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

teachers
Julia Yumi Franz
Luana da Silva Vicente
Patrcia 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 Ingls VI Ensino e Aprendizagem de Lngua
Estrangeira, based on the studies by Barcellos (2007) and DEly & 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 (DEly & 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
ones 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 (DEly & 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 Ingls VI Ensino e Aprendizagem de Lngua
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 Eduacao, a public school; the second one,
Teacher Y, is 31 years old. He teaches for 11 years and he is the Skill franchisings
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 DEly & 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). Reflexes acerca da mudana de crenas sobre ensino e

aprendizagem de lnguas. Revista Brasileira de Lingustica Aplicada, vol. 7, n2.

DEly, R. & Gil, G. Investigando o impacto de um curso de metodologia de Ingls - LE

sobre crenas, atitudes e prtica de ensino de alunos e professores. In Gil, Glria et al.
(Orgs). Pesquisas qualitativas no ensino e aprendizagem de lngua estrangeira: a sala
de aula e o professor. DLLE/CCE/UFSC: Florianpolis, SC, 2005, P.261-2478. 2006