understand more about teachers’ beliefs regarding the practice of the TPACK framework in teaching writing. For that reason, This study aimed to (1) explore teachers' beliefs about the TPACK framework and (2) analyze classroom practices in teaching writing. This case study examined three teachers from different senior high schools in Indonesia of their beliefs about teaching writing with the TPACK framework and their classroom practices. A semi-structured interview was administered to explore their beliefs, while classroom observations focused on their classroom practices. The results demonstrated similarities and differences among teachers’ beliefs about learning objectives, teacher’s role, and assessment, while in classroom procedure and instructional material, teachers shared identical beliefs. Indeed, there was a majority of consistency between teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices of teaching writing with the TPACK framework. Despite its paramount consistency between teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices, the presence of the government to educate teachers is urgently needed, which can be in the form of virtual TPACK training. Then, this study may provide references for teaching writing with the TPACK framework that can adequately be applied during the COVID-19 outbreak and new normal

Language Teachers’ Self-efficacy Beliefs: A Review of the Literature (2005-2016)

Research into language teachers’ self-efficacy (LTSE) beliefs, a domain-specific branch of research into teachers’ self-efficacy (TSE) beliefs in general education, has emerged in the past 16 years. To date, though, this emergent domain-specific research field has not been described in depth, with most accounts of it summarised very briefly, even in published research that provides empirical data relating to the specific topic of LTSE beliefs. Guided by a synthetic research ethic, this literature review aims to explore the gap. It highlights the characteristics of this LTSE beliefs research field, discussing the methodology employed by various studies that have elicited LTSE beliefs, indicating their areas of focus and evaluating what can be learned from them. Finally, it raises implications for teacher education and highlights potential research directions for quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods designs, offering suggestions that may benefit (teacher-educator) researchers

Research Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching

Research Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching presents a collection of articles about principled review of recent research conducted in the field of ELT and English language teacher education. This resource will be of interest to novice and experienced researchers who would like to see an overview of recent research trends in the field. The collection of research would hopefully shed light on themes and line of research along with implications and suggestions for further research. Each chapter examines studies published in prominent journals in the recent years and attempts to classify them in terms of focused topics, methodology and findings. The edited collection of research is a product of an international research group in the field of English language teacher education formed by Gazi University (Ankara, Turkey), the University of Évora (Évora, Portugal), Pomeranian University (Słupsk, Poland), and Boğaziçi University (Istanbul, Turkey). Research Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching is produced as part of the Erasmus+ project titled ILTERG, "International Language Teacher Education Research Group" (no. KA203-035295), funded by the Turkish National Agency and co- founded by Erasmus+. We would like to thank several other authors from different universities who have contributed to this work of international collaboration and we hope Research Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching could help teacher educators and novice researchers to benefit from the insightful findings of recent research trends collected in the book

Exploring the conceptions about teaching english as a foreign language of two efl teachers in the rural area of Pereira (Risaralda)

El estudio tiene como finalidad observar las concepciones que tienen dos profesores de inglés del área rural de Pereira Risaralda. El objetivo general de este proyecto fue explorar esas concepciones acerca de la enseñanza del inglés en dos instituciones del área rural de Pereira y como objetivos específicos: 1) Comparar estas concepciones expresadas en su discurso con su práctica en el salón de clases y 2) Explorar las concepciones de los profesores participantes en su discurso. Esta investigación cualitativa se realizó a través de observaciones y entrevistas a ambos profesores participantes y a varios estudiantes. Los datos fueron analizados con el Software SQR NVIVO® v10. Los resultados dieron información muy importante en relación con las concepciones que tienen ambos profesores. Se pudo evidenciar que hay una infravaloración en cuanto a las capacidades de los y las estudiantes del área rural; que la concepción de los profesores participantes privilegia las actividades receptivas sobre las productivas; que existe una divergencia entre el discurso y la práctica de los docentes observados y que estos mismos profesores, tienen la concepción de que hay muy poco interés por aprender inglés por parte de los estudiantes del área rural y que no lo ven necesario para su futuro.A great amount of the Colombian population lives in the rural area in difficult social and economic conditions. Education can bring them the development that they need to improve those living conditions. That fact makes it important to know the way in which English is taught in this area. The purpose of this study is to explore what the rural teachers’ conceptions are in order to see what their impact on the teaching practice is. A qualitative study was designed in which the instruments to collect the data were observations and interviews. The data was analyzed with the software SQR NVIVO® v10. Four main findings were obtained: Firstly, the teachers studied have the conception that the students from the rural area are less capable when compared with the students from the urban area. The second finding suggests that participant teachers seem to consider the receptive skills of a greater importance than the productive skills. The third finding points towards the existence of a divergence between the teachers’ discourse and their teaching practices and the fourth finding reveals that the participant teachers have a conception about the low interest that rural students have about the importance of learning English. This study has significant pedagogical implications in the sense that teachers and teachers training programs should be aware of the relevance of conceptions on teaching practices since they powerfully impact what we do in the class. Likewise, this research has implications for further investigation since it was found that there is a lack of studies in this area in relation with the English teachers that could influence the design of teacher training programs to impact the conceptions of this population

The Progress a Pre-Service English Language Teacher Made in Her Feedback Giving Practices in Distance Teaching Practicum

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching practicum has been conducted in online learning settings in Turkey, which, in return, has made pre-service English language teachers do their practicums online. The lack of research into the effect of distance teaching practicum on pre-service English language teachers’ practices of giving feedback prompted the researcher to carry out this research. This instrumental case study aims to investigate the changes in a pre-service English language teacher’s feedback giving practices in the English lessons she taught in the distance teaching practicum and her views about how the distance teaching practicum affected her skills of providing feedback. The results obtained from the analysis of the data collected from the researcher’s notes on the pre-service English language teacher’s provision of feedback in the four online lessons she taught, post-lesson telephone interviews and end-of-study semi-structured interview indicated her teaching experiences helped her make a considerable progress in her skills in giving effective feedback. The findings pointed to the significance of distance teaching practicum in developing pre-service English language teachers’ feedback giving practices

