英语专业本科毕业论文格式标准范文
A FOLLOW-UP STUDY ON TRANSFERRED TEACHERS’ ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
—A Case in Guangdong
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS
By
JACKIE LAM
Supervised by
Prof. Noble Hofmann
SOUTH CHINA NORMAL UNIVERSITY, GUANGZHOU, P.R. CHINA
JUNE, 2006
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The completion of this study could never have been possible without the assistance of many people related.
First and foremost, I would like to show my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Professor XXX. Knowledgeable and responsible, Prof. X provided me with valuable guidance and support in every stage of writing this thesis. He made well-informed and enlightening comments on the organization of the chapters, took pains to go through in great detail every draft of the thesis.
Thanks are due to Associate Professor XX, Miss YY and Miss PP, who helped me a lot in collecting data.
I would like to express my great gratitude to my classmate FFF, and my dear Australian teacher KK, who have been of great help in analyzing the data. They have been very patient and responsible throughout the whole work.
Last but not least, I want to acknowledge my debt to the six transferred teachers, who spent time in providing the oral materials when having their hands full.
ABSTRACT
Quality of teachers has always been paid great attention to, especially that of primary school teachers, who play the most influential role in students’ elementary learning. In 2001, as the new National English Curriculum requires that English should be taught from Grade 3 in primary schools, a new type of primary school English teachers named “transferred teachers” came into being. Transferred teachers are those non-English-major primary school teachers who shift to teach English after graduation from a training program called “In-service Training for Transferred Teachers”. By far, these teachers have been teaching English for over four years, but there have been few follow-up researches on their pronunciation up till now. The present study investigates on the pronunciation of transferred teachers concerning consonants and vowels. The goal is to find out whether these teachers, who have received only 3-week compulsory residential training and a year long optional school-based training, are making progress and competent for elementary English teaching.
As time was limited, six transferred teachers were chosen as our subjects. The study was carried out on the basis of the analysis of the errors on the recorded material of the English utterance borne out by these transferred teachers.
Key Words：the first，the second，the third
中文摘要
教师素质一直都备受关注，特别是小学教师的素质更是如此，因为小学教师在学生初级阶段的学习起着举足轻重的作用。于2001年，应新英语课程标准的要求，英语要从小学三年级教起，因此，一种被称为“转岗教师”的.小学英语教师产生了。“转岗教师”是指从在职转岗培训毕业后从事小学英语教学的非英语专业教师。至今为止，这些老师已经从事小学英语教育有四年多了，但很少关于这些转岗老师语音的后续调查。本研究基于转岗教师的语音情况，求证这些只受过三周英语专业培训和一年的在职培训的转岗教师是否有所进步且能胜任于小学英语教学。
由于时间有限，在1102名转岗教师中，6名被选为本研究的受试。本研究是通过给六位老师的英语口头表达录音，并对录音进行其错误分析。
关键词：关键词1，关键词2，关键词3
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
中文摘要
Table of Contents
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Significance of the Empirical Study
1.3 Purpose of the Present Study
1.4 Structure of the Present Study
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Definition of Teachers’ Beliefs
2.2 Teachers’ Beliefs and Teaching Behavior
2.3 The Expected Teachers’ Beliefs of the New Curriculum
Chapter Three Method
3.1 The Participants
3.2 Procedures
Chapter Four Results and Discussion
4.1 Status Quo of the Teachers’ Beliefs
4.2 The Relationship between Teachers’ Beliefs and Their Teaching Behavior
4.3 Teachers’ Most Concern in Course Planning
Chapter Five Conclusion and Research Implications
5.1 The Importance of Teacher Training
5.2 Modification of the Assessment System
5.3 Offering Adequate Teaching Facilities
Chapter Six Limitations
References
Appendix I
Appendix II
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background
The recent societal trends outline new educational aims designed to create the highly skilled teachers necessary for the 21st century. In such a new phase of education, fruitful teaching outcome is based largely on new teaching skills, which come from frequent teaching reflection and belief renewal.
As a matter of fact, teachers’ beliefs tend to affect everything they do in the classroom, no matter implicit or explicit. Furthermore, teachers’ articulated beliefs is one thing, and how they apply them in actual teaching is another thing.
