Abstract:

Belief as part of teacher's cognition has been the limelight of the study in the field of second language teaching in recent years. “Beliefs about language learning" according to Nikitina & Furuoka (2006) "belong in the domain of affective variables, such as attitudes, motivation, anxiety etc.” (p. 209). Language anxiety, as one of the variables in affective domain, is undoubtedly one of the prominent learner characteristics which affects second language performance. Asbjornson (1996) conclude that “beliefs are central to the formation of affective factors and strategies”. He further adds that “debilitative anxiety is a likely product of a classroom where the students’ and teachers’ beliefs about the nature of language learning are mismatched”. Hence, to cast new light on the issue, this study seeks to figure out the effect of teacher beliefs on the development of learners’ Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) in Iran. It also tries to investigate the actual performance of the learners with regard to the type of beliefs their teachers have adopted. For the first step, thirty teachers who are teaching English in a private English institute in Tehran were selected to collect data on their beliefs about language learning/ teaching. To end up with corroborated findings (Dornyei, 2007), data were triangulated using different methods. They first answered a researchers-designed teacher belief questionnaire. They were also asked to write their metaphor regarding some major issues like language classrooms, language learning, teaching, and students. Moreover, a semi-structured interview was administered to cross-check the collected data. Based on the collected data five teachers out of them were selected in the way that they had the most varied beliefs. Just before the first session of these five teachers’ classes, their students' foreign language classroom anxiety was measured administering FLCA scale (Horwitz, 1983). The same FLCA questionnaire was administered in the last session of their classes. To see the difference, the results of the questionnaires were compared. Furthermore, any change in the learners’ anxiety in any class was compared with the beliefs of the teacher in that class. The expected result would actually help us conclude on the impact of English language teachers on the positive/negative development of learners’ anxiety.


References:

Asbjornson, B. (1996, November). Do beliefs matter in language learning achievement? A pilot study. Individual Differences in the Japanese EFL Context, 14. Retrieved July 16, 2010 from http://www.tuj.ac.jp/newsite/main/tesol/publications/ working_papers/vol_14/asbjornson.html
Horwitz, E. (1983). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Unpublished Manuscript. Austin: University of Texas.
Dornyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nikitina, L. & Furuoka, F. (2006). Re-examining Horwitz’s Beliefs About Language
Learning Inventory (BALLI) in the Malaysian context. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 3(2), 209-219.

Keywords:

Teacher's belief, Foreign Language Anxiety.