The Language Learning Journal, 2013

Vol. 41, No. 2, 175191, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2013.790132

The complexity of language teachers beliefs and practice: one EFL

teachers theories
Li Li*
Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
The importance of teachers beliefs in understanding the effectiveness of language
teaching and learning is well documented. This research investigates the exact
relationship between a set of beliefs and classroom practice through an example of
one experienced secondary school EFL teacher in the Peoples Republic of China,
using classroom interactions, in-depth, semi-structured teacher interviews and videobased reection. Situated in theories of action the article draws mainly on the
principles of Conversation Analysis (CA) to offer a new perspective on researching
the relationship between teachers beliefs and practice. The results suggest there is no
strict one-to-one correspondence but that the relationship between teachers beliefs
and practice is complex, highlighting the inuence of both macro- and microcontexts. Further, the article provides evidence of how individual teachers make sense
of their beliefs and practice and identies how theories are drawn upon when the
teachers make interactive decisions. This article advances thinking on teachers
beliefs and practice by highlighting the need to situate the issue in social acts and to
investigate them in a more interactive manner through ne-grained analysis.

Introduction
Over the past decade, much attention has been devoted to teachers beliefs and, in particular, the relationship between beliefs and classroom practices. In both general education and
language teaching research, there is a widely held view that beliefs play a central role in
teachers decisions, judgments and behaviour. In particular, they heavily inuence pedagogical decision-making (Borg 2003, 2006; Farrell and Kun 2008; Golombek 1998; Johnson
1994; Ng and Farrell 2003; Pajares 1992), the acceptance and uptake of new approaches,
techniques and activities (Donaghue 2003; Li 2008), choice of subjects and classroom
activities and evaluation in the classroom (Borg 2001). It is claimed that beliefs affect
everything that [teachers] do in the classroom and teachers practise in accordance with
their beliefs (Williams and Burden 1997: 5657). Beliefs are seen to be the strongest
factors through which we can predict teaching behaviour (Pajares 1992). However, a
great deal of empirical evidence has also established that there exists inconsistency
between teachers beliefs and their practices (e.g. Basturkmen, Loewen and Ellis 2004;
Farrell and Kun 2008; Feryok 2008; Lee 2009; Nishino 2008; Ora and Borg 2009;
Phipps and Borg 2009).

*Email: Li.Li@exeter.ac.uk
2013 Association for Language Learning

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In a review of the literature, there are three observations to be made. First, at a theoretical level, much of this work has been conducted from a cognitive perspective, viewing
beliefs as xed assumptions, representing teachers mental lives (e.g. Golombek 1998;
Ng and Farrell 2003; Nishino 2008; Pajares 1992). In this tradition, research tends to
focus on the realm of reality inside teachers heads. However, it might not be appropriate
to view beliefs from a single theoretical stance because a cognitive-based perspective
ignores the contexts and interactive nature of teachers daily work in classrooms. Although
research has to some degree acknowledged the inuence of context on teachers beliefs and
practice, it tends to operate at a macro-level, focusing on issues such as curriculum, testing,
educational policy and school cultures (e.g. Sato and Kleinsasser 2004). While such studies
are clearly of value, they may not always provide adequate insights into what happens at the
micro-level, when teachers are engaged in specic practices. This study adopts a micro-perspective of context in a bid to provide detailed insights into teachers moment-by-moment
decision-making while teaching. The metaphor of teacher-as-decision-maker (Nunan 1992)
reects how teachers conceptualise their work and the kind of decision-making underpinning teaching (Tsang 2004). Teachers make many interactive decisions in the moment-bymoment progression of a lesson and in the context of competing pressures such as time, the
attention span of the learners, curricular demands, exam pressures and so on. (Walsh 2006:
48; see also Tsui 2005). Such interactive decision-making constitutes a major part of teachers classroom behaviour, especially when unexpected classroom events emerge.
Walsh (2006) suggests that teachers vary in their ability to create learning opportunities
and make good interactive decisions. Making good interactive decisions, then, is an important consideration of teachers classroom practice.
Second, methodologically, research so far has mainly involved elicitation of teachers
perceptions using, for instance, questionnaires and interviews, in order to compare with
their classroom activities generally. The precise connections between teachers beliefs
and specic practices are rarely examined in any detailed manner (but see Li 2012; Li
and Walsh 2011; Speer 2008). That is, the moment-by-moment decisions which inuence
interaction, learning and teaching practices have often not been considered. Such decisions
are studied here through the lens of classroom interaction and then compared with stated
beliefs. In this study, a set of beliefs and practices that relate to each other are examined
in order to establish exact relationships between them.
Third, although empirical research into the relationship between teachers beliefs and practice has ourished since the 1990s, most existing studies have been almost wholly conducted
in ESL (English as a second language) contexts and there is still a lack of parallel research with
NNEST (non-native English speaker teachers) in non-anglophone settings, with one or two
exceptions, such as Breen et al. (2001), Phipps and Borg (2009), Li and Walsh (2011).
Research in EFL (English as a foreign language) contexts will make a signicant contribution
to understanding language teachers and pedagogy in international contexts.
In view of this gap, there is a need to study teachers beliefs and practices in detail in
order to explore the complexity of their relationship. A major motivation for the present
study is to offer a ne-grained moment-by-moment analysis of the relationship between teachers beliefs and practice drawing on theories of action.
Beliefs, practices and theories of action
Beliefs and practice are a complex combination of past experience, present situation and
future plans (Clandinin and Connelly 2000). Woods (2003: 207) suggests the relationship
between beliefs and action has not been discussed in the same way as that between

