Published
Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs about Language Teaching and Learning: A Longitudinal Study
Creencias de profesores principiantes acerca de la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lengua: un estudio longitudinal
Keywords:
Learning beliefs, pre-service teachers, teaching beliefs (en)Creencias sobre el aprendizaje, creencias sobre la enseñanza, profesores principiantes (es)
This paper contains the description of a research project that was carried out in the Bachelor of Arts in English Language Teaching program at a Mexican university. The study was longitudinal and it tracked fourteen students for four semesters of the eight semester program. The aim was to identify pre-service teachers’ beliefs about English language teaching and learning at different stages of instruction while they were taking the teaching practice courses in the program. The instruments employed were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results demonstrated that students made links between theory and practice creating some changes in previous beliefs. The study revealed an increase of awareness and a better understanding of the complex processes involved in teaching and learning.
En este artículo se describe una investigación que se llevó a cabo en el programa de Licenciatura en Enseñanza del Inglés de una universidad mexicana. El estudio fue longitudinal, el cual siguió la trayectoria de catorce estudiantes de la licenciatura durante cuatro de los ocho semestres del programa académico. El propósito fue identificar las creencias de estos maestros principiantes, quienes cursaban sus clases de práctica docente del programa, acerca de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del inglés en diferentes etapas de sus estudios. Los instrumentos utilizados fueron cuestionarios y entrevistas semiestructuradas. Los resultados demostraron que los estudiantes articularon la teoría con la práctica, lo cual incidió en sus creencias anteriores. El estudio también reveló que comprendieron mejor los complejos procesos involucrados en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje.
References
Abraham, R. G., & Vann, R. J. (1987). Strategies of two language learners: A case study. In A. Wenden, & J. Rubin (Eds.), Learner strategies in language learning (pp. 85102). London, UK: Prentice Hall.
Bailey, K., Curtis, A., & Nunan, D. (2001). Pursuing professional development: The self as source. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education. London, UK: Continuum.
Collier, V. (1995). Promoting academic success for ESL students. Understanding second language acquisition for school. New Jersey, NJ: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages-Bilingual Educators.
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Cumming, A. (2004). Broadening, deepening, and consolidating. Language Assessment Quarterly, 1(1), 5-18.
Deng, Z. (2004). Beyond teacher training: Singaporean teacher preparation in the era of new educational initiatives. Teaching Education, 15(2), 159-173.
Ellis, R., & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analysing learner language. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Ferreira, A. M. (2006). Researching beliefs about SLA: A critical review. In P. Kalaja, & A. M. Ferreira (Eds.), Beliefs about SLA: New research approaches (pp. 7-33). New York, NY: Springer Science Business Media.
Horwitz, E. (1988). The beliefs about language learning of beginning university Foreign language students. The Modern Language Journal, 72(3), 283-294.
Johnson, K. E. (1999). Understanding language teaching: Reasoning in action. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Lazaraton, A. (2000). Current trends in research methodology and statistics in applied linguistics. TESOL Quarterly, 34(1), 175-181.
Pajares, F. (1992). Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 307-332.
Richards, J. C., Gallo, P. B., & Renandya, W. A. (2001). Exploring teachers’ beliefs and the processes of change. PAC Journal, 1(1), 41-58.
Ruiz-Esparza, E. (2009). The role of beliefs about assessment in a Bachelor in English Language Teaching program in Mexico. Doctoral Dissertation, Macquarie University at Sydney, Australia.
Shulman, L. S. (2005). Signature pedagogies in the professions. Daedalus, 134(3), 52-59.
Turner-Bisset, R. (2001). Expert teaching: Knowledge and pedagogy to lead the profession. London, UK: David Fulton Publishers.
Wideen, M., Mayer-Smith, J., & Moon, B. (1998). A critical analysis of the research on learning to teach: Making the case for an ecological perspective on inquiry. Review of Educational Research, 68(2), 130-178.
Williams, M. (1999). Learning teaching: A social constructivist approach – theory and practice or theory with practice. In H. Trappes-Lomax & I. McGrath (Eds.), Theory in language teacher education (pp. 11-20). London, UK: Longman.
Article abstract page views
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2013 Sofía D. Cota Grijalva, Elizabeth Ruiz-Esparza Barajas
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You are authorized to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as long as you give appropriate credit to the authors of the articles and to Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development as original source of publication. The use of the material for commercial purposes is not allowed. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
Authors retain the intellectual property of their manuscripts with the following restriction: first publication is granted to Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development.
