Student Teachers’ Beliefs and Motivation toward English Teaching Methodology1)

This study set out to explore student teachers’ beliefs on English teaching methods. A total of 69 student teachers of three different “English teaching methodology” classes participated in the study; and they were from science education, physical education, and ethics education. A student survey questionnaire, a focusgroup interview, and a class observation were employed to collect data. Data analysis was done quantitatively by using descriptive statistics and qualitatively by a thematic analysis as well. The main findings indicate that first, the student teachers showed a positive reaction toward the English teaching methodology course even though they were less willing to invest time in studying for it. In addition, taking the class seemed to positively influence their view and beliefs on ELT. Second, the student teachers of all three disciplines showed a similar pattern of preference regarding teaching methods by ranking CLT, the most useful, and followed by TPR and ALM while GTM was the least favored. Third, they believed that possessing an appropriate level of English proficiency is a key element for a successful teaching practice so they planned to study English skills, in particular, speaking and listening. Finally, suggestions for effective teaching in the primary English classroom have been discussed.

Student Teachers’ Beliefs and Motivation toward

English Teaching Methodology1)

Youngkyong Jong *

Youngkyong Jong (2022), Student Teachers’ Beliefs and Motivation toward English Teaching Methodology.

Journal of Language Sciences 29(2), 147-170

This study set out to explore student teachers’ beliefs on English teaching methods

A total of 69 student teachers of three different “English teaching methodology” classes participated in the study; and they were from science education, physical education, and ethics education A student survey questionnaire, a focus-group interview, and a class observation were employed to collect data Data analysis was done quantitatively by using descriptive statistics and qualitatively by a thematic analysis as well The main findings indicate that first, the student teachers showed a positive reaction toward the English teaching methodology course even though they were less willing to invest time in studying for it In addition, taking the class seemed to positively influence their view and beliefs on ELT Second, the student teachers of all three disciplines showed a similar pattern of preference regarding teaching methods by ranking CLT, the most useful, and followed by TPR and ALM while GTM was the least favored Third, they believed that possessing an appropriate level of English proficiency is a key element for a successful teaching practice so they planned to study English skills, in particular, speaking and listening Finally, suggestions for effective teaching in the primary English classroom have been discussed

(Pukyong National University)

1 Introduction

“Educational change depends on what teachers do and think–it’s assimple and complex as that”(Fullan and Stiegelbauer, 1991: 117) As Fullanand Stiegelbauer claimed, it has been agreed that teachers are key andintegral elements in the success of any educational program and theenhancement of teaching and learning in schools(Borg, 2009; Fullan andStiegelbauer, 1991; Harmer, 2015; Seidlhofer, 1999) In Korea, primarystudent teachers are potential English teachers because in many casesnovice teachers are often appointed to teach English in schools regardless

of the subject areas they majored in In addition, they have to studyEnglish to pass the teacher appointment test for an in-depth Englishinterview and English class demonstration on the 2nd test Thus,preparing student teachers by providing a wide range of knowledge andexperience in practicing teaching to them is a crucial component and aprimary goal of any teacher education institution(Ismail, 2011)

In the field of second language teacher education, two strands, “onefocusing on classroom teaching skills and pedagogic issues, and the otherfocusing on academic underpinnings of classroom skills”(Burns andRichards, 2009: 3) have received continuous attention from many The firstone refers to ‘knowledge about and the other one ‘knowledge of how.’While ‘knowledge about’ provides some of the core curricula of teachereducation such as theories or curriculum development, ‘knowledge how’teaches how to teach through methodology courses The knowledge theyacquire is assumed to inform teachers’ classroom practices in the future;however, it has been recognized that many teachers often fail to applywhat they learned at school into practice when they deal with students inclassrooms(Bartels, 2005) Thus, any student teachers who want to have

an effective classroom practice, need both sides of knowledge(Kamhi-Stein,2009)

While teacher education programs try to provide student teachers access

to much needed pedagogical and content knowledge(Carlsen, 1999;Shulman, 1986), a body of literature on teacher education has indicated

that student teachers’ experiences and beliefs they held before enteringteacher education greatly influenced their learning and instructionalpractices(Kiely and Askham, 2012; Borg, 2003; Johnson, 2009; Lortie, 1975).Student teachers’ perceptions of English including learning and teachingcan significantly influence the future of Korean English education Theycreate and develop the curriculum according to their own beliefs, delivertheir personal values through the implicit curriculum, and carry out theirclassrooms in line with their own definitions of teaching and learning.Teachers are unaware that they are doing this They are also unable toput into words the beliefs, values, and definitions that form the base oftheir teaching.

