Teachers’ Declared Beliefs and Actual Classroom Practices: A Case Study with Five EFL Teachers

Abstract

The correlation between teachers’ beliefs and their actual classroom application have a critical impact on grammar teaching; therefore, a descriptive analysis of these two terms can provide the necessary information about how to improve teaching and learning process in an effective manner and help teachers eliminate the problems in English grammar teaching. This study aims to analyze the beliefs and practices of EFL teachers in grammar teaching in general and to see the effects of their professional backgrounds or school environment on their beliefs. It also aims to show the reflection of their declared beliefs on their real classroom practices. The data is collected by utilizing a beliefs questionnaire (open-ended questions), initial interview adapted by Mohammed (2006) and by designing an original classroom observation sheet for five EFL teachers with different qualities. Their answers were scrutinized and analyzed by using content analysis to see the differences between their declared and actual classroom practices. All differences were endorsed and compared in a table. Accordingly, there occurred some discrepancies between their declared beliefs and actual classroom performances in terms of grammar teaching.