a study on transferred teachers’ english pronunciation對(duì)“轉(zhuǎn)崗教師”英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音的調(diào)查研究

1、<p>　　A Study on Transferred Teachers’ English Pronunciation對(duì)“轉(zhuǎn)崗教師”英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音的調(diào)查研究</p><p><b>　　ABSTRACT</b></p><p>　　Quality of teachers has always been paid great attention to, espec

2、ially 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 from Grade 3 in primary s

3、chools, 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 English after graduati</p

4、><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 English utterance borne out

5、 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，一種被稱為“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

6、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。<

7、;/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 Background1</p>&

8、lt;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>　　Chapter Two Literature Review

9、3</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 New Curriculum4</p>

10、<p>　　Chapter Three Method5</p><p>　　3.1 The Participants5</p><p>　　3.2 Procedures5</p><p>　　Chapter Four Results and Discussion8</p><p>　　4.1 Status Quo of

11、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</p><p>　　Cha

12、pter Five Conclusion and Research Implications15</p><p>　　5.1 The Importance of Teacher Training15</p><p>　　5.2 Modification of the Assessment System17</p><p>　　5.3 Offering Adeq

13、uate Teaching Facilities17</p><p>　　References20</p><p>　　Appendix I18</p><p>　　Appendix II19</p><p>　　ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS21</p><p>　　Chapter One Introdu

14、ction</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 century. In such a new phase

15、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, teachers’ beliefs tend to affe

16、ct 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.</p><p>　　1.2 Sign

17、ificance 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 teachers and learners and refine

18、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 establishing an integrated, coher

19、ent 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 1992). And Breen et al (20

20、01) 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. Mann (2005) addresses that te

21、achers 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 the last decade (Pajares

22、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 Guangdong Province. Therefore,

23、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><p>　　The presen

24、t 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 for teacher training and pr

25、ovide educators with valuable perspectives on teaching and curriculum development.</p><p>　　1.4 Structure of the Present Study</p><p>　　Starting from definition, the author first of all found ou

26、t 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 status quo of teachers’ beliefs

27、 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 beliefs. Finally, face-to-f

28、ac</p><p>　　Chapter Two Literature Review</p><p>　　2.1 Definition of Teachers’ Beliefs</p><p>　　Definition of beliefs may vary according to different experts. Sigel (1985) defines b

29、eliefs 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. To be brief, beliefs tel

30、l behavior.</p><p>　　In 1992, Pajares made a definition of “teachers’ beliefs” as teachers’ attitudes about education, about schooling, teaching, learning, and students (Pajares 1992). Nespor (1987), Woods (

31、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 experiences strongly influence

32、d 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 everything they do in the classro

33、om 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 teachers’ beliefs and teac

34、hing 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><p>　　Since the 80s, a

35、n 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 institutional context, etc. on teachi

36、ng 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 ways (Meighan 1990; Woods 19

37、96; 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 2002; Sun 2005; Lou & Li

38、ao 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 the other way round. <

39、/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 (2005) addresses that the most

40、 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 discrepancy between their s

41、ubject 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>　　Chances are that given

42、 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 implemented curriculum put forwar

43、d five teachers’ beliefs as follows:</p><p>　　Focusing on common foundation, preparing for further development;</p><p>　　Offering various options, catering for personal needs;</p><p&g

44、t;　　Optimizing the learning model, enhancing self-directed learning competence;</p><p>　　Concerning with students’ emotion, enhancing cultural awareness;</p><p>　　Promoting the assessment system

45、, encouraging continuous development.</p><p>　　（cited from Senior English Curriculum 2003:2-3）</p><p>　　As a matter of fact, such beliefs were raised to meet the new demands of our society, to m

46、eet 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><p>　　However, the questi

47、ons 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 the corresponding answers,

48、 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: ① a teacher questionnair

49、e 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 Curriculum in senior high publish

50、ed 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) (See Appendix 1); ② a<

51、;/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 instruments. </p>&l

52、t;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--Guangzhou (廣州), two periphera

53、l 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. However, only 8 schools’

54、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 worked in Grade One, and 9

55、 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 across the sample was 12.7 year

56、s. 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 possible, School 7 and School

57、 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 schools.</p><p&

58、gt;　　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 fixed a time with the tea

59、chers 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 categories “strongly disagree,”

60、“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. The 2 Open Questions in t

61、he 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 author to perceive the teachers

62、’ 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 lied.</p><p>

63、;　　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 beliefs underlying their actual

64、 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 collection method was based upo

65、n 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 random, generating a thoroug

66、h 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</p><p>　　In o

67、rder 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 with teachers was semi-struct

68、ured. 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 English teachers from 6 sch

69、ools (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 transcribed into written language la

70、ter.</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 2003.</p><p>　

71、　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 teachers’ beliefs of the 6 s

72、ubject 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 arrange the data and analyze the

73、m. 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 from the 6 schools. </p&g

74、t;<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><p>　　Starting from data

75、 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 be drawn that all the subje

76、ct 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>　　Figure 1. Mean of Ever

77、y Belief </p><p>　　As is illustrated above, the histogram indicates that the means of Belief 2 (Offering various options, catering for personal n

78、eeds) 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 evaluation, etc. are newly a

79、dvocated, 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 author made another Descrip

80、tive 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. Mean of 4 of the subject sch

81、ools 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’ more, mean of School 2 is wi

82、thin “4.5 to 5”, </p><p>　　Figure 2. Mean of Every Subject School </p><p>　　Figure 1 and Figure 2 reveal that teachers from every subj

83、ect 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 displays impressive diffe

84、rences 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 analysis was conducted.</

85、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’ beliefs in different sch

86、ools 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 due to teachers’ differen

87、t 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 ANOVA of Teachers’ Beliefs<

88、;/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 significantly different from

89、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><p>　　Figure 4.

90、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 teachers from GD Province “Agree”

91、 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 6 schools, which indicated

92、 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><p>　　4.2 The R

93、elationship 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 questions in the TQ was conducte

94、d. 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’ Articulated Beliefs</p>&l

95、t;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.</p><p>　　Tab

96、le 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 advantages. They also foun

97、d 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 of the junior high and sen

98、ior 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 Practical Classroom Teaching&

99、lt;/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’ classroom observation logs. The