English Teaching and Learning in Brazilian Regular Schools and Language Schools: A Study on Teachers’ Beliefs

Abstract

This paper aims to diagnose, through a qualitative comparative study, the main differences concerning the teaching of English in Brazilian regular schools when compared to language schools. There has been a growing tendency of students to attend language schools while still having English classes at their regular schools, and this has led to a lot of change in teachers' beliefs and approaches in general over the years. To establish this diagnosis, a questionnaire consisting of 14 key points related to this topic (ranging from teaching resources and methodologies to workloads and knowledge of grammar) was answered by six teachers of English, three working at regular schools, and three at language schools. The main findings can be summarized by the fact that heavier workloads, bigger groups, lack of resources and focus on reading and writing have made regular school teaching less effective than the experience students have when attending classes at language schools.