A Survey On EFL Teachers' Beliefs About Cultivating Students' Thinking Disposition In Teaching Reading

As English education reform goes deeper,how to cultivate students' thinking disposition gradually becomes a topic in high school English curriculum reform.In the process of English learning as a second language,English reading plays an important role.While,to cultivate students' thinking disposition,EFL teachers' teaching beliefs and practice in cultivating students' thinking disposition are crucial.Therefore,the researcher had a semi-structured interview with the participants to investigate EFL teachers' stated beliefs about cultivating students' thinking disposition.Then the researcher analyzed the reading lesson plans of 7 participants with the guidance of a taxonomy for learning,teaching and assessing to find out the features of their reading teaching design.After that,the researcher interviewed 7 participants about the influencing factors that contribute to the demonstration of teachers' teaching beliefs.By doing these,the researcher tries to explore the features of EFL teachers' beliefs on cultivating students' thinking disposition,how the teachers' beliefs demonstrated in their teaching designs and the influencing factors that contribute to the demonstration of teachers' teaching beliefs.The results showed that most EFL teachers in junior high school have the awareness to cultivate students' thinking disposition.Most EFL teachers hold that activities at high cognitive level are beneficial to the cultivation of students' thinking disposition.Some underestimate their role in cultivating students' thinking disposition.Activities at high cognitive level found in EFL teachers' teaching designs demonstrate that EFL teachers do have the awareness to cultivate students' thinking disposition.However,activities at high cognitive level only account for 26% of all the activities,which contradicts the belief that EFL teachers claim that activities at high cognitive level are beneficial to the cultivation of students' thinking disposition.And EFL teachers think there are mainly four influencing factors that contribute to the demonstration of EFL teachers' teaching beliefs,which are teachers' self-attainment,teaching materials and periods,exam results and school leader's support.Based on the results above,the researcher offers some advice as followed: the junior high school EFL teachers should bear in mind the importance and feasibility of fostering students' thinking disposition;in the process of English teaching,different kinds of teaching activities should be adopted based on the taxonomy for Learning,Teaching and Assessing;the junior high school authorities should be positive to make policies to promote the fostering of students' thinking disposition.