Complex Features of the Teachers’ Professed Beliefs About EFL Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This chapter investigates the features of six EFL teachers’ professed beliefs about EFL teaching and learning to be heterogeneous and interactive. On the one hand, the teachers’ professed beliefs are heterogeneous in that there are variations in the teachers’ different areas of belief about EFL teaching and learning, including beliefs about EFL, EFL teaching, EFL learning and EFL learners and teachers. On the other hand, four interactive features between different areas of the teachers’ beliefs surfaced from the study. Different areas of the teachers’ professed beliefs are either positively connected or held with tensions. They also demonstrate different degrees of conviction and strong influences from prior experiences. The chapter accordingly draws the conclusion that the teachers’ beliefs about EFL teaching and learning are constantly constructed through a process of interaction with contexts, which necessitates the examination of the teachers’ beliefs with their experiences of classroom practice.