A Case Study On The Relationship Between Senior High School English Teachers' Culture Teaching Beliefs And Their Teaching Practice

Teaching beliefs are the views held by teachers on teaching itself,teaching contents,teaching methods,the roles of teachers and learners,the design of teaching activities,teaching evaluation and so on.Many researchers indicate that teaching beliefs is an internal cause of different types of teaching behaviors.Beliefs about English language teaching refers to the views on English teaching objectives,teaching methods,the utilization of teaching resources and the roles of teachers and learners.English teachers' culture teaching beliefs are reflections of English teachers' understanding of the relationship between language and culture and the understanding of culture teaching.Culture teaching is one of the important ways to improve the intercultural communication ability of English learners.It is of great significance to help students master good language skills and help teachers improve the level of culture teaching.Therefore,the study of teachers' culture teaching beliefs,teaching practice and the relationship between teachers' teaching beliefs and practice is of great guiding significance for English teachers who would like to adjust their teaching beliefs and their teaching practice about culture teaching and improve English teaching effectiveness.Taking the case of XX Middle School in Chengdu city as an example,this paper investigates the beliefs of senior high school English teachers in culture teaching and their teaching behaviors.With the methods of questionnaire,interview and classroom observation,the study explores the divergence between English teachers' culture teaching beliefs and practice.Try to answer the following questions:(1)What are English teachers' understanding and beliefs of culture teaching in senior high school?(2)What is English teachers' practice of culture teaching in senior high school?(3)Are English teachers' culture teaching beliefs and practice consistent? What factors influence the degree of consistency?The quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied in this research.Firstly,four English teachers(two males and two females)from XX Middle School in Chengdu were investigated through questionnaires on their beliefs and practice of culture teaching.Secondly,through the interview,we further learned about the four English teachers' culture teaching beliefs,including their teaching experience of culture teaching and difficulties in teaching process.Thirdly,the author adopted classroom-observation to observe teaching behaviors of four English teachers and analyze the present situation of their culture teaching behaviors and the divergence between the culture teaching beliefs and teaching behaviors.Through the classroom observation,the behaviors of culture teaching in the classroom was compared with their beliefs on culture teaching,attempting to explore the factors influencing the inconsistency of teaching beliefs and behaviors of cultural teaching.The study indicates that: 1.Senior high school English teachers thoroughly understand the relationship between language and culture,and they paid much attention to cultivate students' cultural awareness during the teaching process.2.Although teachers maintain advanced beliefs about culture teaching,there are still inconsistent situations in their teaching behaviors.The consistency and inconsistency of teachers' culture teaching beliefs and behaviors are reflected in different aspects of culture teaching.3.The reason for the inconsistency between their culture teaching beliefs and teaching behaviors is that teachers still face some difficulties in the process of culture teaching: the pressure from college entrance examination,the lack of on-the-job learning and training,and the lack of teaching reflection.Therefore,English teachers in senior high schools should strengthen their teaching reflection,and attach great importance to whether the teaching behavior has achieved the ideal teaching effectiveness.What's more,strengthening the relevant theoretical and practical study of culture teaching training is necessary.