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knowledge and action and the relationship between teacher beliefs and practices is very
complex and still in question. Research suggests that belief inuences practices (Golombek
1998; Johnson 1994; Ng and Farrell 2003; Pajares 1992). However, research also suggests
there exist inconsistencies, mismatch or discrepancies between beliefs and practice. Possible explanations for these inconsistencies have been put forward, including relative
length of teaching experience (Gatbonton 2008; Tsui 2003), school and classroom conditions (Gorsuch 2000), and school culture and its norms and recognised values (Sato
and Kleinsasser 2004). In other educational settings, Wilson and Cooney (2002: 13)
suggest that inconsistencies might lie in the practical or logistical circumstances of teaching that prevent teachers from acting in accordance with their beliefs. These inconsistencies
also indicate that beliefs cannot be considered as xed or stable they develop as a result of
interaction with many elements. However, Speer (2005) has suggested that these inconsistencies might be simply the consequences of a lack of shared understanding between the
researcher and the teacher participant, and has stressed the importance of incorporating
opportunities to assess and generate such shared understanding. Furthermore, although it
might be plausible that teachers articulate certain beliefs yet behave in a manner which
is inconsistent with those beliefs, it is possible that these inconsistencies are linked to theoretical and methodological considerations underpinning the research.
As discussed earlier, the predominant cognitive approach to research on teachers
beliefs (e.g. Golombek 1998; Lee 2009; Ng and Farrell 2003; Nishino 2008; Pajares
1992) does not sufciently take into account the fact that teachers beliefs interact with
the context in which they teach and their decisions are made in the moment-by-moment progression of a lesson (Walsh 2006). Consequently, this cognitive view has been challenged
by other perspectives. For example, instead of viewing beliefs as static traits of a person that
remain constant across situations, from an interactionist perspective, beliefs are viewed as
entities that may be transformed by or even emerge as a result of the teachers interactions
with students (Skott 2001). In this view, beliefs thus are the products of social interaction
rather than the realm of reality maintained by teachers.
This article adopts an interactionist perspective, viewing beliefs as a complex interactive system, which can be studied through the teachers interaction with the context at
both macro- and micro-levels. Teachers can hold beliefs about many aspects, such as learners, curriculum, teaching and learning, professional development and self and so on, but
they are intertwined with each other and multi-faceted (Breen et al. 2001; Calderhead 1996;
Li 2008). An interactionist perspective places emphasis on examining beliefs as they relate
to the evidence of participating teachers classroom practices. However, it does not address
the methodological issue of achieving shared understanding of the relationship between
beliefs and practice as it takes little or no account of the teacher participants interpretation
of their classroom practice. In the absence of an overarching theory providing insights into
the consistency of relationships between beliefs and practice (Speer 2005), this study draws
on theories of action (Argyris and Schn 1974) which provide a theoretical basis for understanding the relationship between beliefs and practice.
Theories of action, through which human beings link their thoughts with their actions,
indicate that humans as agents respond to their environment and plan their further actions
in relation to what they learn from the present real-life situation. As agents, we learn a repertoire of concepts, schemas and strategies, and they learn programmes for drawing from their
repertoire to design representations and action for unique situations (Argyris et al. 1985: 81).
There are two types of theory: espoused theories, concerned with what people give allegiance
to and communicate to others, and theories-in-use, which govern what people do. Thus
espoused theories are stated beliefs while theories-in-use concern practice.

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When examining the relationship between espoused theories and theories-in-use,

Argyris (1980) makes the case that these two theories may or may not match, just like
beliefs and practice, and the individual may or may not be aware of any mismatch. If
these two theories are compatible in any particular instance, this leads to a better understanding of an actors intentions, actions and consequences. However, when a gap is
noticed between these two theories, seeking a connection creates a dynamic for reection
and dialogue. Such reection and dialogue is particularly necessary and useful when studying the relationship between espoused theories and theories-in-use, and, more importantly,
such dialogue and reection should be brought into the research process of teacher cognition in order to gain insights from the teacher.

The study
This study forms part of a larger project examining teachers pedagogical beliefs and practices involving 18 teachers from China. In order to explore more specically the detailed
relationship between a teachers beliefs and practice, this paper reports on a single case
study, focusing on Yuan (a pseudonym). Yuan had 26 years teaching experience in one
of the best state secondary schools in Beijing and was recognised as one of the top
expert teachers in the city. Yuan holds a Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign
Language and a Bachelors Degree in English Language Teaching. Like many expert teachers, Yuan has worked in different types of school and has witnessed the transformation of
pedagogy from traditional translation methods to communicative-based approaches. He has
been supported by continuous professional development activities, such as an overseas
training course and visits. In terms of language teaching experience, pedagogical training
professional achievement and professional development, Yuan was fairly typical of the
expert teachers studied in the larger project.
Yuan was observed over one unit which includes four 45-minute lessons of 180 minutes
in total. His class had 43 students, a common class size in Beijing. The students were aged 16
to 17 and were in their fth year of formal instruction in English as a foreign language; they
were set to take the National College Entrance Test (NCET) the following year. Their level
was between intermediate and upper intermediate. Yuan had been teaching them for almost
two years. The unit observed was on the topic of how English people celebrate Christmas.
The classroom interaction data presented here were from the rst lesson of the unit.

