rooted in psychological and mental content that represent a complex concept internally associated with their attitudes, expectations and personal experience.
Ther efore, teachers‟ beliefs investigated in this research deal with their
beliefs about the use of authentic materials to teach listening skill and the factors that affect their beliefs.
2. The Importance of Teachers’ Beliefs
Teachers are viewed as important agents of change in the reform effort currently under way in education and thus are expected to play a key role in
changing schools and classroom. The importance of teacher beliefs within teacher education rests with the constructi
vist‟s conception of learning. Some researchers define the importance of
teachers‟ beliefs on their ways. Smylie 1988:23 in his path analysis study of 56 teachers undergoing a staff development process
concluded that teacher‟s perceptions and beliefs are the most significant predictors
of individual change. Pajares 1992: 307-333 states that the earlier a belief is incorporated into the belief structure, the more difficult it is to alter.
In addition, Thompson 1992:127-146 suggests that teachers beliefs and values about teaching and learning affect their teaching practices. According to
Horwitz 1985: 333, addressing the beliefs of prospective foreign language teachers should be the first step in their development as foreign language teachers.
In other words, teachers‟ beliefs are the fundamental concepts to develop foreign language teaching. Williams and Burden 1997: 56
–57 propose that teacher beliefs affect everything that they do in the classroom, influencing classroom
strategies much more strongly than planned curriculum and pedagogies. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id
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Borg S 2011 states that teachers‟ beliefs strongly shape teachers instructional
practices, and subsequently the learning opportunities that learners receive. In his review of 16 studies of pre-service teacher beliefs, Pajares 1992:
307-332 concludes that student teachers‟ beliefs play a pivotal role in the way
they interpret and acquire information from their teacher education courses. Their beliefs act as perceptual, self validating, selective filters which sieve information
presented to them. Richards 1998 says that teachers‟ belief systems, including
their attitudes, values, expectations, theories, and assumptions about teaching and learning, are considered a primary source of teachers‟ classroom practices. These
beliefs are usually guided by a number of factors: their own experience as learners in classrooms, prior teaching experience, classroom observations they are exposed
to, and their previous training courses at school. Pajares 1992: 307-332 summarizes the results of re
search on teachers‟ beliefs by indicating that there was a strong relationship between pedagogical
beliefs of teachers, their planning for teaching, teaching decisions and classroom practices. He added that the pedagogical beliefs of teachers before the service play
a central role in the explanation of knowledge and teaching behavior when joining the teaching profession. In his opinion, these beliefs are the strongest factors
through which we can predict the teaching behavior. Ernest 1998 also says that teachers‟ beliefs have a strong effect on the teaching practices by converting those
beliefs into a practical reality. In addition, Clark Peterson 1986 see that teacher
‟s beliefs are a rich store of knowledge that might affect teaching plans and thoughts. Cronin-Jones
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1991: 235-250 also find that there are four main categories of teachers‟ beliefs
that strongly affect the curriculum implementation process. These beliefs are: beliefs on how students acquire knowledge, beliefs about the teacher‟s role in the
classroo m, beliefs related to the level of the student‟s ability in a particular age
group and beliefs about the relative importance of the content topics. To sum up, teachers‟ beliefs are considered as fundamental step in
teaching EFL students in the explanation of knowledge, information and teaching behavior when joining the teaching profession.
3. Factors Influencing Teachers’ Beliefs
