Beliefs: an analysis based in an interview with three different English

teachers

Julia Yumi Franz

Luana da Silva Vicente

Patrícia Regina Vieira

Abstract

Beliefs are ways of thinking, perceiving the world and construct reality. They may be

social or individual. Following this thinking about beliefs, this paper aims to analyze and

compare statements of three different English teachers from different contexts.

1. Introduction

There are many different English teachers in schools; all of them with different

backgrounds, different reasons for choosing this career, different motivations and beliefs.

Beliefs might influence how people organize and define their tasks. In other words, the

Beliefs may tell a lot about how people act.

In order to make more inroads about this matter and to deepen our understanding, we

decided to analyze and compare statements from teachers, who were interviewed by some

students from the course LLE 7416, in Inglês VI – Ensino e Aprendizagem de Língua

Estrangeira, based on the studies by Barcellos (2007) and D’Ely & Gil (2005) as theoretical

framework.

2. Review of literature

In order to answer our research question, we used the theoretical setting supported by

Barcellos (2007) and (D’Ely & Gil, 2005). Beliefs are very important in language learning

because they are directly linked to the way of teaching the teacher and it may be determined

by them. Beliefs may help or hinder the teacher in the use of different teaching

methodologies, and may help in understanding the choices of the teacher or produce

divergence between theory and practice.

Beliefs can be defined as views/ideas based on

perceptions of specific experiences, in specific

contexts, at a given period of time which influence

one’s own understanding, decisions and actions. By

this, there is the underlying presupposition that beliefs

are highly idiosyncratic (although they can be shared

by members of a group), are socially constructed, can

be constantly reinterpreted thus, may be amenable to

change (D’Ely & Gil, 2005)

According to Barcelos (p.02, 2007) Educating is about bringing changes or creating

conditions for they happen, always starting from a place that, in this case, are our beliefs

about the world around us. Thus we will compare and analyze the answers of three English

teachers and their beliefs, using the definition from these theatrical mentioned above.

3. Methods

The data was collected by three groups of students from the Letras’ undergraduate

program, taking the course of LLE 7416, in Inglês VI – Ensino e Aprendizagem de Língua

Estrangeira. The interview was audio recorded and conducted with a semi-structure

questionnaire (see Appendix 6.1.). The main objective of the interview was to investigate

how started their teaching career and what were/are the beliefs of those teachers.

The three interviewees are from different schools and have different backgrounds.

One, Teacher X, is 49 years old. She is a teacher for almost 30 years and, at the moment of

the interview, she works at Instituto Estadual de Eduacação, a public school; the second one,

Teacher Y, is 31 years old. He teaches for 11 years and he is the Skill franchising’s

coordinator, a private school. And the last one, but not less important, Teacher Z. She is 47

years old, teaches at The Secret Garden, a private school, and teaches for 20 years. And all

of them share an issue: none of them intended to be a teacher, therefore

Through the answers given by the teachers, we intend to analyze and demonstrate

some aspects related to English teaching and reflect about Beliefs. Taking into consideration

the studies from Barcellos (2007) and D’Ely & Gil (2005), as mentioned previously.

4. Data analysis

Concerning the questions that the teachers answered, we choose to five of them that

are related on beliefs, in order illustrated the analysis:

04. What were your expectations regarding your profession before you actually started

being a teacher?

Teacher X did not have any expectations, due to the reason she chose her profession only

because she married a Chemistry teacher and wanted to spend her vacations with him, but

she began to like the profession, and nowadays she loves what she does. Teacher Y started

teaching with the only expectation to earn money. And Teacher Z, an English woman that

came to live in Brazil, declare that her expectations were: “Live in a country that needs this

language and people are enthusiastic about it so it must be interesting for me".

05. Wouldn`t you mind telling us about a very successful/and a not very successful

experience you had as a teacher and also, as a student?

To Teacher X a successful experience was working with different projects to combine many

skills. And an unsuccessful experience was thinking that classes work out only with games.

The Teacher Y affirm that the worst experience to him was to make, unconsciously, his

students like what he liked through songs and videos. He found out that he had to find a way

to understand the students and their needs.

Meanwhile, Teacher Z stated the most effective or successful method she uses is the

“Waldorf pedagogy that is distinguishes three broad stages in child development, each

lasting approximately seven years. The early years education focuses on providing practical,

hands-on activities and environments that encourage creative play. In the elementary school,

the emphasis is on developing pupils' artistic expression and social capacities, fostering both

creative and analytical modes of understanding. Secondary education focuses on developing

critical understanding and fostering idealism. Throughout, the approach stresses the role of

the imagination in learning and places a strong value on integrating academic, practical and

artistic pursuits.”