Data collection and analysis

This research had three foci: beliefs, classroom practices and participants insights into the
relationship between beliefs and practice. As shown in Table 1, a variety of data elicitation
and collection methods were used.
Table 1. Research methods and data.
Research focus

Data elicitation and collection

Beliefs
Classroom practice

Semi-structured interviews
Video-recording and transcription of classroom
interaction
Stimulated comment procedure based on video clips
to gain participant insights

Participants insights into the relationship

between beliefs and practice

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To explore Yuans beliefs, a semi-structured interview was employed. The interview

guidelines were developed from the teacher cognition literature (e.g. Calderhead 1996),
focusing on an understanding of teaching, learning, learners, subject knowledge, self and
professional development, which allowed Yuan to talk about both his overarching beliefs
and how he claimed he realised his beliefs for particular lessons. Two interviews were
carried out, with the rst one focusing on the macro-context of Yuans professional life
and dealing with issues such as English in China, textbook, curriculum, test and his
classes; the second one focused on his own English learning experience and career
history as a teacher and the development of his pedagogical beliefs.
The rst interview provided an overview of the context and allowed the participating
teacher to gain an understanding of the study. The second interview focused explicitly
on an exploration of beliefs. The two-pronged interview approach, it was felt, both
creates a more supportive environment in which trust can be established and allows the
interviewee to gain a better understanding of the research focus. The interviews were
audio-recorded and transcribed; the accuracy of the transcripts was conrmed by Yuan.
The interviews were then analysed adopting the 3C approach (Lichtman 2009): coding,
categorising and concept-emerging. The development of coding categories involved
reviewing the transcripts, identifying relevant features and coding units by meaning.
Data were then categorised by clustering units representing a teachers collection of
beliefs (see Speer 2008), i.e. a small set of related beliefs that, in combination, describe a
teachers perspective on a particular topic. In particular, a collection may contain the
teachers account of one or more areas of beliefs. The advantage of this unit of analysis
is that it makes it possible to describe a teachers perspective in a manner that reects
the interconnected, distributed nature of beliefs. The coding, categorising and emerging
concepts were cross-checked by a colleague to ensure reliability and consensus was
achieved by discussing differences. Analyses and interpretations of interview data were rendered in a recursive, reexive and triangulated manner, incorporating insights and understandings from the researcher, the colleague and the participant (Denzin and Lincoln 1994).
To examine Yuans classroom practices, a unit of lessons (180 minutes) was videorecorded and transcribed. Detailed transcriptions of verbal and non-verbal behaviours
were made subject to ne-grained analysis, using a conversation analysis (CA) informed
methodology (see Appendix for transcription conventions). The rationale for using CA
principles is to uncover the organisation of talk as organised by the participants themselves, rather than to approach the data from an extraneous viewpoint. That is, the focus
is placed on how the participants display for one another their understanding of the situation
they are in. In such talk-in-interaction, speakers display, in their sequentially next turns, an
understanding of what the prior turn was about and how they are positioned and oriented
to it (Hutchby and Wooftt 2008). Data therefore were not approached with a predetermined set of features but rather treated in an open manner; as Seedhouse (2004) argues,
CA provides an emic analysis of social action in classrooms from an ethnomethodological
perspective, allowing data to speak for themselves.
In order to achieve shared understanding of the relationship between the teachers
beliefs and practice, video-based reection was used based on video-recordings of the teachers classes. Yuan viewed selected stretches of interaction and was asked to comment on
what was happening. The focus was placed on reections upon descriptions, explanations
and justications given in the course of a talk (Gellert 2001: 35) and the teachers interpretation and understanding of what was happening. Speer (2005) argues that the benet of
using video-clip playback as a methodological technique in researching teacher cognition
is that focus on is on specic examples of teachers practices; as she says (2005: 224)

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Table 2. A collection of Yuans beliefs about enhancing communicative abilities.

Teaching

Learning

Subject

Teaching should
Learning is to
English is a
focus on
making sense
tool to
enhancing
how language
communicate.
communicative
works through
Culture is an
skills by using
participation,
important part
authentic
collaboration
of language
materials, using
and interaction.
learning.
personal
experience and
helping students
to be independent.

