Primary teachers` beliefs about teaching English to young learners

While there is a growing belief that English should be taught from an early age in order to achieve better results, little is known about the practices and attitudes of primary school English teachers in Spain. Therefore, a qualitative study based on interviews with 22 primary school teachers of Eng...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Roothooft, Hanne
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Alcalá (UAH)
Repositorio:e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/32341
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10017/32341
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Teachers’ beliefs
Attitudes
EFL
Primary education
Creencias de profesores
Actitudes
Inglés como lengua extranjera
Educación Primaria
Ciencias sociales
Educación
Education
Social sciences
Descripción
Sumario:While there is a growing belief that English should be taught from an early age in order to achieve better results, little is known about the practices and attitudes of primary school English teachers in Spain. Therefore, a qualitative study based on interviews with 22 primary school teachers of English was carried out in order to investigate teachers’ beliefs about teaching methodology, the use of group work and the use of the mother tongue. It was found that all the teachers believe in following a communicative approach which focuses mainly on speaking and listening and in which the explicit teaching of grammar plays a minor role. Most of the teachers also claimed to use only the target language in class and to make frequent use of group and pair work. One of the aspects which seems to have influenced these teachers’ attitudes is their own negative experience as language learners in traditional, grammar-based classrooms.