06. How do you perceive teachers in the Brazilian context? And how do you think people

perceive teachers?

To Teacher X, based on the context she is inserted in, many teachers do not know how to

speak in English in the classroom. One aspect that upset the second teacher about the

Brazilian context is that many people thinking they were well-prepared to be teachers

because they have some experiences abroad. According to him they are not teacher, they are

only people who speak English well, and that it is not enough to be a teacher.

07. When teaching what aspects you consider as relevant? That is, thinking more

specifically about your classes’ task, talk a little bit about you decision making process of

what to teach/how to teach. What do you prioritize, what criteria do you adopt?

The Teacher X consider as relevant aspects of teaching, make a review with the students, in

order to let them at the "same level". After this, she starts to plan the activities and work

with different skills, actually, with the 4 skills: writing, listening, reading and speaking.

According to Teacher Y, he really liked to listen to his teachers experiences abroad,

to know more about teachers and culture itself. The experience of sharing between teacher

and students is a very precious aspect of teaching to the teacher.

Teacher Z stated: “Learning involves lots of different things and it's particular to

each kind of person because people learn in different ways”. She also mention that they

(students) might be visual, auditory, expansive, introverted, and this characteristics can

influence the learning. Regarding her classes she said that she like to make plans for classes

with a structure, objectives, main content and attention span.

08. Which characteristics do you consider essential for being a teacher?

According to X to be a teacher is necessary: like people; be patient; know the subject, have

flexibility. By the other hand, Teacher Y stresses that good communication is an important

feature because the teacher must know how to handle different situations, and people in

class… He said that teachers need to be aware of transformations and evaluation of the

language.

The third teacher believes what is necessary to be a teacher: don't hurry kids; don't forget

learning also happens unconsciously; be creative and artistic; never rigid; education is

mainly about affection; make language meaningful to your students; believe you can make a

difference.

Based in their answers, it is possible to percieve that they do have different

perspective about they career as teachers and about teaching itself. Even though none of

them plan to be a teacher, after taking the role of one, they began to love this profession.

Teacher Y brought, in question 6, an interesting and a common belief about English

teachers in Brazil, the belief a teacher needs to have experiences in a foreign country in

order to have domain of the language; a belief that is changing, slowly, in our context of

teaching a foreign language.

To conclude is based on their own beliefs that question 8 was answered, the

characteristics were established with what they believe is the most important. And all their

answers were different, a reason for that might be for the fact all of them live in different

reality, work in different schools and have different background and a different journey in

the field of teaching.

5. Final Considerations

Teachers are bridges that connect the English language and the students; therefore they

have a great responsibility in guiding them. It is their beliefs the ones which will guide their

classes, their way of thinking and perceiving the teaching career. It can also be great allies that

they might use in order help their teaching methodology.

6. Appendix

6.1.

LLE 7416- English VI

Module 2 – Beliefs

Interview Guide

Ice breaker

Name:

Age:

Level of education:

Teaching experience – (refer to time spent in

doing the teaching task, context of action,

etc..)

Main questions

01. What has motivated you to learn English?

02. Why have you chosen this profession?

03. Could you possibly tell us a bit about your teaching `history`? Refer to any aspect you

consider important.

04. What were your expectations regarding your profession before you actually started

being a teacher?

05. Wouldn`t you mind telling us about a very successful/and a not very successful

experience you had as a teacher and also, as a student?

06. How do you perceive teachers and translators in the Brazilian context? And how do you

think people perceive teachers and translators?

07. When teaching what aspects you consider as relevant? That is, thinking more

specifically about your classes’ task, talk a little bit about you decision making process of

what to teach/how to teach. What do you prioritize, what criteria do you adopt?

08. Which characteristics do you consider essential for being a teacher?

09. Considering the teaching context you are inserted in, what would you say?

10. Could you possibly complete the following sentences?

For you, teaching is….

For you, learning is…

For you, being a good teacher is….

Closing question

11. Is there anything else that you would like to refer to as regards teaching that we have

not asked/or that you have not said?

7. References

Barcellos, A. M. (2007). Reflexões acerca da mudança de crenças sobre ensino e

aprendizagem de línguas. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, vol. 7, nº2.

D’Ely, R. & Gil, G. Investigando o impacto de um curso de metodologia de Inglês - LE

sobre crenças, atitudes e prática de ensino de alunos e professores. In Gil, Glória et al.

(Orgs). Pesquisas qualitativas no ensino e aprendizagem de língua estrangeira: a sala

de aula e o professor. DLLE/CCE/UFSC: Florianópolis, SC, 2005, P.261-2478. 2006