Students

Teacher

Students should The teacher is not

be contributing
the only source
to the class
of knowledge,
actively and
should play
should be one
different roles
of the
in teaching.
knowledge
The teacher
sources.
should
Peer feedback
facilitate
is important.
classroom
discussion.

coarse-grain-sized characterisations of beliefs and general descriptions of teaching practices appear unlikely to do justice to the complex, contextually dependent acts of teaching.
Studies in teacher cognition also exemplify the advantages of such a technique for understanding teachers beliefs in relation to their behaviours (e.g. Morton 2012).
In order to explore the connection between Yuans espoused theories and his practice, one
aspect of his theories, represented by a collection of beliefs about enhancing communicative
abilities across belief categories (see Table 2), is used to illustrate the relationship between
espoused theories and theories-in-use. In the analysis, Yuans espoused theories are presented
rst through interview data, which covers almost every aspect of his espoused beliefs about
teaching and learning across belief categories (that are normally analysed, for example, as
teaching, learning, students, curriculum, etc.) to fully capture the complexity of the teachers views, preserving the integrity of the individual beliefs when possible while acknowledging the related and interconnected nature of beliefs.
Next, classroom episodes were selected to be examined against Yuans espoused
theories and in such a way, different relationships between Yuans espoused theories and
theories-in-use unfolded through classroom discourse. The next step was to gain Yuans
interpretations of his teaching sequences, which were used to gain insights into the
process of decision-making and to achieve a shared understanding about the relationship
between what he believes and his classroom practice. This process is also used as data
triangulation to fully capture the complexity of a teachers theories.

Findings
Espoused theories
Communicative ability lies at the heart of Yuans theories, as he claims that communicative
ability is of the utmost importance for a language learner and teaching and learning is all
about enhancing communicative skills (Interview 1, Extract 1). He further explained the
methods and materials he adopted in teaching to achieve this goal:
I use a communicative approach in my teaching. I use authentic materials and tasks (e.g. personal experience) to coach students to communicate in the target languageto talk in context.
The focus is on the learning process. (Interview 2, Extract 1)

This highlights his explicit view of the function of language as a tool to communicate. Yuan
refers to authentic texts, interaction in the target language, focus on the learning

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process and personal experience to illustrate his communicative pedagogy. He further

elaborates on how contexts shape his beliefs:
Most of my students now learn English for their future needs, for example, to go abroad to
study or travel, and without communication skills, they cant do anything as English is the
world language now. (Interview 1, Extract 2)
I didnt know how to order food when I visited abroad for the rst time and it made me realise
whats the real purpose of learning a language. (Interview 2, Extract 2)

Yuans theories about learning English seem closely inuenced by his understanding of
what language is, of student needs, the current status of English and his personal experience. Like many teachers of his age, Yuan learnt English in a very traditional way when
memorisation and translation are the most effective ways to learn but today, language is
a tool to communicate rather than a subject because it opens a door to another culture
and its a bridge to enter another community (Interview 1, Extract 3). Yuan constantly
referred to these as the main reasons for his current thinking and practice in teaching.
Yuan also illustrates what he expected his learners to do in class to enhance their communicative abilities: learners should actively participate and engage in interaction:
Its important for students to get involved, in different forms, for example, pair work, group
work and individual work. I like to give students opportunities to speak because they can
have very good points sometimes. Its not about saying a correct sentence; its more about
the topic and speaking opportunities. (Interview 2, Extract 3)

This extract highlights learner involvement and contributions to learning. Different forms
were mentioned here to exemplify student participation, such as pair work and group
work. Yuan also suggested that the value and the focus in such participation should be
placed on topic or content rather than language forms. Learning, thus, is viewed through
participation and involvement and students should contribute to the class actively;
Yuan placed a heavy emphasis on opening students mouths (Interview 2, Extract 4).
Equally, contrary to the traditional view of the teacher as a knowledge provider and instructor, Yuan believed teachers should play different roles:
The only but most challenging thing is that I have to play different roles, rather than being a
knowledge provider or instructor, I need to be a guide, a facilitator, an organiser, or a participant, an observer, a critical friend. (Interview 2, Extract 5)

However, the different roles Yuan had to cope with might impose pressures and challenges
in teaching. These challenges also exist in other areas in his work:
I do feel challenged, every minute, every second. You know, many students do know more than
me in many aspects. And I am learning to switch from PPP (three stage teaching: PresentationPractice-Production) to CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) and on top of that, our
textbooks have changed so much in recent years. (Interview 2, Extract 6)

Convergence between espoused theories and theories-in-use

At the beginning of the class, Yuan organised a group discussion in an attempt to nd out
about students existing knowledge about the way English people celebrate Christmas. This
section presents extracts from the classroom interaction data.

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L. Li

Extract 1: a delicious food

(Y = Yuan; S = Student)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

S
Y
S
Y
S
Y

((clapping his hands))(.)Ok!

(5.0)
can some group give me some information about how er (.)
English people spend their Christmas (.) and er (.) what er
is your discussion if possible?
(2.1)
NAME what about you?
(10.0)
En (.)they all er (.)have a very (.)
Sorry? I cant hear you (.)louder please (.)they all have a
very what?=
=a delicious food=
=oh delicious dinner right? yes? yes I am sure
(2.3)
on Christmas Eve or er on Christmas Day?=
=Christmas Eve=
=on Christmas Eve? possible (.)what else? thank you

