Good EFL Teachers’ Sense-making Of Their Classroom Practices

Although teacher cognition flourishes in foreign countries the quality research is still limited in teachers’ sense-making of their classroom practices in an intensive reading class at a Chinese university.Existing research is insufficient in teachers’ sense-making of their classroom practices under different cultures and curriculum.Thus,this research would be a supplement.This study is an empirical study in which research participants are three EFL teachers who teach intensive reading with more than ten years’ teaching experience and are identified as good EFL teachers.It is a case study using non-participant observation and semi-structure interview to collect data.The triangulation of different data ensures the validity in this research.By analyzing the explanation of EFL teachers,actual classroom behaviors the research aims at uncovering how those teachers make sense of their classroom practices and how teachers’ beliefs are related to their practices in class.The findings suggest that every teacher has a complicated and individual beliefs system.And the teachers’ personal experience is a salient factor which can advance and perfect teacher beliefs.Individual learning and teaching experience can integrate the abstract teacher knowledge with classroom practices,which carries out the goal of teaching.Moreover,the Chinese culture is an important contextual factor.Researchers should uncover teachers’ mental framework and practical actions based on the specific situations.The findings imply that under Chinese university English teaching circumstances it is important for educators to value novice in-service teachers’and pre-service teachers’ learning and teaching experience,which has an impact on the improvement of teachers’ beliefs and teaching behaviors in class.Thus,the research can help to promote foreign language teaching in Chinese tertiary education and the professional development of EFL teachers.