1.2 Significance of the Empirical Study
As education promotion is inevitable in the new phase of education, the best way to promote teaching outcome is to get feedback from teachers and learners and refine teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior. Judd (1981) and Wade (2002) put forward applicable methodology for education improvement based on substantial surveys. Pate et al (1997) consider establishing an integrated, coherent curriculum as their ultimate aim of researches.
Many other experts have also endowed great significance to these sorts of research (Floden & Klinzing 1990; Pajares 1992). And Breen et al (2001) suggests that these researches could be seen as a means to exploring language teaching. In fact, these empirical studies can help to refine teacher beliefs and teaching behavior as well. Mann (2005) addresses that teachers develop by collecting data and reflecting.
1.3 Purpose of the Present Study
Teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior have been studied widely in the last decade (Pajares 1992; Smith 1997; Breen et al 2001; Nunan 2001; Wade 2002; Burns 2005). However, only a few qualitative studies about teachers’ beliefs have been carried out throughout China, let alone in Guangdong Province. Therefore, there is a gap in this body of qualitative research on teachers’ beliefs in different areas of GD since the implementation of the New Curriculum. The present study is attempting to help fill that gap. Furthermore, many of the prior researches were carried out on relatively small samples, Woods (1996) made a study of 8 teachers, Wang (2002) targeted at 3 teachers, Zheng & Jiang (2005) also carried out a study upon 3 teachers. Hence, another motivation for this study was to make a survey in considerable width and breadth.
The present study tries to find out the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their practical teaching behavior in the New Curriculum context, and in the meantime, to find out significant proposals for teacher training and provide educators with valuable perspectives on teaching and curriculum development.
1.4 Structure of the Present Study
Starting from definition, the author first of all found out some experts’ definition of “teachers’ beliefs”, and then summed it up to be a much plain one. Then the author proceeded to make analysis of the questionnaires, aiming at finding out the status quo of teachers’ beliefs in GD Province. After that, the author made further analysis on the classroom observation log, trying to find out whether the teachers’ teaching behavior was consistent with their articulated beliefs. Finally, face-to-face interviews were conducted to find out how teachers’ beliefs guide their behavior, and what teachers usually take into account in their course planning.
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Definition of Teachers’ Beliefs
Definition of beliefs may vary according to different experts. Sigel (1985) defines beliefs as mental construction of experience, which guides behavior. Nespor (1987) and William & Burden (1997) define it as values and attitudes of the world and is also predictor of behavior. To be brief, beliefs tell behavior.
In 1992, Pajares made a definition of “teachers’ beliefs” as teachers’ attitudes about education, about schooling, teaching, learning, and students (Pajares 1992). Nespor (1987), Woods (1996) and William & Burden (1997) found teachers’ beliefs is far more influential than knowledge in determining classroom work. Breen et al (2002) also infers that teachers’ beliefs and experiences strongly influenced classroom work.
From all the above definitions, the author summed up “teachers’ beliefs” to be teachers’ attitudes about teaching and learning, which will affect everything they do in the classroom teaching.
2.2 Teachers’ Beliefs and Teaching Behavior
The western countries had gone through 3 decades in the research of the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior. Freeman (2002) subdivides the period into 3 broad time frames: work leading up to 1975, the decade of change (1980-1990), and the decade of consolidation (1990-2000).
Since the 80s, an array of empirical studies of teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior have been carried out. Freeman (2002) probed the impact of teachers’ mental lives, prior knowledge, social and institutional context, etc. on teaching behavior, and found teachers’ beliefs to have a powerful influence on their behavior. Actually, how teachers’ beliefs shape their behavior in classroom teaching has been studied in various ways (Meighan 1990; Woods 1996; Smith 1997; Breen et al 2001; Borg 2003; Burns 2005).
Chinese researchers have begun to set about studying teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior in recent years (Wang 2002; Xia 2002; Sun 2005; Lou & Liao 2005).
All these studies collectively show that classroom activities are highly influenced by teachers’ beliefs. However, some researchers found their subjects to behave the other way round.
Argyris & Schön (1974, 1987) argue that there is almost always a discrepancy between teachers’ beliefs and the ways teachers act (William & Burden 1997). Sun (2005) addresses that the most prominent problem in English classroom teaching to be the gap between the newly acquired teaching beliefs and the educational practice. Wang (2002) and Lou & Liao (2005) also found such a discrepancy between their subject teachers’ behavior and beliefs. If there really exists such a discrepancy, the teaching may be inefficient or even confusing, which may bring about a series of problems in teaching and learning.