Throughout this extract, it is apparent that Yuan is attempting to get one student to contribute to his question about how English people spend Christmas. In lines 35, for example,
Yuan asked an open question which gave students space to contribute any relevant information. The teachers questions here can be interpreted as a genuine request or preannouncement (Terasaki 2005). Note the extremely long pauses at lines 6 and 8, which
were intended to allow students space to formulate a response and possibly rehearse it
before speaking publicly. Space for a student contribution is also observed in line 14
when Yuan expected the student to provide more information about Christmas dinner,
which the student did with the help of Yuans follow-up question (line 15). Yuan seemed
to have helped the student to offer greater precision in her response (line 16).
However, this extract also suggests that Yuan is restricting the students contribution by
interrupting (line 10 and 13) when the student is in the middle of her turn-at-talk. The value
of the learners contribution is also evident from a conversation analytical perspective when
we look through the analysis of a CA construct, the adjacency pair, at the way Yuans questions were positioning the learners. At line 3, the rst pair part invites some information
about English Christmas as the expected second part, positioning the student as informant.
Yet, before an appropriate second part was delivered, Yuan produced another rst pair part,
which positions the responders rather differently, this time as a reporter of the group topics
which is less open (lines 45). After a rather long silence, Yuan nominates a speaker, who
responds with a second pair part to Yuans second rst pair part she mentions food (line
12), as the topic the group had discussed. After another long (2.3 s) pause at line 14, Yuan
again changes the positioning of the respondents in a new rst pair part, this time projecting
as conditionally relevant a second pair part containing information of when to have this
delicious food, this time, as a respondent to Yuans question (line 15). At this level,
one might argue that Yuan initiates the exchanges, controls the oor, interrupts and dominates the dialogue. He is directing the ow of the conversation with the consequence of eliciting minimal student contributions. This extract seems to show that Yuans classroom
practices may contradict his espoused theories. However, in order to understand the
relationship between Yuans beliefs and his interactions in class, it is important to gain
Yuans own insights.

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Yuans insights into the convergence

In the video-based reection, Yuan pointed out that in this sequence, his intention was
just to give students an opportunity to speak English. For Yuan, while the quantity of
student contributions is important, effective strategies that could promote communicative opportunities are more vital. So, in his opinion, enhancing communicative competence means students are all given opportunities to say something (Reection, Extract
1). Yuans reection upon this interactional exchange highlights two factors inuencing
his decision-making. The rst is the students character and level of experience. His
experience and knowledge about this particular student told him that the student was
trying to avoid making mistakes by providing a minimal contribution. Yuan was not
very satised with the students brief contributions, so his strategy was to elicit more
talk by asking further questions and push her if necessary (Reection, Extract 2).
Yuan also pointed out that it is important to create rehearsal time by adding pauses
deliberately:
Students usually feel embarrassed to speak publicly and the reason that I interrupted students
was to slow down the pace to ease the student. Its more conversation-like rather than a Q and
A. The point is me being in the middle of the conversation can encourage the student to stay in
this conversation. (Reection 3)

The second factor is Yuans pedagogical goal. Because the activity was to open students
mouths and let them contribute to the content (Reection, Extract 4), Yuan chose to
involve as many students as possible, albeit briey. He felt here that this learning
process and being able to speak in public were more important than producing the nal
product. Again, because of his pedagogical goal, Yuan referred to his indirect feedback
strategy. He considered embedded error correction (note how in line 13, he reformulated
the students contribution to dinner) a useful approach to establish an equal relationship
and reduce anxiety in classroom to create a relaxing learning environment (Reection,
Extract 5). Yuans reection upon this short interaction would suggest that his classroom
practice converges with his espoused theories.
Divergence between espoused theories and theories-in-use
There seems, however, to be a conict between Yuans belief in promoting communication
skills and fostering knowledge in practice, and engaging students in dialogues and restricting student contributions. It seems that the more traditional transmission pedagogy overrides beliefs about involving students in making contributions. This is seen clearly as the
lesson progresses with a student contributing information about Charles Dickens and his
novel A Christmas Carol.
Extract 2: the great writer Charles Dickens
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

S
Y
S
Y
S
Y

the great writer er=

=the great writer (.)oh (.)who?
((2 unintelligible))
Hhhh (.) this kind of thing happens(.)Charles Dickens
right? Charles Dickens (.)yes (.)what are you going to say?
the Christmas (.)
the Christmas Carol right? (.) well I understand for some
new words you dont know how to pronounce (.) you need to
pay attention to pronunciation using dictionary to see how
to can pronounce for some words (.)I am not sure (.)for

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11

example Chinese
((whats that called))
((2 unintelligible))
xie ji sheng are you sure? xie! xie xie Chinese I mean
((mistletoe))
Chinese pronunciation
Xie
are you sure? xie ji sheng (.) ((looking
((right?))((or its pronounced
as something else?))
at one students book)) xie Chinese (.)right?
((some people pronounce it))
((anyway))
a kind of plant thanks you (.)
NAME mentioned some information very important even the
great writer Charles Dickens and he loves Christmas so
much right? Ok
(1.2)
and er by the way do you happen to know any other besides
Christmas carols any other written by this great writer?
(1.2)
yes! for example?
((works))
(6.0)
who can you remember who can think of any book written by
this great writer? you have to know something right?
Charles Dickens so famous a writer!
(2.3)
oh what is Chinese? Dickens!!! Dickens

