Teachers ’ Beliefs About Teaching English to Elementary School Children

1. Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching English to Elementary School Children By Posen Liao Presented by: Lynn Tu (N97C0003) Chia Hsun Yang (N97C0005) Frank Hu (N97C0028)

2. Introduction :用 (The CARS model)!!! • G-S structure • Move 1: Establishing a research territory • Rationale: 1. A huge demand for qualified English teachers 2. The role of teachers’ beliefs

3. Move 2: Establishing a niche Niche Sentence: • However, the research in English teacher education thus far has focused on secondary and tertiary schools. Very little attention has been paid specifically to elementary levels of English teaching. (p. 44)

4. Move 3: Occupying the niche • Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the teaching beliefs held by elementary school English teachers. Moreover, because teachers may derive beliefs from their current teacher training programs or teaching career (Johnson, 1992a; Selby, 1999), this study also attempts to compare in-service and pre-service teachers’ conceptions of English teaching to determine if there exist any similarities and/or differences that result from their teaching status. (p.45-46)

5. Research Questions • (1) What core beliefs do English teachers hold about the process of teaching and learning English in elementary schools? Are these beliefs consistent with accepted learning principles or teaching approaches? (p. 46) • (2) What are the similarities and differences among in-service and pre-service elementary school teachers’ beliefs about English teaching? (p. 46)

6. Literature Review • General statement: In exploring the origins of metacognitive theories, Schraw and Moshman (1995) suggested that cultural learning, individual construction, and peer interaction all play important roles in the emergence of metacognition among individuals. (p.46)

7. The nature and effects of beliefs • Teacher’s belief systems • Teacher’s belief –three categories • Three methodological approaches • Niche: Little research has compared the beliefs by these two groups…for similarities and differences.

8. Method • Research Design: • 2 sets of questionnaires • Biodata information • Participants: 99 subjects • 21 in-service Eng. teachers • 78 pre-service teachers

9. Method • Research Instrument: • The Questionnaire of Elementary School English Teachers’ Teaching Beliefs • An open-ended question : • “What qualifications does a person need to acquire in order to be a successful English teacher in an elementary school?” (p. 50)

10. Method • Data Analysis: • The quantitative analysis involved descriptive statistics and independent-sample t tests. • The content analysis Inductive nature • The researcher examined the teachers’ statements to find areas of commonality or recurring patterns, and then to generate general categories. (p.52)

11. Results and Discussion • The nature of Children’s English Development • Teaching Methods and techniques • Self-Efficacy as an English Teacher • Content Analysis of the Open-Ended Question

12. Conclusion • Findings & Implications: 1. Highlight the role of beliefs 2. Support the need of teacher preparation programs • Limitations: 1. The use of a questionnaire 2. Small and unequal sample size

13. Conclusion • Suggestions: 1. To explore the sources, development, or changes 2. Additional research: Adopt qualitative interviews and observations

14. Reasons for choosing this paper • Simple language usage • Academic writing style • Verbs: • Ex.: They often come into an English classroom conditioned by their previous educational experiences, cultural backgrounds, and social interaction, which may further shape their beliefs about English teaching. (p.44)

15. Nouns:A more formal alternative • Lack, scarcity paucity • …, not to mention the paucity of literature on the subject of teaching elementary school English. (p.45) • Ability, skill  repertoire • Pre-service teachers may need to expand their repertoire in assessing learners’ overall performance for their future teaching career. (p.57) • Relation  rapport • A higher percentage of pre-service teachers (24.6%) than in-service teachers (15.4 %) believe that teachers should build a rapport with their students. (p.62)

16. Flow • Linking words • In addition, thus, for example, whereas, although… • Transition • Sub-classifying different areas of language teachers’ beliefs  classification(p. 47) • English listening and speaking skills  Communicative TeachingLanguage (CLT) (p.56)

17. Citations • Reviewing items of previews research • Much of the literature on teacher education has suggested that teachers’ beliefs affect their teaching practices and instructional decisions in the classroom (Donaghue, 2003; Johnson, 1992a; Muijs & Reynolds, 2001; Richards, 1998; Richards & Lockhart, 1996). (p47)

18. Furthermore, a number of studies have attempted to investigate the beliefs of ESL teachers through questionnaires or inventories (Hsieh & Chang, 2002; Johnson, 1992b; Kern, 1995; Liao & Chiang, 2003; Richards, Tung, & Ng, 1992; Yang, 2000). (p.48)

19. Citations II: A smart move! • Back up findings with other researchers’ conclusion • The findings from these teachers’ beliefs about children’s English development appear to be generally compatible with the literature on children’s second language learning and development (Brown, 2000; Cook, 1996; Moon, 2000; Vale & Feunteun, 2003). (p.53)

20. Citations III: Even smarter! • Use citations to support statements that appear to be weak • The current study primarily involved a survey, comprised of two sets of questionnaires concerning teacher’s beliefs and their biodata information. Although data obtained from a questionnaire survey only provide indirect evidence of teacher’s thoughts, they can still serve to broaden our understanding of the role of beliefs and their relation to decision making in terms of teaching (Richards, 1998). (p.49)

21. 果然 … • The first limitation concerns the use of a questionnaire as the means of investigating teachers’ beliefs. Questionnaires only measure beliefs in theoretical aspects without referring to teachers’ actual teaching behaviors in the classroom, and thus do not provide a complete picture of the complicated factors involved in the teaching process and educational context. (p.65-P.66)

22. Model Sentences • However, research is still at an early stage in terms of evaluating teachers’ beliefs in Taiwan, not to mention the paucity of literature on the subject of teaching elementary school English. (Liao, 2007, p. 45) • To establish a niche.

23. These beliefs are usually guided by a number of factors: their own experience as learners in classrooms, prior teaching experience, classroom observations they were exposed to, and their previous training courses at school (Richards, 1998).(Liao, 2007, p. 47)

24. However, because of the limitations in terms of research sites and the unequal number of teachers in each group, the sample used in this study may not be truly representative of the population of all elementary school English teachers in Taiwan as a whole. (Liao, 2007, p. 50) • To show the limitation of the study.

25. The findings from these teachers’ beliefs about children’s English development appear to be generally compatible with the literature on children’s second language learning and development. (Liao, 2007, p.53) • To show your finding is consistent.

26. However, the significant difference of opinions between the two groups of teachers might indicate that more in-service teachers are inclined to take the stance of “the younger, the better” in terms of their students’ English acquisition. (Liao, 2007, p.55) • The use of statistic terminology

27. It is recommended that elementary school teachers be realistic and tolerant of students’ errors, so that students feel they can express themselves more freely and develop fluency in using English. (Liao, 2007, p.58)

28. Through the use of content analysis, all written responses were transcribed, segmented, coded, and examined for patterns. (Liao, 2007, p.60) • Model sentence for data collection.

29. Despite the research findings and implications described above, this study is not without limitations. (Liao, 2007, p. 65) • Most generalization sentences are model sentences.

30. Thank you