Malaysian teachers belief

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Order Number 9500383
A n investigation of the beliefs and practices of Malaysian teachers
of English as a Second Language (ESL)
Ashari, Habibah, Ph.D.
Indiana University, 1994
Copyright © 1994 by Ashari, Habibah. All rights reserved.
U M I300 N. ZeebRd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48106

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE BELIEFS AND PRACTICES OF
MALAYSIAN TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL)
Habibah Ashari
Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
in the School of Education
Indiana University
March 1994

Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Doctor
of Philosophy.
Doctoral
Committee
Date of
Oral Examination
L. Gradman, Ph.D.Har:
Thomas B. Gregory, Ph.D.
/<//.// rCcrt
IMartha Nyikos, Ph.D.
March 24, 1994
ii

C 1994
Habibah Ashari
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
iii

Dedicated to my mother,
the greatest woman in my life.
iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Tne doctoral journey I made from beginning to end would
not have been possible without the support of my husband,
Kieran. He believed in me and constantly reminded me that
it was a journey I could make. To him I owe my heartfelt
thanks. Thanks also to my children, Adam and Chi Chi, who
understood "Mommy" was writing her dissertation and who
managed to keep out of the way when I was busy at the
computer. I also owe special thanks to my family in
Malaysia whose "over the wire" encouragement and prayers
kept me going.
I would also like to thank my committee members for
their helpful suggestions and their willingness and patience
to work with me. Special thanks go to Dr. Overly, the first
person I met when I embarked on this journey; throughout
this study, he offered useful advice and encouragement when
I most needed them.
My heartfelt thanks to my dinner group whose support,
encouragement, and laughter I could not have done without.
Thanks also to Bobbie and Sara for their help. My special
gratitude goes to the four teachers who graciously welcomed
me into their classes and shared with me their stories.
With their support, this work was made possible.
v

Finally, my utmost gratitude goes to Institut Teknologi
Mara, Shah Alam, Malaysia and the Indiana University
Overseas Fellowship Program whose financial support made
this journey possible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One: Introduction to the Study..................1
Chapter Two: Review of Related Literature............. 24
Chapter Three: Methodology...............................41
Chapter Four: The Soldier................................ 62
Chapter Five: The Fun Lover..............................93
Chapter Six: The Actor.................................130
Chapter Seven: The Doer..................................172
Chapter Eight: Analysis and Interpretations............ 208
Chapter Nine: Summary, Conclusions and Implications....248
References: 268
Appendices: 275
vii

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
Overview
Teachers and their teaching have been probed from many-
different angles. Researchers have looked at teachers'
thought processes (Shavelson & Stern, 1981; Clark &
Peterson, 1986), teachers' personal knowledge (Clandinin &
Connelly, 1987), and teachers' practical knowledge (Elbaz,
1981) in an attempt to illuminate the relation between
teachers' lives and the pedagogical events of their
classrooms.
A significant aspect of teachers' lives that has
received much attention in recent years is teachers'
beliefs. Teachers' beliefs have been probed through the
lens of specific subject areas such as mathematics (Becker &
Pence, 199 0; Ernest, 1989; Kloosterman & Stage, 1989) and
reading (Hollingsworth, 1989), or at specific level, such as
the preservice level (Lasley, 1980; Hollingsworth, 1989).
However, not much has been written about teachers' beliefs
in the field of ESL (English as a Second Language).
Although attempts to look at students' beliefs about
language learning have been carried out (see Horwitz, 1985,
1988), the critical area of ESL teachers' beliefs about
language learning and teaching has been strangely neglected.
l

As I reflected on the void in this area, it seemed that
a study of ESL teachers' beliefs about language learning and
teaching might provide insightful answers to how teachers
effectively teach a language and help their students acquire
a second language. Hence I thought it important to add the
voices of ESL teachers to the current research on teachers'
beliefs. It promised to be a particularly rich area of
study because language learning is such an intensely
personal activity.
The purposes of this study were three-fold. The first
purpose was to elicit and examine the beliefs about language
learning and teaching of a selected group of ESL teachers in
a teacher education program in Malaysia. The second purpose
was to determine the relationship between teachers' beliefs
and their classroom practices. The final purpose was to
determine the factors that encourage or hinder the
translation of beliefs into practices.
This chapter will first portray my personal perspective
and interest in this study. Following this perspective is a
description of the setting which situates this study in a
specific context. The statement of the problem and the
research questions that guided this study come next. To
enhance clarity, a section defining frequently used terms
has been included. The chapter closes with a discussion of
the potential significance of this study to ESL teaching in
general, and to ESL teacher education in particular.
2