12
13

S
Y

14
15
16

S
Y

17
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

The sequence shows how the teachers utterances in conversation set up a sequential trajectory in which the student nds less and less opportunity to discuss the topic, the novel A
Christmas Carol, without explicitly asking. It is in this interactional or micro-context
that the conversational move of topic shifts becomes analysable as a means for avoiding
the topic the student brought up. In line 1, a student offers the topic great writer as a
try-marked example relating to Christmas. In his response, rather than acknowledging
the learners contribution, Yuan interrupts the student by asking a question. This sequence
has the characteristics of authoritative discourse; note the extended teacher turn (lines 711)
and how the student(s) is positioned as a listener. Even when Yuan asks questions in this
sequence, there is no real expectation of an answer (line 2) and indeed he answers his
own questions sometimes (e.g. line 4). It is interesting that Yuan dictates which microcontext they are in by swiftly changing the topic from the great writer Charles Dickens
and A Christmas Carol to the pronunciation problems students have and moving away
from the topic initiated by the student (line 9). Then he gave an example of a word that
he did not know how to pronounce in Chinese and emphasised the importance of checking
pronunciation using a dictionary. It seemed that Yuan was avoiding further discussion of A
Christmas Carol and doing the exact opposite of what he claimed in his stated beliefs.
This authoritative sequence carries on and Yuan moves back to the topic initiated by the
student, A Christmas Carol and Charles Dickens. At lines 1920, Yuan appears to invite an
opinion but before the appropriate turn is delivered, Yuan closes the exchange and is ready
to move on (line 20). After a silence (line 21), Yuan changes the positioning of the respondents in a new rst pair part, this time projecting as conditionally relevant a second pair part
containing an example of works by Charles Dickens (line 2223). After another longish
pause (line 24), Yuan claries what is projected as a relevant answer by code switching

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(line 25), extended wait-time (line 26, 28), referential questions (line 2729), assertive
encouragement (line 28), giving clues (line 29) and eventually seeking a translation
(line 31). This extract shows how Yuan moved away from interactive talk in which
students involvement and communication skills were encouraged, to a more teacher-led
discourse where he clearly assumed the roles of knowledge provider and instructor.
Yuans insights into the divergence
In the discussion about the video-clip, Yuan acknowledged the tension between what he
planned and what actually he did and described this moving away from task as an interactive decision he had to make in that situation. He also shed light on his reasons for
moving away from the task:
First of all, it is important for students to have correct pronunciation particularly for those students who will have to take the oral test for college entrance exam. And if I can categorise my
educational goals, then improving their linguistic knowledge (e.g. pronunciation) is a short
term goal while enhancing communicative abilities would be counted as a long-term goal.
Short-term goal always gets priority (Reection, Extract 6)
Second, there is no need to go on and on to discuss details of Christmas Carol and mistletoe
[another topic that was brought up by a student that Yuan chose to neglect for further discussion] because partially I couldnt comment on this students contribution as I dont know much
about this myself [embarrassed laughter] and partially I need to provide some useful knowledge
to students to make them feel theyve learnt something from me. (Reection, Extract 7)

For Yuan, this decision was made on the basis of the priority of a short-term educational
goal (e.g. the importance of pronunciation for the college entrance examination), lack of
cultural knowledge and self-perceived responsibility for students to learn something
useful. In his reection, Yuan referred to giving priority to the short-term educational
goal (improving students linguistic knowledge because of the test) and moving to the
language area that he felt was more important for students. At the same time, his own
lack of cultural knowledge also made Yuan switch to the topic that he felt he had more
control over. It is striking that Yuan seemed to adhere to the more traditional view of learning as having, which contradicts his reference in the interview to learning as doing. He
clearly assigned himself a knowledge transmitter role in this instance. One possible explanation is that he reverted intuitively to a deeper default set of traditional constructs about
teaching, a move of which he seemed to be unaware. Moving away from the topic and
switching back to the traditional role seems to be what teachers do when they are challenged or in trouble as may have been the case here (Wright 2005).
Discussion
This study offers three insights into the relationship between espoused theories and classroom
practices. First, we cannot simply say whether a teachers espoused theories are in alignment or
in contrast with his or her classroom practice; evidence of both is to be found in what a teacher
says and does, even relating to one aspect of his beliefs in just one lesson. There is no strict oneto-one relationship between espoused theories and classroom practice. A teacher might hold
one particularly strong belief but in the classroom might adopt different and sometimes contradictory practices (see Table 3). From a teachers perspective, this can be expressed as I believe
in A but in class sometimes I do A and sometimes I do B.However, this study suggests that
teachers espoused theories and classroom practice bear symbiotic relationships (Foss and
Kleinsasser 1996: 441). Espoused theories manifest themselves in teachers practice and interaction and classroom practice shapes teachers espoused theories.

186

L. Li

Table 3. Comparison between Yuans espoused theories and observed practice in enhancing
communicative abilities.
Espoused theories

Observed practice

Alignment Explanations

Teaching is about enhancing

communicative abilities,
learning through interaction,
language is a tool for
communication; students
should participate in the
dialogue and the teacher
should facilitate the dialogue

Students are pushed to

contribute and such
space for
contributions is
created
Students are directed to
contribute in different
ways by the teacher

Yes

Student character;
Pedagogical goal

No

Lack of content and

cultural knowledge;
Responsibility to
make sure learning
happens;
Resistance to
challenges from
students;
Choosing between a
long-term goal and
short-term goal.