2.3 The Expected Teachers’ Beliefs of the New Curriculum
Chances are that given better teaching, learners will learn more. The new era of education calls for improved teaching beliefs and behavior as instruments to facilitate and improve student learning. The newly implemented curriculum put forward five teachers’ beliefs as follows:
Focusing on common foundation, preparing for further development;
Offering various options, catering for personal needs;
Optimizing the learning model, enhancing self-directed learning competence;
Concerning with students’ emotion, enhancing cultural awareness;
Promoting the assessment system, encouraging continuous development.
(cited from Senior English Curriculum 2003:2-3)
As a matter of fact, such beliefs were raised to meet the new demands of our society, to meet the new learning needs of our students. On condition that teachers’ beliefs and teaching were consistent with the New Curriculum, fruitful teaching outcome would be yielded.
However, the questions are: What’s the status quo of teachers’ beliefs? Do they behave in accordance with their articulated beliefs? And what do the teachers usually take into account in teaching? To find out all the corresponding answers, the author carried out a survey of teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior in GD Province.
Chapter Three Method
The survey consisted of 3 instruments: ① a teacher questionnaire developed by the author (consisted of three sections: Section One--personal data and experience, etc; Section Two--a 25 item teacher belief section based on the 5 guidelines of the New Curriculum in senior high published by the Ministry of Education (Item 1–5 on Belief 1, Item 6-10 on Belief 2, and the rest may be deduced by analogy); Section Three--2 open questions about teachers’ beliefs and teacher concern) (See Appendix 1); ② an observation log (comprising general information and a 10-period classroom observation log (See Appendix 2); ③ an interview outline (See Appendix 3).
A pilot study was conducted in one Type B school from Guangzhou in early September 2005. Based on the feedback from the pilot study, the author made revisions in the survey instruments.
3.1 The Participants
10 schools from 5 of the cities in GD Province participated in this study. The participants were carefully chosen: the capital city of GD--Guangzhou (广州), two peripheral cities--Foshan (佛山) and Nanhai (南海), two relatively remote cities--Puning (普宁) and Shantou (汕头), respectively. 10 researchers divided the 10 schools among them during their teaching practices. However, only 8 schools’ data were intact and possible for analysis. Altogether, there were 27 teachers from these 8 schools.
Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of all the subject teachers. 18 worked in Grade One, and 9 worked in Grade Two. There were 17 female and 10 male teachers. The teachers had varying degrees of general teaching experience ranging from 1 to 43 years. The average teaching experience across the sample was 12.7 years. Among them, 26 teachers had received the New Curriculum training.
Table 1. The Teachers’ Characteristics
| Gender | Grade | Curriculum Training | Average Teaching Experience (year) | ||||
| Male | Female | One | Two | Received | Not Yet | ||
| No. | 10 | 17 | 18 | 9 | 26 | 1 | 12.7 |
For the sake of being as objective as possible, School 7 and School 8 also excluded in the following discussions, because only one subject teacher was available from each of these two schools. Consequently, the following results and discussions were based on 6 schools.
3.2 Procedures
3.2.1 The Teacher Questionnaire Survey
Firstly, the researchers invited the teachers to fill in the Teacher Questionnaire (TQ) and fixed a time with the teachers for classroom observation. Teachers filled in the general information and indicated the level of endorsement of each of the 25 items using a 5-point Likert-type scale comprising the categories “strongly disagree,” “disagree,” “somewhat disagree, somewhat agree,” “agree,” and “strongly agree,” scored as 1 through 5, respectively; then they responded to the 2 open questions concerning with teachers’ opinions and suggestions of the New Curriculum (see Table 2).
Table 2. The 2 Open Questions in the Teacher Questionnaire
| Please write down your opinions and suggestions of the New Curriculum | |
| 1. The most obvious changes |
①… ②… ③… |
| 2. The most urgent problems to be solved |
①… ②… ③… |
As is shown in Table 2, Question 1 tells whether teachers have noticed the most obvious changes of the curriculum. And Question 2 enables the author to perceive the teachers’ most concern, which would serve as a basis to find out whether teachers adopted particular teaching strategies to enhance their students’ weak point, since they have noticed where the problems lied.
