Teaching of grammar
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Date
2007
Authors
Siti Rohani, Md. Zain
Journal Title
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Abstract
Despite a recent increased interest in the area of teacher belief systems
in mainstream education studies, the beliefs of ESL teachers about grammar
and the influence of such beliefs on their intentions, action and decisions in
classroom practices remain relatively unexplored. The present study seeks to fill
the knowledge gap left by a scarcity of research in this area. More specifically,
this study investigates five in-service ESL primary school teachers’ beliefs about
grammar teaching and examines the congruence and incongruence of their
beliefs with the classroom practices. It also examines the contextual factors that
support and impede the translation of beliefs into practices, and the
accommodative strategies teachers adopt when coping with contextual
constraints.
Multiple methods were used in the investigation including
interviews, classroom observations, journal writings and analysis of
lesson plans. Data were analysed and categorised for common themes and
patterns. The central theme of the analysis highlights the interactive relationship
between beliefs, knowledge and instructional contexts in teachers’ personal
framework of teaching grammar.
The findings revealed that the five teachers have different
interrelated sets of beliefs related to the five belief dimensions under
study- beliefs about learners, beliefs about language teachers, beliefs
about grammar, beliefs about grammar learning and beliefs about grammar teaching. Previous personal and professional experiences both
negative and positive were found to contribute to the development of the
five belief dimensions.
Analysis of congruence and incongruence of teachers’ held beliefs
during instructional planning and implementation stages of teaching revealed
three patterns: some aspects of their held beliefs were not reflected at the
planning stage but their instantaneous actions during instructional
implementation were congruent with their professed beliefs, some aspects of
their held beliefs were incongruent at both stages of teaching, and some
aspects of their held beliefs were congruent at both stages of teaching. The
congruence-incongruence of beliefs with practices is influenced by contextual
factors in their work settings. Examination of teachers’ accommodative
strategies in coping with contextual constraints revealed that teachers
adopted different accommodative strategies when responding to different
aspects of contextual constraints.
The concluding discussion addresses the important role of teacher
beliefs in making sense of teaching actions, decisions and interpreting
instructional contexts. It also addresses the implications for improving training
approach, course content and structure to help pre-service and in-service ESL
teachers to develop valid and coherent personal-practical theories that match
with teaching reality.
Description
Ph.D
Keywords
Education , Teaching Grammar