EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and their Actual Classroom Practices: Any Difference?

The present study investigated the possible difference between EFL teachers’ beliefs and their actual classroom practices. To this end, ۲۱۰ Iranian EFL teachers (۱۰۳ teachers from high schools and ۱۰۷ from language institutes) participated in the study. The ۴۵-item Likert-scale Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) developed originally by Horwitz, (۱۹۸۵) and validated by Kasraee Nejad (۲۰۱۴) for the context of Iran and an observation checklist, devised and validated by the researchers, comprised the data collection instruments adopted in the current study. The results of paired t-test revealed statistically significant differences between beliefs of Iranian EFL teachers and their actual classroom practices. Moreover, the results of Independent Samples t-test indicated that the two groups of high school and language institute teachers were significantly different with regard to their beliefs on language learning. In addition, the results of Chi-square analysis demonstrated ۴۳ out of ۴۵ teachers’ specific beliefs were significantly different from their actual classroom practices. In the light of the findings of the present study, educational policy makers and managers in both high schools and language institutes are recommended to introduce ways to raise EFL teachers’ awareness of their beliefs to enhance their efficiency in their actual classroom practices.

Keywords:

Teachers’ beliefs , teachers’ classroom practices , high school teachers , language institute teachers , EFL Teachers