As there has been relatively little attention given to student teachers’beliefs and motivation about implementing different teaching methods inprimary English classrooms, this study set out to fill the knowledge gapleft by a paucity of research in this field by inquiring about theirperceptions about English teaching methodology It is hoped that theinsights gained from this study on student teachers’ beliefs can contribute

to the improvement of teacher education curricula which can be supportive

of the teaching approaches reflected in the national curriculum To addressthe main research purposes, this study set out to explore the followingresearch questions:

1 Are there any differences in student teachers’ beliefs from differentacademic disciplines toward English teaching methodology?

2 What are some suggestions to help student teachers be better preparedfor English language teaching in their future careers?

2 Literature Review

2.1 English Language Teaching(ELT) Methodology

It has been known that how ELT has been instructed has changed overthe years from the sixteenth century to the present(Harmer, 2015) Along

the way, a variety of different approaches and methods have beenintroduced and developed(Jawarskowa and Porte, 2007) to examine whichmethod is the best and most effective to promote and facilitate second orforeign language teaching and learning However, it all came down to thefact that they were modified in the end because they failed to makelanguage learners achieve languages for real communication.

The ways English is taught may have reflected teachers’ beliefs andattitudes according to a particular teaching methodology they learned orpracticed through teacher training programs or courses Richards(2006: 3)explained this by saying, “the majority of language teachers today whenasked to identify the methodology they employ in their classrooms,mention ‘communicative’ as the methodology of choice However, whenpressed to give a detailed account of what they mean by ‘communicative’explanations vary widely.”

Up until the 1950s and 1960s, Grammar Translation Method(GTM)became dominant and popular in foreign-language classrooms (Richards &Rodgers, 2001), which focuses on teaching and learning grammatical rulesand builds proficiency in grammatical competencies However, it waschallenged by Audio-lingualism based on behaviorism which sees languagelearning as a continuous process of forming good habits using thestimulus-response-reinforcement cycle The influence of Audiolingualism isstill seen in drill-based techniques and exercises in ELT today As it is,this method has drawbacks in failing to help learners developcommunicative competence as equal importance is not given to all fourlanguage learning skills Communicative Language Teaching(CLT) is anapproach that focuses on teaching English for communicative purposes and

it has become the most common and widely adopted since the 1970sbecause it can lead learners to achieve the desired outcomes ofcommunicative competence through learner interaction(Larsen-Freeman,2000)

During the last few decades, there has been a paradigm shift in Englishteaching methodology from Grammar Translation to CommunicativeLanguage Teaching(CLT) in Korea as well It changed the goal of English

education as the practical use of English as a communication methodfocusing on teaching speaking skills along with listening, reading, andwriting To help students to build their communicative ability in English,teachers are required to obtain new teaching competencies based on CLT.

In 2001 the Ministry of Education required teaching English throughEnglish to be mandatory for Korean English teachers As a result, Englishspeaking and Teaching in English have become components of thenational teacher examination(Ministry of Education and Human ResourcesDevelopment, 2001) This resulted in changes in programs for teachereducation as it emphasized the importance of improving student teachers’English communication ability

2.2 English as a Foreign Language Teacher Beliefs

It has been agreed that when teachers make a series of pedagogicaldecisions, their motivation, beliefs, and perceptions greatly affectthem(Ghaith and Yaghi 1997; Pajares 1996) Teacher beliefs are defined as

“the information, attitudes, expectations, theories, and assumptions aboutteaching and learning,”(Richards, 1998: 66) which play a role of a primarysource of classroom practices Borg(2003) added that teacher beliefs havebeen proved to make an impact on their classroom behaviors, as having

an in-depth understanding of teachers’ beliefs helps comprehend teachers’classroom practices Thus, in teacher education, teacher beliefs arebelieved to be an essential component of the program(Borg, 2011; Ha andMurray, 2021)

A body of studies has examined teacher beliefs and showed thatteacher education can help student teachers to improve their knowledgeabout teaching methods, learners, or subject matter, and it can shape orreshape their pedagogical decisions drawing on their personal beliefs(Borg,2011; Calderhead, 1996; Shinde and Karekatti 2021) For example, in alongitudinal case study, Almarza(1996) studied how EFL student teachers’pretraining experience influenced their learning and teaching practices bydocumenting four teachers’ different ways of acceptance of a teachingmethod learned in the program The result showed that each student

teacher reacted differently toward the method depending on their ownbeliefs about language teaching and learning However, some studies haveindicated that student teachers usually possess mixed beliefs andmotivations toward English teaching Borg’s research(2011) showed someevidence of changes in student teachers’ beliefs while taking methodologycourses and teaching practices The result revealed that the teachereducation program encouraged and promoted the teachers’ belief change in

a variety of ways across individuals

Wang and Kim(2019) also investigated student teachers’ beliefs related

to EFL teaching and learning as a result of the practicum and found thereconstruction and evolution of their beliefs change among the participants

to different degrees and extensions In addition, it was also noticed thatthe education program made the student teachers rely on more traditionalteaching methods such as GTM, as they found those methods morefeasible and effective

