The relationship between teachers' beliefs and teaching approaches for large and mixed-level groups of foreign language learners

Abstract

The subjects arc 83 junior high school teachers in Yamanashi. They were asked how they deal with mixed-level groups in their classes and filled out questionnaires on the beliefs. As for data analysis, teachers were divided into three groups by the years teaching. The questionnaires included the following six aspects of teaching teaching paces (student-centered vs teacher-centered) , teaching styles(heuristic vs explanation) , use of materials(textbook-centered vs flexible use) , homework(required vs not required), teaching processes(rigid vs flexible). We prepaid mainly two research questions in this study: 1) whether or not teachers take different levels of students into consideration on planning teaching processes in their classes. 2) Whether or not the differences between teachers about teaching careeres rake their teaching netted for mixes-level students different The results showed that teachers think they need to adopt different methods for different levels of students, a result which doesn't vary according to years in the teaching field.