Second, teachers theories are conceptualised in a given environment and contextualised by this environment. Yuans espoused theories are developed and shaped by students
future needs, his personal experience, the status of English and his understanding of the
function of language. These macro-contexts might guide overarching pedagogy and
instructional activities but the moment-to-moment variables shaped what Yuan did in this
particular lesson. The relationship between teachers espoused theories and classroom practices is one outcome of interactions with the students. In other words, this study suggests
that the classroom micro-contexts inuence the theories-in-use in the decision-making.
Thus, in understanding the relationship between espoused theories and theories-in-use,
we see the importance of understanding the complexities of both macro- and microcontexts.
Classroom conditions can inuence teachers decision-making and interaction (e.g.
Gorsuch 2000); what this study reveals is just how complex that decision-making
process actually is. For example, the conict that Yuan exhibited between fostering communicative skills and enhancing linguistic knowledge, highlights a complexity that many EFL
teachers experience. In this study, Yuan shifted topics for a combination of reasons: gaps in
his own cultural knowledge, the priority of educational goals, his self-perceived teacher
image and resistance to challenges. For individual teachers, knowledge (cultural knowledge
in this article) is at least as important as communicative pedagogical awareness. Potentially,
teachers who do not have relevant cultural knowledge are less likely to encourage a conversation around cultural issues in the classroom despite the beliefs they may hold. In this
sense, teachers practices are certainly restricted by their knowledge despite what beliefs
they hold. Cultural (subject) knowledge is a big issue for many EFL teachers and should
be considered in investigating the relationship between teachers beliefs and practices.
Yuan seemed to be struggling between two contradictory beliefs about his roles and
what constitutes learning and communicative abilities. It is clear that when he faced challenges, he reverted to a more traditional view of being a teacher. In classrooms, such behaviours highlight the boundaries of what teachers are prepared to do and not prepared to do
with regard to developing an open-ended exchange with students (see Wright 2005). It

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would seem that teachers theories-in-use are all about thinking on ones feet. Given time to
think and when free from the immediate pressure of classroom action, teachers can remember what they learned in training or make use of their own prior experience. In the classroom, however, such insights and knowledge are often jettisoned (unconsciously) for
more archetypal IRF (Initiation-Response-Feedback, Sinclair and Coulthard 1975) discourse in the heat of the moment, when threats to status are perceived, or the lesson is
going wrong. In this case, although Yuan argued that teachers should facilitate student
contributions, he intuitively took on the traditional role of the teacher who possesses a
wealth of knowledge, a view which coincides with Cortazzi and Jins (2006) denition
of a stereotypically good Chinese teacher. In practice, teachers interpretations of selfimage and emotions play an important role in shaping what they do. A full understanding
of teacher decision-making requires further investigation of self-perceived professional
images.
Yuans case also suggests that teachers have different sets of educational goals
embedded in their pedagogy and these might inuence their decision-making in classrooms. In Yuans case, the immediate goal of helping students to achieve good pronunciation outweighed the importance of creating communication opportunities but this does not
mean the immediate goal is necessarily considered more important. Yuans interactive
decision-making suggested two distinctive features of expert teachers: efciency and selectivity (Tsui 2003). Yuan was efcient in making sense of classroom events to give more
analytical and interpretative comments. He also demonstrated an ability to differentiate
between immediate and long-term goals to make selective and swift changes in the classroom. Investigation of such areas not only contributes further to understanding of teachers
and pedagogy in a given context but also educates and develops teachers as active thinkers
in practice. Experienced teachers thinking and decision-making can serve as a source and
focus of teacher training programmes (Richards and Lockhart 1994). For example, these
incidents could be used for discussion with trainee teachers in order to explore how to
draw upon what they learn in the training course in their classroom decision-making.
Equally, evidence from this and similar studies might also serve as scenarios in teacher
development to help teachers become more aware of alternatives and to advance their thinking in this decision-making rather than just thinking on ones feet. Similarly, concerning
continuous professional development for in-service teachers, self-reection should be
encouraged, which will help teachers understand how their beliefs inuence the taught,
the learned and the implicit curriculum in their contexts.
Third, methodologically, this study suggests that in order to understand the exact
relationship between beliefs and practice, a ne-grained analysis of teacher behaviour
through interaction and teacher insights into the reasons underlying decision-making is
important. That is to say, this study demonstrates one way of achieving an understanding
of the gap between these two theories. Yuans espoused theories were elicited through interviews while his theories-in-use were illustrated by his classroom practice; understandings
of the relationship between these two theories were achieved by using video-based reections. Only by considering a detailed analysis of his classroom interaction with students and
the rationale behind this, can we understand whether and why he did A or B. For example,
Yuan believed in the importance of promoting communicative abilities in language teaching
but his classroom practices showed that whilst sometimes he promoted opportunities for
communication and interaction (for example, Extract 1), on other occasions, he restricted
such opportunities (for example, Extract 2).
Without detailed analysis and Yuans reasoning, one might simply suggest Yuan was
doing the opposite of what he believed in Extract 1 as, at face value, he was possibly