3.2.2 Classroom Observation
As there may exist a discrepancy between teachers’ beliefs and behavior, and apart from this, teachers may overstate or understate the beliefs underlying their actual practice. Therefore, whether teachers teach in accordance with their beliefs can only be revealed from the observation of practical teaching.
Hence, the second data collection method was based upon a substantial classroom observation log. The researchers recorded 10 periods of English classes of every subject school. The 10 English classes were not specifically chosen, but observed at random, generating a thorough and objective data. The observation focused on classroom activities, multimedia applied, textbook dealt, assessment forms, and optional courses, etc.
3.2.3 The Interview
In order to comprehend more about how teachers’ beliefs guide their behavior, and what teachers usually take into account in their teaching, face-to-face interviews were added, and the interview with teachers was semi-structured. Table 3 shows the outline of the interview.
Table 3. Outline of the Semi-structure Interview
| Interview Subject: Senior High English Teachers in Guangzhou |
|
① How do you usually design a lesson? And what about activities? ② How do you like the present textbook? And how do you apply it? ③ Do you think it is necessary for students to enhance their cultural awareness? How do you help your students enlarge their scope of background knowledge? |
The author arranged interviews with 12 Senior One English teachers from 6 schools (Comprising Type A, Type B and Type C schools) in GZ, 2 teachers from every subject school participated in the interview. The interviews were recorded implicitly by mp3, and were transcribed into written language later.
3.2.4 Data Analysis
All data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS)，release 10.0 and Microsoft Excel, release 2003.
Mean and standard deviation of the TQ were analyzed by using Descriptives; histograms were generated by using Excel to illustrate the results more plainly. And within-group differences of 25 teachers’ beliefs of the 6 subject schools were analyzed by using One-way ANOVA.
Chapter Four Results and Discussion
After all the data were collected, the author began to arrange the data and analyze them. Firstly, the author sorted out all the received questionnaires. And found out the valid percent of the TQ was 100%. Table 4 indicates the general information of the questionnaires obtained from the 6 schools.
Table 4. Information of the Received TQ
| Questionnaire | Received | Valid | Invalid | Valid Percent |
| Number | 25 | 25 | 0 | 100% |
4.1 Status Quo of the Teachers’ Beliefs
4.1.1 Mean and Std. Deviation of the TQ
Starting from data analysis, the author carried out Descriptive Statistics analysis to analyze the TQ, showing that all the means of the 5 beliefs are within the range of “3.5 to 4.4”, therefore, conclusion can be drawn that all the subject teachers “Agree①” with every belief advocated in the New Curriculum. Then the author put the data from Figure 1 into the Microsoft Excel, generating a histogram as follows:
Figure 1. Mean of Every Belief
| Beliefs | N | Mean | S.D. |
| B 1 | 25 | 4.0560 | .4917 |
| B 2 | 25 | 3.9920 | .6843 |
| B 3 | 25 | 4.3600 | .5132 |
| B 4 | 25 | 4.3440 | .5050 |
| B 5 | 25 | 3.9040 | .5200 |
As is illustrated above, the histogram indicates that the means of Belief 2 (Offering various options, catering for personal needs) and Belief 5 (Promoting the assessment system, encouraging continuous development) score the lowest among the five beliefs. The causes of this result maybe: optional class and formative evaluation, etc. are newly advocated, compared with the other beliefs; and it takes time to get thorough endorsement from all the teachers. Whereas, those of Belief 3 (Optimizing learning model, enhancing self-directed learning competence) and Belief 4 (Concerning with students’ emotion, enhancing cultural awareness) score relatively high, because learner-centered and background knowledge have been heard of long before.
After that, the author made another Descriptive Statistics analysis to find out the mean and standard deviation of the teachers’ beliefs in every subject school. Figure 2 illustrates the results of the Descriptive Statistics analysis. Mean of 4 of the subject schools is also within the range of “3.5 to 4.4”, a same conclusion can be drawn that these schools “Agree” with the New Curriculum; and School 2 and School 3 got a mean higher than “4.4”, what’ more, mean of School 2 is within “4.5 to 5”, which indicates that teachers from school 2 “Strongly agree” with the New Curriculum.
