Chapter I Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Since the 1960s, under the influence of the behaviorism, there has been a movement awayfrom teacher-centered approach to learner-centered approach in the research on general educationand second language teaching. Research on teaching has attempted to understand teaching fromthe “inside” rather than from the “outside”. From 1970s, teacher education research has madesignificant contributions to the exploration of teachers’ beliefs, and the relationship betweenteachers’ beliefs and practices, which has produced important findings for teacher education anddevelopment.In recent years, a profound reform in English teaching is promoting in China. Many Englishteachers in colleges are facing new challenges, especially on how to renew teaching ideas andcommand modern teaching technologies. Since college expansion plan in 1999, numbers ofnewly-built-colleges appear in China. Take Shanxi Province as an example, newly-built-collegesoccupy almost half of the undergraduate institutions. The successful reform in these colleges issignificant for college English teaching reform in China. Zheng (2017) indicated that Englishteachers are the practitioners, decision-makers, and reformers who directly impact on the effect ofclassroom teaching reform. Therefore, it is quite important to make an intensive research onteachers.Classroom teaching is the major way for English course in Chinese colleges. It is impactedby many factors. From the inner aspect, teachers’ beliefs are the main elements. Many researchesindicate that teachers’ beliefs impact on their teaching practices and are effective indexes ofpredication of behaviors. So teachers’ beliefs have gradually become an important subject forresearch on English teaching.Thus, the topic of this paper is chosen from the perspective of newly-built-college to surveyEFL teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices so as to find the relationship between the two.
1.2 Purpose of the study
The background of the study has showed that there is a necessity for researching teachers’beliefs and their classroom practices in newly-built-colleges.This is a quantitative and qualitative study concerned with describing non-English majorEFL teachers’ beliefs and classroom practice in newly-built-colleges. Through questionnaire,observations and interviews，the research tries to investigate current situation of teachers’ beliefsand their classroom practices and to find out the relationship between the two and try to analysisthe reasons if there are inconsistencies. The ultimate purpose of the research is to providenon-English major EFL teachers in newly-built-colleges with necessary information for furtherprofessional development in the teaching field and help to improve EFL teaching and learninglevel in this kind of colleges.1.3 Structure of the thesisThe whole thesis is composed of five chapters，including the introduction at the outset andconclusion at the end．Chapter I is the introduction. It provides a general introduction of why the present topic ischosen．Chapter II is literature review part which delineates the background of the present study. Abriefly review the studies on the definition and role of teachers’ beliefs，英语论文，英语论文，as well as contents,sources and impaction on college English teaching of EFL teachers’ beliefs. Then the authordisplays researches done concerning the relationship between teachers’beliefs and |
