Beliefs about language learning and the current practices of EFL teachers

Abstract

The teaching of English as a foreign language seems to be a complex issue in some countries in which English is taught as a foreign language. Referring to the important factors influencing the process of teaching English as a foreign language, teachers' beliefs deserves to be in the heart of this dilemmatic evolution. Teachers' beliefs have long been renowned as one of the influential factors to the way teachers plan and implement their teaching and learning activities. Understanding teachers' beliefs are essential to improving their professional preparation and practices. This study intends to investigate the most dominant elements in EFL teachers' beliefs about language learning and its influence to their practices of teaching English in Indonesian secondary schools. Among the five elements, motivation and the nature of learning English emerges as the most dominant element in EFL teachers' beliefs about language learning. It was shown that motivation and the nature of learning English influence EFL teachers' planning and implementation of the practices of teaching English. This study also showed that there is no significant difference among the years of EFL teachers' teaching experiences toward their beliefs about language learning.