Zheng(2009)’s study showed how beliefs and assumptions of studentteachers of English can influence their decisions for teaching practicesduring education programs as they selected to spend the majority of theirtime enhancing their English proficiency instead of spending time onlearning and studying pedagogical knowledge Drawing on the result ofthe study, Zheng suggested the necessity of introducing differentpedagogical methods to the teachers so that they can utilize thosemethods in their teaching contexts to create more flexible andstudents-oriented language learning and teaching Overall, it is clear thatteacher education plays a crucial role in preparing student teachers totransit into actual teaching and construct or reconstruct teachingphilosophy and beliefs that affect their teaching practices in the future

As aforementioned, this study of student teachers’ beliefs about Englishteaching methods can reveal how they perceive English teaching methodcourses and teaching methods concerning changes in beliefs as well ashow teachers prepare themselves to be successful teachers Therefore, thestudy might offer some beneficial insights regarding the matter to variousparties(e.g learners, teachers, and educational institutions)

3 Methodology

3.1 Participants and Context

A total of 69 student teachers(male: 28, female: 41) from three classes

at a local Teacher’s College were recruited and asked to participate in thestudy while they took an English Teaching Methodology I course duringthe spring semester of 2021 Class I consisted of 23 students whose majorwas Ethics education while Class II had 24 students in Science educationand Class III of 22 students from Physical Education Each class met once

a week for 2 hours long for 15 weeks The students were all sophomoresand after taking this course, they needed to enroll in the English TeachingMethodology II class the following semester

Table 1 Participants’ Information(N=69)

Age Gender Grade ScienceClass I PhysicalClass II Class IIIEthics

21 to 26 Female: 41Male: 28 Sophomore 24 22 23

The English Teaching Methodology I course was designed to introduce

a variety of ELT methodologies to teach English to elementary studentsfrom Grammar Translation Method(GTM) to Task-based LanguageTeaching(TBLT) It also provided activities that can be applied what theyhave learned into practice for teaching English to elementary students, andother main issues regarding ELT All three classes were taught by thesame instructor who has years of experience teaching ELT to studentteachers in Korea

3.2 Data Collection and Analysis

To gather data needed for the study, a mixed methodology study wasemployed The main instrument for data collection was a survey designed

by the researcher The questionnaire consists of two parts: the firstsection focused on gathering demographic information on age, gender,educational classification, and major, while the other section contained 35close-ended questions items and 2 open-end question items The 35 itemswere divided into four themes under the research questions and thepurpose of the study Five-point Likert scale was employed and thestudent teachers evaluated their beliefs by indicating the extent to whichthey agreed with each statement from five(strongly agree) to one(stronglydisagree) In line with the survey, focus-group interview sessions wereprepared and carried out by the researcher Each session lasted 20 minutesand the purpose of conducting the interview was to confirm the results ofthe survey analysis.

The close-ended questions items from the questionnaire were analyzed

by using the SPSS 28 to examine the descriptive statistics that displaythe frequency of response distribution and mean scores of three classesand to compare the patterns shown by them For the open-end questions,

a thematic analysis was adopted to look at the collected data The goal ofthe thematic analysis is to identify themes or patterns in the data that areimportant or interesting and they are used to address the issues related tothe research This method was useful for the study since it enabledresearchers to discover and describe the main focus of individual or groupattention(Braun and Clarke, 2003) Thus, through the analysis, thematicpatterns in the student teachers’ responses about their motivation,self-perception toward ELT, and teaching methodology

4 Findings and Discussion

4.1 Student Teachers’ Motivation and Beliefs toward English Teaching Methodology Course

It has been suggested that since motivation is context-specific orientedeither at personal or societal levels(Lamb, 2017; Ushioda, 2013),

investigating learners in specific contexts is necessary to obtain anin-depth understanding of their minds Nine items from the questionnairewere devoted to finding out the student teachers’ perceptions of Englishteaching methods.

