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

Abstract

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.