a study on transferred teachers’ english pronunciation轉(zhuǎn)崗教師的英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音研究

1、<p>　　A STUDY ON TRANSFERRED TEACHERS’ ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION</p><p>　　A Case in Guangdong</p><p><b>　　ABSTRACT</b></p><p>　　Quality of teachers has always been paid

2、 great attention to, especially that of primary school teachers, who play the most influential role in students’ elementary learning. In 2001, as the new National English Curriculum requires that English should be taught

3、 from Grade 3 in primary schools, a new type of primary school English teachers named “transferred teachers” came into being. Transferred teachers are those non-English-major primary school teachers who shift to teach En

4、glish after graduati</p><p>　　As time was limited, six transferred teachers were chosen as our subjects. The study was carried out on the basis of the analysis of the errors on the recorded material of the E

5、nglish utterance borne out by these transferred teachers. </p><p><b>　　中文摘要</b></p><p>　　教師素質(zhì)一直都備受關(guān)注，特別是小學(xué)教師的素質(zhì)更是如此，因?yàn)樾W(xué)教師在學(xué)生初級(jí)階段的學(xué)習(xí)起著舉足輕重的作用。于2001年，應(yīng)新英語(yǔ)課程標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的要求，英語(yǔ)要從小學(xué)三年級(jí)教起，因此，一種被稱(chēng)為“

6、轉(zhuǎn)崗教師”的小學(xué)英語(yǔ)教師產(chǎn)生了?！稗D(zhuǎn)崗教師”是指從在職轉(zhuǎn)崗培訓(xùn)畢業(yè)后從事小學(xué)英語(yǔ)教學(xué)的非英語(yǔ)專(zhuān)業(yè)教師。至今為止，這些老師已經(jīng)從事小學(xué)英語(yǔ)教育有四年多了，但很少關(guān)于這些轉(zhuǎn)崗老師語(yǔ)音的后續(xù)調(diào)查。本研究基于轉(zhuǎn)崗教師的語(yǔ)音情況，求證這些只受過(guò)三周英語(yǔ)專(zhuān)業(yè)培訓(xùn)和一年的在職培訓(xùn)的轉(zhuǎn)崗教師是否有所進(jìn)步且能勝任于小學(xué)英語(yǔ)教學(xué)。</p><p>　　由于時(shí)間有限，在1102名轉(zhuǎn)崗教師中，6名被選為本研究的受試。本研究是通過(guò)給六位老

7、師的英語(yǔ)口頭表達(dá)錄音，并對(duì)錄音進(jìn)行其錯(cuò)誤分析。</p><p>　　Table of Contents</p><p>　　ABSTRACTI</p><p><b>　　中文摘要II</b></p><p>　　Chapter One Introduction1</p><p>　　1.1

8、 Background1</p><p>　　1.2 Significance of the Empirical Study1</p><p>　　1.3 Purpose of the Present Study1</p><p>　　1.4 Structure of the Present Study2</p><p>　　Chap

9、ter Two Literature Review3</p><p>　　2.1 Definition of Teachers’ Beliefs3</p><p>　　2.2 Teachers’ Beliefs and Teaching Behavior3</p><p>　　2.3 The Expected Teachers’ Beliefs of the

10、New Curriculum4</p><p>　　Chapter Three Method5</p><p>　　3.1 The Participants5</p><p>　　3.2 Procedures5</p><p>　　Chapter Four Results and Discussion8</p><

11、;p>　　4.1 Status Quo of the Teachers’ Beliefs8</p><p>　　4.2 The Relationship between Teachers’ Beliefs and Their Teaching Behavior10</p><p>　　4.3 Teachers’ Most Concern in Course Planning13

12、</p><p>　　Chapter Five Conclusion and Research Implications15</p><p>　　5.1 The Importance of Teacher Training15</p><p>　　5.2 Modification of the Assessment System17</p>&l

13、t;p>　　5.3 Offering Adequate Teaching Facilities17</p><p>　　References20</p><p>　　Appendix I18</p><p>　　Appendix II19</p><p>　　ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS21</p><

14、p>　　Chapter One Introduction</p><p>　　1.1 Background</p><p>　　The recent societal trends outline new educational aims designed to create the highly skilled teachers necessary for the 21st cen

