An Investigation into Novice English Teachers’ Beliefs about Method and Post-method Pedagogy in Turkish EFL Context

Year 2013, Volume: 4 Issue: 4, 55 - 69, 01.04.2013

Mustafa Tekin

Abstract

This study which has a qualitative research design, reports on the views and beliefs of eleven novice English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers about the English language teaching (ELT) methods for the purpose of examining their knowledge about and attitudes towards popular methods and post-method as well as towards current discussions in ELT and the effects of them on their reported classroom practices. In this respect, the novice teachers were interviewed by means of the video conferencing feature of the Windows Live Messenger (currently SKYPE) about their views and beliefs related to method vs. post-method discussions as well as their current teaching practices. The results revealed a discrepancy between the participants’ views and their classroom practices. In fact, the majority of the participants reported a negative change in their attitudes towards teaching after they started teaching. The majority of the eleven participants were totally unaware of the postmethod discussions. In the final section of the paper, the reasons for these findings are discussed in detail, and further suggestions are made in an attempt to find solutions to some of the problems reported by the participant novice teachers

Keywords

English Language Teaching (ELT), teachers’ views and beliefs, method and postmethod, novice teachers, classroom practices

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