Beliefs about English learning and teaching: From teacher learners’ perspectives

Abstract

This study investigated beliefs about English learning and teaching held by teacher learners who were studying to become secondary school English teachers in Korea. For the purpose, this study interviewed twenty teacher learners enrolled in a graduate program of English teacher education. The interviews were conducted as free conversation with a set of guiding topics and anticipatory questions. The total twenty hours of audio-taped data were produced from the interviews, and the data were made into non-verbatim transcripts. Through the procedure of multiple readings, multiple preliminary theme identifications, and checking subjects’ reactions, the themes emerged. The twenty teacher learners’ beliefs about English learning and teaching appeared to be strongly influenced by their past English learning experiences. At the same time, the beliefs seemed to reflect the subjects’ perception of the social context in which their English learning and teacher learning took place. The study suggests that teacher training programs provide more communication-centered English leaning opportunities for the teacher learners as a way of training them to be pro-communication English learners and teachers who would renovate Korean English education for the better.