15、tury. In such a new phase of education, fruitful teaching outcome is based largely on new teaching skills, which come from frequent teaching reflection and belief renewal. </p><p>　　As a matter of fact, teac

16、hers’ beliefs tend to affect everything they do in the classroom, no matter implicit or explicit. Furthermore, teachers’ articulated beliefs is one thing, and how they apply them in actual teaching is another thing.</

17、p><p>　　1.2 Significance of the Empirical Study</p><p>　　As education promotion is inevitable in the new phase of education, the best way to promote teaching outcome is to get feedback from teacher

18、s and learners and refine teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior. Judd (1981) and Wade (2002) put forward applicable methodology for education improvement based on substantial surveys. Pate et al (1997) consider establi

19、shing an integrated, coherent curriculum as their ultimate aim of researches.</p><p>　　Many other experts have also endowed great significance to these sorts of research (Floden & Klinzing 1990; Pajares

20、1992). And Breen et al (2001) suggests that these researches could be seen as a means to exploring language teaching. In fact, these empirical studies can help to refine teacher beliefs and teaching behavior as well. Man

21、n (2005) addresses that teachers develop by collecting data and reflecting.</p><p>　　1.3 Purpose of the Present Study</p><p>　　Teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior have been studied widely in

22、 the last decade (Pajares 1992; Smith 1997; Breen et al 2001; Nunan 2001; Wade 2002; Burns 2005). However, only a few qualitative studies about teachers’ beliefs have been carried out throughout China, let alone in Guang

23、dong Province. Therefore, there is a gap in this body of qualitative research on teachers’ beliefs in different areas of GD since the implementation of the New Curriculum. The present study is attempting to help f</p&

24、gt;<p>　　The present study tries to find out the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their practical teaching behavior in the New Curriculum context, and in the meantime, to find out significant proposals f

25、or teacher training and provide educators with valuable perspectives on teaching and curriculum development.</p><p>　　1.4 Structure of the Present Study</p><p>　　Starting from definition, the au

26、thor first of all found out some experts’ definition of “teachers’ beliefs”, and then summed it up to be a much plain one. Then the author proceeded to make analysis of the questionnaires, aiming at finding out the statu

27、s quo of teachers’ beliefs in GD Province. After that, the author made further analysis on the classroom observation log, trying to find out whether the teachers’ teaching behavior was consistent with their articulated b

28、eliefs. Finally, face-to-fac</p><p>　　Chapter Two Literature Review</p><p>　　2.1 Definition of Teachers’ Beliefs</p><p>　　Definition of beliefs may vary according to different exper

29、ts. Sigel (1985) defines beliefs as mental construction of experience, which guides behavior. Nespor (1987) and William & Burden (1997) define it as values and attitudes of the world and is also predictor of behavior

30、. To be brief, beliefs tell behavior.</p><p>　　In 1992, Pajares made a definition of “teachers’ beliefs” as teachers’ attitudes about education, about schooling, teaching, learning, and students (Pajares 199

31、2). Nespor (1987), Woods (1996) and William & Burden (1997) found teachers’ beliefs is far more influential than knowledge in determining classroom work. Breen et al (2002) also infers that teachers’ beliefs and expe

32、riences strongly influenced classroom work. </p><p>　　From all the above definitions, the author summed up “teachers’ beliefs” to be teachers’ attitudes about teaching and learning, which will affect everyth

33、ing they do in the classroom teaching.</p><p>　　2.2 Teachers’ Beliefs and Teaching Behavior</p><p>　　The western countries had gone through 3 decades in the research of the relationship between

34、teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior. Freeman (2002) subdivides the period into 3 broad time frames: work leading up to 1975, the decade of change (1980-1990), and the decade of consolidation (1990-2000).</p>&

35、lt;p>　　Since the 80s, an array of empirical studies of teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior have been carried out. Freeman (2002) probed the impact of teachers’ mental lives, prior knowledge, social and institution

36、al context, etc. on teaching behavior, and found teachers’ beliefs to have a powerful influence on their behavior. Actually, how teachers’ beliefs shape their behavior in classroom teaching has been studied in various wa