A case study on how language learning strategies are fostered in an EFL chilean classroom context

Tesis (Profesor de Inglés para la Enseñanza Básica y Media y al grado académico de Licenciado en Educación)This mixed-methods case study attempted to explore how Language Learning Strategies (LLS) are fostered within a secondary level Chilean EFL public school context, based on a teacher’s pedagogical actions. Through empirical observation, task analysis, and an interview, this thesis intended to unveil the rationale behind the predominance of certain LLS at expense of others. Previous studies and literature served as a reference to later on determine potential cohesion between background records and first-hand evidence, which proved to be in relative alignment. Accordingly, this paper looked forward to extrapolating thoughts and assumptions the teacher had about that strategy-fostering bias with objective information evidenced through the development of the tasks carried out during the observation period. The results drew a tendency placing Memory strategies among the rest as the most fostered category, whereas Compensation befell to be the least favored LLS category overall.El propósito de este estudio de caso con un enfoque de investigación mixto fue explorar el desarrollo de la promoción de Estrategias del Estudio de la Lengua (Language Learning Strategies) dentro de una clase de Inglés como Lengua Extranjera (EFL) en un curso/nivel de educación secundaria inmerso en el contexto de un establecimiento educacional público chileno basado en las acciones pedagógicas del profesor a cargo. A través de observaciones empíricas, análisis de actividades y una entrevista, la intención de esta tesis fue develar la lógica tras la predominancia de ciertas Estratégias del Estudio de la Lengua en desmedro de otras. Varios artículos, tesis y otros tipos de documentos literarios sirvieron como referencia para posteriormente determinar la cohesión entre estos precedentes y la evidencia empírica recolectada, la cual ha probado estar en relativa concordancia. Por consiguiente, este documento buscó extrapolar la subjetividad de las reflexiones y suposiciones que el profesor-muestra del caso en cuestión fue capaz de dilucidar respecto a la tendencia a parcializar la promoción de ciertas estrategias con información objetiva obtenida a través del análisis de las instrucciones y actividades desarrolladas por el profesor durante el periodo de observación. Los resultados arrojaron tendencias favoreciendo a las estrategias de Memoria por encima del resto como la categoría más fomentada, mientras que las estrategias de Compensación resultaron ser aquellas con menos rodaje

EXPLORING EFL TEACHERS’ NEW PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF GENRE-BASED APPROACH

This study aimed at exploring the EFL teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of GBA and English instruction in the Indonesian context. The data were collected from 42 senior high school English teachers by making use of a set of questionnaires, interviews, and observations. The first type of data was analyzed through a response counting to calculate the scores and percentages, with which the categories of teachers’ knowledge were engineered. Meanwhile, the second type of data was analyzed by describing all indicators in the observation checklists (in the forms of spoken cycle and written cycle and four stages of teaching: building knowledge of the field, modeling of the text, joint construction of the text, and independent construction of the text). The data analysis reveals that the English teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of GBA can be classified into two major groups: 38.1% English teachers had deep knowledge and 61.9% English teachers had shallow knowledge. In connection to the classroom teaching, teachers with these different levels of knowledge are identical in implementing the guidelines of spoken and written cycles. One of the essential implications is that both categories of EFL teachers need to understand theories of GBA and concepts of GBA used in the curriculum more in-depth as the reference and signpost to perform a better classroom teaching.

Discerning the Language Assessment Literacy of EFL Teachers in Uzbekistan: An Individual, Social, and Sociohistorical Teacher Cognition Inquiry

Language teacher cognitions can be complex, ranging over many different subjects; they can be dynamic, changing over time and under different influences; and they can be systematic, forming unified and cohesive personal and practical theories (Feryok, 2010). One subject matter area that has not been explored in the literature is the relationship between second language (L2) teacher cognition and assessment, also known as (language) assessment literacy – the level of a teacher\u27s engagement with constructing, using, and interpreting a variety of assessment procedures to make decisions about a learner’s language ability (Taylor, 2013). I examine L2 teachers’ cognitions about assessment at the individual level, and then analyze how micro-institutional (social) and macro-sociocultural aspects of their lives as language teachers (including past, present, and future aspects) are shaping teachers’ assessment practices. This investigation focused on a group of 96 in-service university English language teachers in Uzbekistan. The three overarching research questions are: (1) To what extent does the Language Assessment Literacy Survey (Kremmel & Harding, forthcoming), provide valid and actionable information about teachers’ language assessment literacy? (2) How do Uzbekistan EFL teachers talk about their assessment practices and justify the scores they provide for their students? (3) What are the macro-environmental constraints and/or affordances in Uzbekistan that could shape how EFL teachers provide meaningful assessment situations for their students? The data were collected over three months and include teachers’ responses to the Language Assessment Literacy Survey (N = 96), transcripts of five focus group interviews, and transcripts of twelve semi-structured one-on-one interviews. For quantitative analyses, I computed in JASP v.0.8.3.1 the descriptive statistics for the overall survey, conducted an external review of the language assessment literacy literature, and carried out an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Subsequently, I compared my results with Kremmel and Harding’s to determine the validity of their survey. For qualitative analyses, I used substantive or open coding to discern how/if the participating Uzbekistan EFL teachers are creating relevant and meaningful assessment experiences for their students. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between the participating Uzbekistan EFL teachers’ cognitions, emotions, and activities of language assessment that they report