Figure 2. Mean of Every Subject School
| Schools | N | Mean | S. D. |
| S 1 | 5 | 3.7280 | .4502 |
| S 2 | 4 | 4.5300 | .3523 |
| S 3 | 4 | 4.4100 | .3965 |
| S 4 | 3 | 4.0933 | .3717 |
| S 5 | 3 | 3.7867 | .2344 |
| S 6 | 6 | 4.2067 | .4236 |
| Total | 25 | 4.1312 | .4607 |
Figure 1 and Figure 2 reveal that teachers from every subject school “ Agree” or “ Strongly agree” with every teacher’ s belief put forward in the New Curriculum. Figure 2 also indicates that teachers’ beliefs differ in different schools. The histogram displays impressive differences among the subject schools plainly, and school 1 & 5 bear a great distance from School 2 &3 in the endorsement of the New Curriculum. To confirm this hypothesis, a One-way ANOVA analysis was conducted.
4.1.2 A Comparison of Teachers’ Beliefs in Every Subject School
When means of the beliefs were compared, the One-way ANOVA results indicated that teachers’ beliefs in different schools differed significantly, sig. = .047, P<0.05 (illustrated in Figure 3). Since 26 out of the 27 teachers have got the New Curriculum training. The possible causes of such difference may be due to teachers’ different interpretation of the New Curriculum, restraint of their students’ level or confinement of the particular teaching context in every subject school.
Figure 3. One-way ANOVA of Teachers’ Beliefs
| Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. | |
| Between Groups | 2.155 | 5 | .431 | 2.786 | .047 |
| Within Groups | 2.938 | 19 | .155 | ||
| Total | 5.093 | 24 |
To make a classification of all the subject schools, Homogeneous Subsets analysis was directed. Figure 4 demonstrated that teachers’ beliefs in School 1 and School 5 were significantly different from those in School 3 and School 2, for they are not in the same column. School 4, 6, 3 and 2 are identical in terms of endorsement of the New Curriculum, because they are in the same column.
Figure 4. Homogeneous Subsets of Every Subject School
| N | Subset for alpha = .05 | ||||
| Schools | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Duncan | School 1 | 5 | 3.7280 | ||
| School 5 | 3 | 3.7867 | 3.7867 | ||
| School 4 | 3 | 4.0933 | 4.0933 | 4.0933 | |
| School 6 | 6 | 4.2067 | 4.2067 | 4.2067 | |
| School 3 | 4 | 4.4100 | 4.4100 | ||
| School 2 | 4 | 4.5300 | |||
| Sig. | .134 | .054 | .170 | ||
Uses Harmonic Mean Sample Size = 3.913.
Descriptive Statistics of the TQ revealed that all subject teachers from GD Province “Agree” or “Strongly agree” with the New Curriculum. And One-way ANOVA analysis illustrated that teachers’ beliefs varied from one school to another. School 2 and school 3 scored the highest among the 6 schools, which indicated that they endorsed the New Curriculum the most. However, chances are that some teachers showed great approval to the New Curriculum just because they knew about it from the teacher training. However, how they behave in actual teaching still remains a question. Furthermore, teachers’ articulated beliefs is one thing and how they apply their beliefs into teaching is another thing.
4.2 The Relationship between Teachers’ Beliefs and Their Teaching Behavior
To find out whether teachers teach in light of their beliefs, analysis of the answers to the 2 open questions in the TQ was conducted. With the teachers’ most concern in mind, further analysis on whether teachers adopted particular strategies to tackle the obstacles was directed.
4.2.1 Teachers’ Articulated Beliefs
The data revealed almost 72 opinions and suggestions put forward by all the subject teachers. Table 5 listed out five most widely shared categories of teacher concern for each question.