Table 2 Motivation and Self-Perception(N=69)

Items

Physical (N=22)

Science (N=24)

Ethics (N=23)

a1 I was interested in taking the

a2 I think the class was

interesting and fun. 3.89 1.096 4.01 .985 4.19 .548a3 I invested enough time and

effort for the class 3.51 1.062 3.64 .953 3.85 .647a4 I think I can obtain the grade

I want for this class. 3.33 .963 3.45 .912 3.70 .703a5 I think my knowledge of

English teaching methods has

been improved after taking this

class.

3.93 970 4.09 1.162 4.32 600

a6 I believe that having

knowledge and principles of

teaching English to primary

school students is useful for my

teaching career.

4.12 1.018 4.32 958 4.70 470

a7 I think I can apply what I

have learned about English

teaching methods into the class

later.

3.95 989 4.01 1.129 4.24 562

a8 I think all student teachers

should take the English Teaching

Method class regardless of their

major.

3.97 1.274 4.12 958 4.43 788

a9 I have changed my thoughts

and beliefs on English teaching

methods after taking this class.

3.98 1.018 4.11 1.129 4.18 635

As shown in Table 2, the analysis of the items indicated that thestudents were positive about taking the English teaching method class Toquestion 1, the student teachers in each discipline agreed that they wereinterested in taking the class as the mean scores of three classes rangedfrom 3.67(Physical) to 3.81(Science) and 4.03(Ethnics) The mean scoreswere relatively high, but they expressed that the class was moreinteresting and fun than they expected even though some differencesexisted among the three groups The mean scores for question 2 were3.89, 4.01, and 4.19 for each group respectively However, incongruent withthis result, they were less willing to invest time and effort in the class asthe mean scores for question 3 were 3.51, 3.64, and 3.85 for students fromPhysical, Science, and Ethics Education respectively This student teachers’view was reflected in their answer to the question related to ‘grade forthe class’ as the mean scores for this variable were quite low(M=3.33,M=3.45, and M=3.70) This contradiction might be attributed to the factthat they are not English majors even though they were taking themethod class for the possibility of teaching English when they become ateacher.

Despite their reluctance to invest time and effort in the class, thestudents teachers’ responses were quite positive regarding the usefulness

of the method class Most students from the three disciplines indicatedthat their knowledge of English teaching methods has been improved bytaking the class as the mean scores to question 5 ranged from3.93(Physical) to 4.09(Science) and 4.32(Ethics) In a similar vein, they alsobelieved that building knowledge and studying principles of teachingEnglish to primary school students is useful for their future teachingcareers (M=4.12, M=4.32, and M=4.70) This result is supported by theirreaction as they emphasized the possibility of applying English teachingmethods to classes in the future with mean scores of 3.95, 4.01, and 4.24respectively Thus, during the focus-group interview, the students from allthree groups asserted the necessity of taking the method class

It is necessary for teachers to know their students level of Englishand interest in learning Based on that they should apply teachingmethods accordingly Through English Teaching Method class, wecan learn about a variety of methods so all student teachers shouldtake this class (Student Teacher C of Science Education)

This outcome presented the importance of the successful transition oflearning theories into practice as many teacher educators highlighted thenecessity of linking teaching methods with real classroom practices and ofstudying with students(Hart, 2006)

In addition to this, the student teachers agreed that taking the classinfluences their thoughts and beliefs on English teaching methods Themean scores ranged from 3.98(Physical) to 4.11(Science) and 4.18(Ethics).The high scores of this variable demonstrated that teacher education has

an impact on student teachers’ beliefs(Borg, 2009; 2011)

Overall, the student teachers of Ethnics Education consistently scoredthe highest points on all the question items followed by those of Scienceand Physical Education However, the difference does not seem to besignificant enough to interfere with the process of drawing a conclusionthat these student teachers were interested in the methodology class toenhance their knowledge of English teaching methods, and taking theclass seemed to positively affect their view and beliefs on ELT

4.2 Preference for English Teaching Methods

In line with the student teachers’ beliefs and motivation toward theELT methodology course, their preference for ELT methods studied whiletaking the course was inquired They were asked to rank the usefulnessand application of the seven teaching methods including Grammar-Translation Method(GTM), Direct Methods, Audio Lingual Method(ALM),Total Physical Response(TPR), Communicative Language Teaching(CLT),Content-Based Instruction(CBI), and Task-Based Language Teaching(TBLT).This inquiry was made based on the claim that these popularmethodologies can influence the current state of English teaching bystudent teachers(Harmer, 2015)

Figure 1 Ranking of English Teaching Methods by StudentTeachers (Ethics=23, Physical=22, Science=24)

As seen in Figure 1, the result showed almost identical responses fromthe student teachers of all three disciplines despite slight differences CLTwas ranked the most useful and helpful method and it was followed by