37、ys (Meighan 1990; Woods 1996; Smith 1997; Breen et al 2001; Borg 2003;</p><p>　　Chinese researchers have begun to set about studying teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior in recent years (Wang 2002; Xia 20

38、02; Sun 2005; Lou & Liao 2005).</p><p>　　All these studies collectively show that classroom activities are highly influenced by teachers’ beliefs. However, some researchers found their subjects to behave

39、 the other way round. </p><p>　　Argyris & Schön (1974, 1987) argue that there is almost always a discrepancy between teachers’ beliefs and the ways teachers act (William & Burden 1997). Sun (200

40、5) addresses that the most prominent problem in English classroom teaching to be the gap between the newly acquired teaching beliefs and the educational practice. Wang (2002) and Lou & Liao (2005) also found such a d

41、iscrepancy between their subject teachers’ behavior and beliefs. If there really exists such a discrepancy, the teaching m</p><p>　　2.3 The Expected Teachers’ Beliefs of the New Curriculum</p><p&g

42、t;　　Chances are that given better teaching, learners will learn more. The new era of education calls for improved teaching beliefs and behavior as instruments to facilitate and improve student learning. The newly impleme

43、nted curriculum put forward five teachers’ beliefs as follows:</p><p>　　Focusing on common foundation, preparing for further development;</p><p>　　Offering various options, catering for personal

44、 needs;</p><p>　　Optimizing the learning model, enhancing self-directed learning competence;</p><p>　　Concerning with students’ emotion, enhancing cultural awareness;</p><p>　　Promo

45、ting the assessment system, encouraging continuous development.</p><p>　?。╟ited from Senior English Curriculum 2003:2-3）</p><p>　　As a matter of fact, such beliefs were raised to meet the new de

46、mands of our society, to meet the new learning needs of our students. On condition that teachers’ beliefs and teaching were consistent with the New Curriculum, fruitful teaching outcome would be yielded. </p><

47、p>　　However, the questions are: What’s the status quo of teachers’ beliefs? Do they behave in accordance with their articulated beliefs? And what do the teachers usually take into account in teaching? To find out all

48、the corresponding answers, the author carried out a survey of teachers’ beliefs and teaching behavior in GD Province.</p><p>　　Chapter Three Method</p><p>　　The survey consisted of 3 instruments

49、: ① a teacher questionnaire developed by the author (consisted of three sections: Section One--personal data and experience, etc; Section Two--a 25 item teacher belief section based on the 5 guidelines of the New Curricu

50、lum in senior high published by the Ministry of Education (Item 1–5 on Belief 1, Item 6-10 on Belief 2, and the rest may be deduced by analogy); Section Three--2 open questions about teachers’ beliefs and teacher concern

51、) (See Appendix 1); ② a</p><p>　　A pilot study was conducted in one Type B school from Guangzhou in early September 2005. Based on the feedback from the pilot study, the author made revisions in the survey i

52、nstruments. </p><p>　　3.1 The Participants</p><p>　　10 schools from 5 of the cities in GD Province participated in this study. The participants were carefully chosen: the capital city of GD--Gua

53、ngzhou (廣州), two peripheral cities--Foshan (佛山) and Nanhai (南海), two relatively remote cities--Puning (普寧) and Shantou (汕頭), respectively. 10 researchers divided the 10 schools among them during their teaching practices.

54、 However, only 8 schools’ data were intact and possible for analysis. Altogether, there were 27 teachers from these 8 schools.</p><p>　　Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of all the subject teachers. 18

55、worked in Grade One, and 9 worked in Grade Two. There were 17 female and 10 male teachers. The teachers had varying degrees of general teaching experience ranging from 1 to 43 years. The average teaching experience acros

56、s the sample was 12.7 years. Among them, 26 teachers had received the New Curriculum training. </p><p>　　Table 1. The Teachers’ Characteristics</p><p>　　For the sake of being as objective as pos

57、sible, School 7 and School 8 also excluded in the following discussions, because only one subject teacher was available from each of these two schools. Consequently, the following results and discussions were based on 6

58、schools.</p><p>　　3.2 Procedures</p><p>　　3.2.1 The Teacher Questionnaire Survey</p><p>　　Firstly, the researchers invited the teachers to fill in the Teacher Questionnaire (TQ) and

59、 fixed a time with the teachers for classroom observation. Teachers filled in the general information and indicated the level of endorsement of each of the 25 items using a 5-point Likert-type scale comprising the catego

60、ries “strongly disagree,” “disagree,” “somewhat disagree, somewhat agree,” “agree,” and “strongly agree,” scored as 1 through 5, respectively; then they responded to the 2 open questions co</p><p>　　Table 2.