Table 5. Teacher Concern on the Current Curriculum and Teaching
| Item 1. The most obvious changes of the New Curriculum |
|
① more demanding for teachers and students; ② renewal and increase of the capacity of the textbook; ③ more interaction between teachers and students; ④ focus more on cultivating students’ integrative ability in learning, knowledge applying, participation, cooperation and communication; ⑤ closer to authentic daily life. |
| Item 2. The most urgent problems to be solved |
|
① the renewal of teachers’ teaching beliefs and students’ expectations of teaching; ② the conflict between the New Curriculum and the College Entrance Examination (the conflict between integrative skills development and exam-oriented education); ③ the conflict between students’ ability and the highly demanding new teaching materials and activities (esp. listening); ④ the coherence of the junior high textbook and senior high one (esp. vocabulary); ⑤ large capacity of the content in the textbook versus inadequate course hours (not enough time for assimilation and consolidation). |
To sum up, most teachers have noticed the renewal of the curriculum and have perceived its characteristics and advantages. They also found the current curriculum to be more demanding for their students, owing to the dramatically increased capacity of the textbook and limited course hours. In the meantime, they call for coherence of the junior high and senior high curriculum, and new testing formula. These are the shared concern of most teachers, however, the questions are: Since they’ve noticed the problems, did they adopt particular teaching behavior to make up for this? Or how many teachers have attempted to? Only substantial observation could tell.
4.2.2 Observation Log of Practical Classroom Teaching
Bearing the teachers’ most concern in mind, the author proceeded to analyze all the data on the teachers’ behavior in the classroom as recorded in the 6 researchers’ classroom observation logs. The 10-period classroom observation logs recorded more than 5 teachers from Grade One and Grade Two in every subject school. Hence, these data covered a range wide enough to represent the whole subject school.
Classification and analysis of the observation log revealed that most schools adopted the textbook New Senior English for China, while schools in Foshan and Nanhai adopted the one Senior High English. Nearly all the schools applied the textbooks flexibly by supplying extra materials, omitting, adapting, or simplifying the contents to meet their students’ particular level. In terms of multimedia facilities, 2 schools were found to be equipped only with radios and projectors. 2 schools haven’t offered optional courses yet, and only 50% of the subject schools carried out formative evaluation. Table 6 outlines some other basic practical teaching information collected from the classroom observation.
Table 6. The Practical Teaching Information
| Classroom Activities | Optional Courses | Multimedia Application | Formative Evaluation | |
| School 1 | Reading, chorus, discussion, survey, competition of words, writing, retelling |
New Concept English; Writing |
Radio, computer | Not yet |
| School 2 | Reading, chorus, discussion, role-play, writing, listening | Audio-lingua-visual English; Learning by Singing | Radio, computer | Not yet |
| School 3 | Reading, chorus | / | Radio | Yes |
| School 4 | Reading, chorus, discussion, drills, role-play, interview, survey | Inquiry Study | Radio, computer | Not yet |
| School 5 | Discussion | / | Radio, projector | Yes |
| School 6 | Chorus, discussion, role-play, dictation | New Concept English | Radio, projector, computer | Yes |
The above table lists out all the practical teaching information recorded in the classroom observation logs, revealing all the subject teachers’ teaching behavior. In order to find out whether these teachers’ particular teaching behavior is aligned with their concern, the author drew out the most widely shared beliefs of every subject school and tried to find out how these beliefs influenced teachers’ teaching behavior. Table 7 shows the teacher concern and their particular teaching behavior in every subject school. The results showed that teachers in Schools 1, 4 and 6 adopted particular classroom activities to enhance their students’ weak points, and to cultivate particular skills, while School 3 failed to employ expected teaching strategies (see Table 7).
Table 7. Teacher Concern and Teaching Behavior
| Teacher Concern | Particular Classroom Activities | |
| School 1 | How would English be tested in College Entrance Exam (CEE)? | Writing, retelling, competition of words |
| School 2 | The sequence of grammar is unsystematic | N.O |
| School 3 |
① To increase students’ interest in English; ② To increase instruction of cultural background knowledge; ③ To renew teachers’ beliefs; ④ To get rid of the conflict between the new curriculum and CEE. |
Reading, chorus |
| School 4 | Students’ oral English is too poor to carry out classroom activities | Chorus, discussion, drills, role-play, interview |
| School 5 | / | N.O |
| School 6 |
① The dramatically increased capacity, esp. vocabulary is demanding; ② The listening parts in the textbook are very difficult. |
Dictation |
a) N.O= not observed;
b) Teachers from School 5 said they had no comment on the New Curriculum.
It was striking for the author to find that Schools 2 and 3, as is shown in Figure 4, although scored the highest in the mean of TQ, actually failed to teach in accordance with their beliefs, or failed to renew their beliefs (the most concern in School 2 was “grammar instruction”). The author guessed that the explanations may be that teachers from Schools 2 and 3 were quite well informed of the new beliefs, however, they hadn’t applied them fully in practical teaching, thus resulting in the discrepancy between their behavior and beliefs.
