چکیده:
The present study investigated the possible difference between EFL teachers’ beliefs and their actual classroom practices. To this end, 210 Iranian EFL teachers (103 teachers from high schools and 107 from language institutes) participated in the study. The 45-item Likert-scale Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) developed originally by Horwitz, (1985) and validated by Kasraee Nejad (2014) for the context of Iran and an observation checklist, devised and validated by the researchers, comprised the data collection instruments adopted in the current study. The results of paired t-test revealed statistically significant differences between beliefs of Iranian EFL teachers and their actual classroom practices. Moreover, the results of Independent Samples t-test indicated that the two groups of high school and language institute teachers were significantly different with regard to their beliefs on language learning. In addition, the results of Chi-square analysis demonstrated 43 out of 45 teachers’ specific beliefs were significantly different from their actual classroom practices. In the light of the findings of the present study, educational policy makers and managers in both high schools and language institutes are recommended to introduce ways to raise EFL teachers’ awareness of their beliefs to enhance their efficiency in their actual classroom practices.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The 45-item Likert-scale Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) developed originally by Horwitz, (1985) and validated by Kasraee Nejad (2014) for the context of Iran and an observation checklist, devised and validated by the researchers, comprised the data collection instruments adopted in the current study.
In the light of the findings of the present study, educational policy makers and managers in both high schools and language institutes are recommended to introduce ways to raise EFL teachers’ awareness of their beliefs to enhance their efficiency in their actual classroom practices.
Whatever role that a teacher might play in the classroom is affected by his/ her personality, characteristics, and beliefs; that is, teachers’ attributes and features are important factors in the process of teaching and learning (Ehrenberg & Brewer, 1994).
That is, teachers’ beliefs are the bases of their thoughts, actions and behavior (Johnson, 1994), are important in evaluating teaching and its success or lack thereof (Wan, Low & Li, 2011), and impact upon curriculum implementation, students’ learning, teacher’s role in the class and even the content and materials covered.
Most importantly, teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices are believed to be heavily context-specific and teaching/learning situation-dependent (Flores, 2010; Mansour, 2009; Phipps & Borg, 2009).
The second research question of the study explored whether, overall, there was any significant difference between beliefs of Iranian EFL teachers and their actual classroom practices.
The findings of the second research question of the study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between beliefs of Iranian EFL teachers and their actual classroom practices.