61、 The 2 Open Questions in the Teacher Questionnaire</p><p>　　As is shown in Table 2, Question 1 tells whether teachers have noticed the most obvious changes of the curriculum. And Question 2 enables the autho

62、r to perceive the teachers’ most concern, which would serve as a basis to find out whether teachers adopted particular teaching strategies to enhance their students’ weak point, since they have noticed where the problems

63、 lied.</p><p>　　3.2.2 Classroom Observation </p><p>　　As there may exist a discrepancy between teachers’ beliefs and behavior, and apart from this, teachers may overstate or understate the belie

64、fs underlying their actual practice. Therefore, whether teachers teach in accordance with their beliefs can only be revealed from the observation of practical teaching. </p><p>　　Hence, the second data colle

65、ction method was based upon a substantial classroom observation log. The researchers recorded 10 periods of English classes of every subject school. The 10 English classes were not specifically chosen, but observed at ra

66、ndom, generating a thorough and objective data. The observation focused on classroom activities, multimedia applied, textbook dealt, assessment forms, and optional courses, etc.</p><p>　　3.2.3 The Interview&

67、lt;/p><p>　　In order to comprehend more about how teachers’ beliefs guide their behavior, and what teachers usually take into account in their teaching, face-to-face interviews were added, and the interview wit

68、h teachers was semi-structured. Table 3 shows the outline of the interview.</p><p>　　Table 3. Outline of the Semi-structure Interview</p><p>　　The author arranged interviews with 12 Senior One E

69、nglish teachers from 6 schools (Comprising Type A, Type B and Type C schools) in GZ, 2 teachers from every subject school participated in the interview. The interviews were recorded implicitly by mp3, and were transcribe

70、d into written language later.</p><p>　　3.2.4 Data Analysis</p><p>　　All data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS)，release 10.0 and Microsoft Excel, release 2

71、003.</p><p>　　Mean and standard deviation of the TQ were analyzed by using Descriptives; histograms were generated by using Excel to illustrate the results more plainly. And within-group differences of 25 te

72、achers’ beliefs of the 6 subject schools were analyzed by using One-way ANOVA.</p><p>　　Chapter Four Results and Discussion</p><p>　　After all the data were collected, the author began to arrang

73、e the data and analyze them. Firstly, the author sorted out all the received questionnaires. And found out the valid percent of the TQ was 100%. Table 4 indicates the general information of the questionnaires obtained fr

74、om the 6 schools. </p><p>　　Table 4. Information of the Received TQ </p><p>　　4.1 Status Quo of the Teachers’ Beliefs</p><p>　　4.1.1 Mean and Std. Deviation of the TQ</p><

75、;p>　　Starting from data analysis, the author carried out Descriptive Statistics analysis to analyze the TQ, showing that all the means of the 5 beliefs are within the range of “3.5 to 4.4”, therefore, conclusion can b

76、e drawn that all the subject teachers “Agree①” with every belief advocated in the New Curriculum. Then the author put the data from Figure 1 into the Microsoft Excel, generating a histogram as follows:</p><p&g

77、t;　　Figure 1. Mean of Every Belief </p><p>　　As is illustrated above, the histogram indicates that the means of Belief 2 (Offering various option

78、s, catering for personal needs) and Belief 5 (Promoting the assessment system, encouraging continuous development) score the lowest among the five beliefs. The causes of this result maybe: optional class and formative ev

79、aluation, etc. are newly advocated, compared with the other beliefs; and it takes time to get thorough endorsement from all the teachers. Whereas, those of Belief 3 (Optimizing lea</p><p>　　After that, the a