Among those schools that teachers’ beliefs and their behavior were consistent, School 4 had a relative conformity in teachers’ beliefs and practical classroom teaching, and was well equipped with multimedia and offered various classroom activities to enhance students’ integrated skills. And last but not least, it was the only one of the 6 schools that offered the optional course—Inquiry Study, in which students went into the community to do surveys (see table 6).
4.3 Teachers’ Most Concern in Course Planning
All the above analysis demonstrated that teachers’ behaviors were consistent with their beliefs in most schools, while some teachers, for example, in School 2 and School 3, failed to teach in accordance with their beliefs, although they scored the highest in the TQ. Nevertheless, chances are that these teachers may actually have come across difficulties in teaching, or in the renewal and application of their beliefs.
To find out the possible difficulties, interviews with teachers must be conducted to find out how teachers’ beliefs guide their behavior, and what they usually take into account in course planning. The author analyzed the answers to the open questions in the teachers’ questionnaires and the interview records of the 12 teachers, reflecting the teachers’ main concern in course planning, which can be summed up as follows:
① Many demands of the New Curriculum versus limited course hours. “The New Curriculum is much more demanding, there are so many tasks to fulfill in class that we no longer have time to review the lessons, and students intend to be oblivious of what they have learnt soon after class.” according to most subject teachers.
② The conflict between integrated skills development and exam. In the open questions in the TQ and the interview, many teachers called for a corresponding and plausible College Entrance Examination formula, which was expected to be aligned with the New Curriculum;
③ In lack of teaching facilities. The observation logs revealed that most areas still lacked for the basic teaching necessities such as sound labs and multimedia, etc. (see Multimedia Application in Table 6).
In a word, there existed three factors that teachers would take into account in course planning.
To sum up, analysis of the questionnaires showed that teachers’ beliefs varied greatly from one school to another, the mean of which fluctuates from 3.7280 to 4.5300. Classification of the classroom observation logs revealed that teachers’ behavior was consistent with their beliefs in most schools, while some teachers’ practical teaching was disjointed from their articulated beliefs. Analysis of the teacher concern and the interview enabled the author to perceive what teachers concern the most in teaching.
Chapter Five Conclusion and Research Implications
The present research carried out a survey of the status quo of teachers’ beliefs and their teaching behavior in the New Curriculum context in Guangdong Province by means of questionnaire, classroom observation log and interview. By intensive analysis, the author found that firstly, teacher’s beliefs differed significantly from one school to another; secondly, teachers in most schools teach in accordance with their beliefs, whereas some teachers’ behavior was disjointed from their beliefs, although they showed that they “Strongly agree” with the New Curriculum in the TQ. In the meantime, the author got a pleasant surprise to find that one out of the 6 subject schools, a school from Shantou, had a relative conformity in practical classroom teaching and teachers’ beliefs. Finally, a more intensive analysis was made to find out the teachers’ difficulties in renewing their beliefs or applying their beliefs into teaching.
All of the above findings stimulated the author to reflect and resulted in much enlightenment. The findings from the study suggested that impact of varying social and institutional context played a significant role in teachers’ thinking and action. And teacher training should always take the leading role in the long run of educational reform. To be more specific, 3 implications generated from the study. They were related to teacher training, assessment system and teaching facilities, respectively.
5.1 The Importance of Teacher Training
From the interviews, the author found that most teachers, especially the inexperienced teachers, expressed that they need professional guidance to help them enhance their teaching skills. In fact, continuous pre-service and in-service teacher training should be held regularly, making sure that teachers are newly informed of the societal trend and are qualified to meet the new teaching demands.
As we all know, teacher training used to focus on teaching skills. However, the newly expected teachers’ beliefs and teaching skills require for more efficient training, which consists of belief renewal, professional development and multimedia application.