188

L. Li

frustrating students by interrupting. Again, without Yuans reection, it is hard to know why
he switched from an interactive mode to a more authoritative mode in Extract 2. The ndings suggest that any attempt to study the relationships between beliefs and practice may
need to be carried out along the lines presented here. Such an approach, arguably,
implies a need to understand the connections between beliefs and practice, rather than
looking at the extent to which a belief converges with, or diverges from, a stated practice.
By focusing on one particular collection of beliefs (e.g. enhancing communicative ability)
and comparing them with specic classroom interaction data and eliciting that teachers
thinking and reasoning about his or her teaching practices in relation to espoused theories,
we can gain insights into the ways in which teachers make sense of and use theories of
action in their classrooms. The results demonstrate the complex and context-sensitive
nature of the relationship between beliefs and teaching practices that other researchers
have also observed in mathematics education (e.g. diSessa, Elby and Hammer 2002;
Skott 2001; Thompson 1992).
Conclusion
Inuenced by Argyris and Schns theories of action, this article has attempted to explore
the relationship between the theories of action of an EFL teacher through interviews, videorecordings and video-based reection. From a theoretical viewpoint, the paper conrms that
espoused theories and theories-in-use are not always aligned (Argyris and Schn 1974) and
that there exist both convergence and divergence between the two categories of theories.
This study also suggests that there is no one-to-one strict relationship between espoused
theories and practices. Furthermore, there is evidence which demonstrates that both
espoused theories and theories-in-use are highly inuenced by contexts. In particular, teachers theories-in-use are inuenced by the moment-by-moment unfolding of classroom
interaction. In such decision-making, the study highlights the profound inuence of cultural
knowledge, self-perceived teacher image and educational priorities which deserve more
empirical evidence and exploration.
This study advances thinking on teachers beliefs by highlighting the need to situate
beliefs in social acts and by advocating the role of knowledge, self-image and pedagogical
goals in shaping teachers decision-making. While we might expect there to be a similar
pedagogy shared by teachers who work in similar situations (Breen et al. 2001), it is
useful for both research and pedagogy if the beliefs and behaviour of a group of teachers
can be investigated through a longitudinal study as undertaken by Breen and his
co-researchers.
This study also highlights the complexity of investigating the relationship between
belief and practice. At the methodological level, it offers an example of using a negrained analysis of teachers comments and classroom interaction to make it possible to
examine the relationship between specic beliefs and with specic practice and therefore
helps us to understand how teachers as active thinkers draw upon both espoused theories
and theories-in-use in their professional context. This approach also adds concrete evidence
of how and why beliefs and practice are connected in particular ways and not in others.
Argyris and Schns theories of action also emphasise that seeking a connection or studying
the gap between espoused theories and theories-in-use creates a dynamic for reection and
dialogue. The ndings from this study suggest studying beliefs should involve teachers in
the process of understanding the relationship between their theories.
The present article was limited to a focus on just one participant. However, what this
study offers is an opportunity to advance our understanding of the nature of teacher

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189

beliefs by considering them from a social perspective and investigating them in a more
interactive manner through an example of gaining insights into teachers theories. A
ne-grained analysis suggests that teachers beliefs should not be treated as the private
realm of the mind and conrms that the relationship between beliefs and classroom practices is far more complex.

Acknowledgements
I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Yuan and his students who allowed me into their classroom. I would also like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions
on improving this article.

Notes
1.

2.

State schools are government-funded. In Beijing and many cities in China, secondary schools are
categorised into the following types: City Key School, District Key School and Ordinary School,
primarily based on a schools history, reputation and student academic achievement as shown in
the major tests; for example, the National College Entrance Examination. City Key Schools are
preferred by parents and students for their better resources, more experienced teachers and so on;
it is very competitive to gain a place in these schools. District Key Schools are not as successful
as City Key Schools; however, they are well regarded by parents and society. These schools enjoy
good reputation in terms of academic achievements, facilities, resources and support. Ordinary
Schools are those with average academic results; students are less competitive in academic
work and resources are not as advanced as City Key Schools. More importantly, these schools
may typically face difculties in retaining high quality teachers. There are 19 districts in
Beijing and each district has its own local educational authority that is responsible for weekly
teacher professional development activities and test organisation.
Expert teachers are also called lead teachers. They are selected by the local educational authority
based on their merits of academic expertise, their student academic achievements, their qualications, experiences and sometimes research proles. These teachers are supposed to be innovative
and up to date with developments in teaching methodology. One of their designated responsibilities is to support inexperienced teachers by setting a good example.

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Appendix: Transcription conventions

Language has not been corrected and standard conventions of punctuation are not used. Teacher and
learners L1 is transcribed and translated.
Y:
S:
NAME
=
(.)
(4.0/0.4)
?
Yes
!
((2 unintelligible))

Paul, Peter, Mary

((T organises groups))

Yuan (the teacher)

student (not identied)
the students name
turn latching: one turn follows another without any pause
pause of one second or less
silence; length given in seconds or micro-seconds.
rising intonation - question or other
emphatic speech
falling intonation
a stretch of unintelligible speech with the length given in seconds
Smiley voice
capitals are only used for proper nouns
researchers comments or translation

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