The nature of beliefs

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

In this part, I present three parts; theoretical review, review of related studies, and theoretical framework. In the theoretical review, I elaborate the relevant theories of teachers‟ belief in English teaching, the teaching of English to junior high school, and successful English learners. Meanwhile, in the review of related study part, I summarize the findings of some research then extracts each then looks for the comparison among others. Furthermore, I present the theoretical framework in the last part.

2.1 Theoretical Review

2.1.1 Teachers’ Belief in English Teaching

Investigating teachers‟ belief can contribute information related to English instruction. Liao 2007 proposes that the study of teachers‟ belief is necessarily used as the predictors to investigate the situations and decisions they make.

2.1.1.1 The nature of beliefs

The term belief is admitted as an uneasily defined term because it has many branches to talk about and unlimited scopes. Senior 2006: 12 defines belief as “personal convictions passions about language teaching and learning that teachers are able and willing to express”. It is influenced by teachers‟ background that makes them decide toward elements in language teaching and learning. Language teachers differ extremely in the amount to which they articulate why they teach in the ways they do and why they behave in certain ways in their professional work field. Some believe that learning should be done as effectively and efficiently as possible. After one learning program lasts, they have to prepare the following lesson without having reflection. Meanwhile, some other teachers likely have beliefs that reflection is necessary used in improving the quality of language teaching and learning. Notwithstanding the uneasily defined term, discussing a belief can use an assumption. Liljedahl 2010 describes beliefs using an analogy that beliefs are as if a scene which figures out dissimilar viewpoints. In other words, a belief is actually resulted from different ways a person stands point an object. Similarly, Richards and Lockhart 1996 argue that beliefs are regarded as the extraction of what the teachers understand and assume to be the right one. One of the difficulties in examining teachers‟ belief is that they are not directly observable. Therefore they can only be inferred from teachers‟ behaviours in the classroom. Aspects of classroom practice which reflect teachers‟ belief are teaching approaches, types of materials, and types of activities Richards: 1998. Teaching approaches may vary among teachers such as teacher-centred or learner-centred, monolingual or bilingual, focus on fluency or focus on accuracy, etc. The chosen approaches are resulted from what teachers understand and believe to be correct one, for example, the application of teacher-centred approach which reflects teachers‟ belief that effective language learning is more successful using teacher-centred than other approaches. In addition, types of materials may vary in the form of locally produced, authentic materials, multimedia, etc. For some education practitioners, authentic materials are considered to be the most appropriate one as it has been used in the real context. However, teachers may choose multimedia materials to be the most appropriate one since it is more up to date and modern. These two conditions show how materials reflect teachers‟ belief. Meanwhile, teachers may use different types of activities like presentation, discussion, pair work, group work, games, role play, etc. In teaching and learning case, there is a tendency that an old-fashioned teacher tends to use traditional activity one-way activity such as teacher-explains and students-listen. The teacher in this occasion posses the concept that one-way activity is regarded to be the most effective in language learning. On the other hand, a developing teacher prefers to use two way activities and more communicative one, such as discussion and pair work. Both contrastive conditions reflect how teachers‟ belief is put into their action in choosing the appropriate activities. A number of factors affect the formation of different beliefs among English teachers. Richards and Schmidt 2002: 541 argue that teachers‟ belief are affected by “experience, observations, training and other sources and serve as a source of reference when teachers encounter new ideas, sometimes impeding the acceptance of new ideas or practices”. As an idiom, experience is the best teacher, experience is seen as the major factor in beliefs either as teachers or learners since teachers prove the strength and weakness of having particular beliefs. Beliefs are constant as they structure a system. As we know, a system is very likely to be fossilized. Even though beliefs are seen as a constant thing, feeling dissatisfaction, phenomenon shift, and dynamic condition affect teachers change their beliefs to make a better condition. Bailey in Richards et al. 2001 proposes some factors that influence teachers change their beliefs. Dissatisfaction with the current situation and the connection of a new idea with the teacher‟s own situation affect teachers to shift their beliefs with the proper one. In addition, a change is derived from a change in the teaching context such as the themes of the teaching materials. In carrying out their responsibilities, teachers are required to do number of government‟s demand to be a professional teacher. In doing so, there are some criteria made by the government to fulfil, such as minimum 24 lesson hours teaching each week. This case also influences teachers to change their beliefs. Furthermore, a change is influenced by a realization of something based on his or her experiences as a learner and a conflict between the teachers‟ new beliefs and their practices. In conclusion, teachers‟ belief refers to what teachers assume as the correct one which is influenced by the experience from internal and external factors in doing their teaching responsibility. There is no absolute correct and incorrect in formulating beliefs. The properly admitted belief is the one which is born out to be effective in language learning and has sufficient theoretical foundation.

2.1.1.2 The source of teachers’ beliefs