5.1.1 Training on Belief Renewal
The present research found that many experienced teachers were resistant to the New Curriculum, some of whom were still teaching in their assumed best way, regardless of the new demands. These teachers need to be informed that the 21st century calls for new teaching skills to bring students up by using highly skilled teaching strategies and curricula that connect to the real daily life and cater for different needs of students, and motivational as well. And traditional teachers would be confronted with the danger of dropping out if they were not qualified enough to respond to the new mission. To bear fruitful teaching outcome in the new phase of education, teachers are supposed to teach in a various and creative way. Sometimes, practicing the same skill in different ways each time and fulfilling some tasks in a creative way would breed pleasant outcome, for instance, having oral classes in an open air or a café, if possible; or writing a report with an organized practice / visit beforehand will probably cheer up the students.
5.1.2 Training on Professional Development
Firstly, teachers are encouraged to get further education to broaden their horizon and enlarge their scope of knowledge, so that they will have less difficulties in helping students enhance their cultural awareness.
Secondly, teachers are expected to promote their teaching skills by reflection, and interaction, etc. An on-line teaching forum can be set up as a by-product to offer teachers chances to exchange experience and thought. This study revealed that teachers from different areas varied in their teaching beliefs and classroom practice. Hence, it would be beneficial, if possible, to establish an on-line teaching forum, such as BBS, QQ Group, etc. for exchanging ideas and experience.
Finally, training on research methods should be offered to teachers and teachers be encouraged to carry out school-based researches or educational experiments. By this way, teachers can reflect from the findings or feedback, and improve their teaching, even help to refine the curriculum.
5.1.3 Training on Multimedia Application
The interview revealed that some teachers didn’t apply multimedia to facilitating their teaching just because they haven’t mastered the skills. Hence, adequate training should be carried out to ensure that teachers master basic skills in multimedia application to facilitating classroom teaching. And more demanding skills in managing blogs, BBS, QQ Zone, or QQ Group, etc. are desired.
Nowadays, nearly every class has established a QQ Group, and students meet in the QQ Group out of class. The topics usually range from live TV programs to homework and answers to the homework, and so on. Some class outings are also decided and organized here.
Being inspired from this, the author thought that maybe a QQ group for Inquiry Studies would be possible if directed in a systematic way. In fact, the author had tried to establish such a QQ Group in Senior 1 for English learning, where students were advocated to communicate in English②. And the author found it to be a very advisable way to foster students’ interest in study and to help them learn English while entertaining.
5.2 Modification of the Assessment System
The answers to the open questions and the interview records illustrated that most teachers were concerned with the College Entrance Examination (CEE). And some of them expressed that they will still teach in their traditional ways, because they thought that their students’ ultimate aim of senior high study was to get a high mark in the CEE, and it was this idea that made the teaching remain exam-oriented. Fortunately, there were much more young teachers taught in light of the new beliefs, and for these teachers, their most concern was: “What would be tested in CEE?” Therefore, a new assessment system is imperative under the new situation. Luckily, the New Curriculum put forward “formative evaluation”, and it will benefit both teaching and learning, as long as it is conducted systemically.
Nevertheless, the observation log revealed that 50% of the subject schools hadn’t directed the students to make self-evaluation in a learning process file as was expected, in other words, “formative evaluation” was not yet carried out thoroughly.
As a matter of fact, the concept of a combination of “formative evaluation” and “summative evaluation”, though newly implemented, is significant and worthy. Formative evaluation is beneficial in that it enables students to get a sense of their progress and achievement promptly in the long run of learning.
Wu (2003:38-41) argues that we can motivate students by modifying the assessment system; she advocates “analytic assessment”, in which teachers offer diachronic evaluation and evaluate students with a dynamic view. She ended the report by saying, “A shift in the way we evaluate learners can work wonders.” In fact, a modification of the present assessment system may help to make our teaching much more quality oriented.
5.3 Offering Adequate Teaching Facilities
The observation logs also showed that there still existed some schools lacking in projectors, TV set in classroom, let alone computer access to the Internet, education and information websites. As we all know, the current trend in education witnesses an increasing emphasis on various options and multi-access for self-directed learning. Actually, the school boards or the Ministry of Education are responsible for supplying the underdeveloped areas with technological advances.
Chapter Six Limitations
This research intended to collect data from 10 schools of 5 cities in GD Province, which was proved to be impossible because of various reasons, the author can only collect intact data from 8 schools, and 2 schools were excluded in the discussions, because only one teacher questionnaire was retrieved from each of these two schools. The author hoped that further research would be carried out in this field to find out more perspectives for education development
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Appendix I
Appendix II
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