Exploring Consistencies and Inconsistencies between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Stated and Enacted Beliefs about Teaching Writing Skill

The present study was an attempt to investigate Iranian EFL teachers' beliefs about teaching writing and the extent to which their beliefs are evidenced in their teaching writing in practice. To do so, ten teachers, who were teaching in private language institutes in Babolsar, Mazandaran, Iran, were cordially invited to participate in semi-structured interview sessions. To look in to the agreement between teachers' beliefs and practical teaching of writing, the teacher-learner interactions were taken into account to qualitatively analyze their talks through Conversation Analysis (CA) methodology. The teachers' interview showed that half of the teachers took product-based approach in teaching writing, while small number of them were in favor of interactive learning atmosphere while teaching writing, denoting applying process approach to writing. However, there were only two teachers who implicitly pointed out the use of post-process approach in teaching writing, focusing on the learning context as well as the learners’ social and cultural aspects. The interactions of the classroom demonstrated that teachers' beliefs were, to a large extent, similar to their practice teaching of writing. Findings suggest that awareness-raising programs should be held by teacher education to direct the teachers' attention toward practical and effective approaches in teaching writing leading to improvement in their beliefs about teaching writing as well as their performance in the writing classroom.

Keywords:

Belief system , classroom practice , product approach , process approach , post-process approach