80、uthor made another Descriptive Statistics analysis to find out the mean and standard deviation of the teachers’ beliefs in every subject school. Figure 2 illustrates the results of the Descriptive Statistics analysis. Me

81、an of 4 of the subject schools is also within the range of “3.5 to 4.4”, a same conclusion can be drawn that these schools “Agree” with the New Curriculum; and School 2 and School 3 got a mean higher than “4.4”, what’ mo

82、re, mean of School 2 is within “4.5 to 5”, </p><p>　　Figure 2. Mean of Every Subject School </p><p>　　Figure 1 and Figure 2 reveal tha

83、t teachers from every subject school “ Agree” or “ Strongly agree” with every teacher’ s belief put forward in the New Curriculum. Figure 2 also indicates that teachers’ beliefs differ in different schools. The histogram

84、 displays impressive differences among the subject schools plainly, and school 1 & 5 bear a great distance from School 2 &3 in the endorsement of the New Curriculum. To confirm this hypothesis, a One-way ANOVA an

85、alysis was conducted.</p><p>　　4.1.2 A Comparison of Teachers’ Beliefs in Every Subject School</p><p>　　When means of the beliefs were compared, the One-way ANOVA results indicated that teachers

86、’ beliefs in different schools differed significantly, sig. = .047, P<0.05 (illustrated in Figure 3). Since 26 out of the 27 teachers have got the New Curriculum training. The possible causes of such difference may be

87、 due to teachers’ different interpretation of the New Curriculum, restraint of their students’ level or confinement of the particular teaching context in every subject school. </p><p>　　Figure 3. One-way ANO

88、VA of Teachers’ Beliefs</p><p>　　To make a classification of all the subject schools, Homogeneous Subsets analysis was directed. Figure 4 demonstrated that teachers’ beliefs in School 1 and School 5 were sig

89、nificantly different from those in School 3 and School 2, for they are not in the same column. School 4, 6, 3 and 2 are identical in terms of endorsement of the New Curriculum, because they are in the same column.</p&

90、gt;<p>　　Figure 4. Homogeneous Subsets of Every Subject School</p><p>　　Uses Harmonic Mean Sample Size = 3.913.</p><p>　　Descriptive Statistics of the TQ revealed that all subject teacher

91、s from GD Province “Agree” or “Strongly agree” with the New Curriculum. And One-way ANOVA analysis illustrated that teachers’ beliefs varied from one school to another. School 2 and school 3 scored the highest among the

92、6 schools, which indicated that they endorsed the New Curriculum the most. However, chances are that some teachers showed great approval to the New Curriculum just because they knew about it from the teacher traini</p

93、><p>　　4.2 The Relationship between Teachers’ Beliefs and Their Teaching Behavior</p><p>　　To find out whether teachers teach in light of their beliefs, analysis of the answers to the 2 open questi

94、ons in the TQ was conducted. With the teachers’ most concern in mind, further analysis on whether teachers adopted particular strategies to tackle the obstacles was directed.</p><p>　　4.2.1 Teachers’ Articul

95、ated Beliefs</p><p>　　The data revealed almost 72 opinions and suggestions put forward by all the subject teachers. Table 5 listed out five most widely shared categories of teacher concern for each question.

96、</p><p>　　Table 5. Teacher Concern on the Current Curriculum and Teaching</p><p>　　To sum up, most teachers have noticed the renewal of the curriculum and have perceived its characteristics and

97、advantages. They also found the current curriculum to be more demanding for their students, owing to the dramatically increased capacity of the textbook and limited course hours. In the meantime, they call for coherence

98、of the junior high and senior high curriculum, and new testing formula. These are the shared concern of most teachers, however, the questions are: Since they’ve noticed </p><p>　　4.2.2 Observation Log of Pra

99、ctical Classroom Teaching</p><p>　　Bearing the teachers’ most concern in mind, the author proceeded to analyze all the data on the teachers’ behavior in the classroom as recorded in the 6 researchers’ classr

100、oom observation logs. The 10-period classroom observation logs recorded more than 5 teachers from Grade One and Grade Two in every subject school. Hence, these data covered a range wide enough to represent the whole subj