Personal Perspective
The source of my interest in examining the beliefs and
practices of English as a second language (ESL) teachers has
been my own involvement in the field as an ESL student, an
ESL teacher, and a teacher educator in Malaysia. I entered
Standard (Grade) 1 in 1964 in a school in which the language
of instruction was English, and this continued throughout my
school years, 1964-1975. The experience I had was akin to
what Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982) refer to as being in an
"immersion" program. They give the example of the St.
Lambert program in Canada where English-speaking children
are enrolled in a program in which French is the medium of
instruction. In my case, I am Malaysian and I come from a
Bahasa Malaysia language environment but my instructional
environment was English.
I entered the professional field in 1979, having
learned English as a second language. Bahasa Malaysia, the
national language of Malaysia since independence from
Britain in 1957, is the language I learned from birth.
However, the learning of English in my generation was
advanced by the fact that English was then the medium of
instruction in Malaysian public schools. In this system,
memorization of rules and sentence patterns and drills were
the premier methods of teaching English. I remember, among
other things, memorizing vocabulary lists; learning grammar
through drills; memorizing and reciting poetry; reading
3

aloud in class, either individually or in unison with my
classmates, and having pronunciation corrected immediately;
doing translations; writing daily news; and taking spelling
tests. My acquisition of English was further advanced by
the fact that I was taught other subjects such as geography,
science, history, civics, literature, and mathematics in
English.
Other influences were family members, books, and the
media, both print and broadcast. Although my parents did
not speak English, they sent their children to state-
supported English schools on the assumption that an English
education would provide us with a necessary ingredient for
academic success. There were also state-supported Malay
schools where they could have sent their children, but
because my eldest sister was already in an English school,
my parents thought that it would be fair if everyone went to
English schools. My elder sisters, who were already in
school when I was born, always spoke English to one another.
Thus I was always surrounded by spoken English. As I grew
up, it became necessary for me to learn English in order to
be included in their conversations. We were also encouraged
to read books in English, and I remember setting aside some
weekly pocket money to buy Enid Blyton's books and comic
books in English. Malaysia had, and still has, national
English newspapers, and radio and television programs in
English. My sisters, who were avid fans of English pop
4

music, listened to it all the time on the radio. Listening
to and copying down the lyrics of our favorite songs gave us
further opportunity to acquire and improve our English.
Since English had always been my favorite subject in
school, when I went to the university I elected to major in
English literature. For three years I read and studied
novels, poetry, and plays by both European and American
writers. After I graduated, I applied for a teaching
position at a college, and was accepted to teach English
language. When I first began teaching, I taught English the
way I had been taught in schools. Just as I had, my
students filled in blanks, memorized vocabulary lists, read
aloud in class, took dictation, and learned and memorized
grammar rules; in a sense, during my first years of
teaching, I followed faithfully the language exercises in
the textbooks provided and acted according to what I
perceived, at that time, to be the right way to teach
English. Since my first degree was in English literature, I
had never been trained formally to teach the structure and
mechanics of the English language nor had I been trained in
the philosophy and theories of education; thus my only
recourse for teaching English was to teach it the way I had
learned it.
During my ESL methods class in the master's program in
the United States, I learned about the prominent methods of
teaching ESL such as the grammar-translation method and the
5

audio-lingual method. Besides these two, I was also
introduced to other innovative approaches to teaching
English, for example, the Total Physical Response (TPR)
approach, the Silent Way, Counseling-Learning, the
Communicative approach, the Notional-Functional approach,
and Suggestopedia (Blair, 1991). I learned, then, that
there were possible ways of teaching English other than the
strict use of grammar sentence patterns, drills, and
memorization of rules.
However, when I went back to Malaysia to teach, the
classroom atmosphere was hardly conducive to using those
innovative approaches. I found time limitations, physical
limitations such as heat and noise, class size, the
requirement to cover the syllabus, and testing requirements
to be some of the constraints that worked against using the
new approaches in class. Many features of the various
methods seemed not to lend themselves to being used in a
large class, or in an educational setting that requires
teachers to complete the syllabus within a specified time in
order for students to have an equal opportunity in
examinations at the end of the semester. For example, the
use of commands to teach language, which is prominent in the
Total Physical Response (TPR) approach, was regarded with
incredulity by many teachers who were more used to teaching
English by asking students to fill in the blanks or to make
use of substitution tables. Some teachers also expressed
6

the opinion that TPR, while great with absolute beginners,
is hardly appropriate for college-level ESL learners who
have had, presumably, eleven years of learning English in
schools.
In the midst of a flurry of academic as well as
administrative duties, I have often wondered what it would
be like to teach without constraints. What would it be like
to teach a smaller class? To have the luxury of time? To
have access to an unlimited amount of resources? To be able
to create for students a language environment that is most
conducive to language acquisition? And to be able to act
upon one's own beliefs about language learning and teaching?
My ruminations about what ESL teachers actually believe
about the nature of language learning and teaching, and
about what they actually do in the classrooms directed me to
the current study. Hence my interest in this study is both
personally, as well as pedagogically, driven.
The Setting
The context of this study is a teacher education
program in one of the large institutions of higher learning
in Malaysia--a small rapidly-industrializing nation in
Southeast Asia. Unlike many teacher education programs in
the United States, and even in Malaysia, where the teacher
education programs typically prepare student teachers for
the various grade levels, and in various subject areas such
7

as mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies
by conducting them through a series of general
methodological, instructional, and philosophical or
theoretical courses and experiences, this program is unique
in its exclusive focus on the preparation of students to
become teachers of English as a second language (ESL) for
Malaysian secondary schools.
This six-year program is divided into two parts. The
first two years encompass the Intensive English Program (or
the matriculation program as it is generally referred to) in
which students are taught basic, intermediate, and advanced
skills in the areas of reading, writing, listening and
speaking, oracy (a course dealing with speaking skills),
news update, critical thinking, grammar, and literature.
This component of the preparation is required as the
students' English language proficiency, at that point, is
inadequate to allow them to undergo a full-fledged
undergraduate program. When the students have successfully
completed the matriculation program, they proceed to the
second level of the program. Students who do not meet the
requirements for admission into the degree program have
their scholarship, and hence their association with the
teacher education program, terminated at that juncture;
however in some cases, they are given a chance to re-take
courses they have failed before they are allowed to proceed
to the next level. The second part is the four-year degree
8

program in which students are educated in ESL methods,
theories and principles of education, theories and
principles of linguistics, language learning and teaching,
testing and measurement, literature, classroom management
and organization, and student teaching.
Students entering the matriculation program have all
graduated from Malaysian high schools, have obtained a
distinction or strong credit in their English papers, and
have obtained a Grade One (the highest grade) in the
national high school examinations, Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia
(SPM) or the Malaysian Certificate of Examination as it is
known in English. Their education is fully sponsored by the
Ministry of Education and they have undergone a rigorous
selection process to gain admission into the program. This
includes obtaining a Grade One in the SPM, performing well
on a written language examination, and passing a personal
interview. Since establishing the program in 1988, the
ministry has received over five hundred applications each
year from students wishing to join the program. Out of
these, only 100-150 students have been selected for each
academic year.
The ESL instructors in this program are all college-
trained teachers who have received their professional
education either in the United States, Canada, the United
Kingdom, Australia, or a teacher education program at a
Malaysian university. All the teachers in the program
9

except three are non-native speakers of English. By non
native English speakers, I mean that the main language of
these teachers is a language other than English. The first
language could be Bahasa Malaysia (the national language),
Tamil, or any dialect of the Chinese language. The teachers
have also experienced the process of learning a second
language, have undergone professional teacher education, and
have received certification to teach ESL and ESL methods to
their students. The other three teachers, who are hired on
a special contract, are British nationals and are native
speakers of English.
. It was anticipated that the various experiences that
these teachers encountered in initially learning English as
a second language at home and in schools, in professional
education courses and ESL methods classes, and in their
professional careers as teachers, has led to the set of
beliefs they hold regarding the nature of language learning
and teaching. Further, it was anticipated that these
experiences lead to decisions either to adhere or not to
adhere to their beliefs in classroom practices. It was this
concern about the nature of teachers' beliefs and the role
of beliefs in classroom practices that gave rise to this
study.
10

Statement of the Problem
The purpose of this study was to discover the beliefs
about language learning and teaching of a select group of
teachers in an ESL teacher education program in Malaysia,
and to investigate whether their beliefs are consistent with
theoretical developments in the field of ESL, their
professional education, and their own classroom practices.
It has been widely acknowledged in the field of teacher
education that teachers' practices in the classroom are an
expression of their beliefs and educational philosophies,
and that beliefs play an important role in their
conceptualization of instructional tasks and activities
(Pajares, 1992; Nespor, 1987; Clark & Peterson, 1986; Dobson
& Dobson, 1983; Fensterxnacher, 1979).
Dobson and Dobson (1983) argue that we create and
invent our own belief system and that the belief system acts
as a beacon in guiding our daily lives. It is reasonable to
expect that we will choose to act in accordance with our
beliefs; but there are also times when our actions do not
conform to our beliefs. Dobson and Dobson further suggest
that "classroom teachers seldom {my emphasis) adopt a
teaching model that is in accordance with their professed
beliefs" (p. 21). Thus gaps between beliefs and classroom
instructional practices are thought to develop. Teaching
without recourse to a set of beliefs may become an activity
11

where the motivation and controlling guide is simply to get
things done.
According to Pajares (1992), the study of teachers'
beliefs has typically been avoided by educational
researchers who have considered beliefs to be a "messy"
construct (p. 307). They have also concluded that the
constructs, "beliefs," and "belief systems" are difficult to
define (Abelson, 1979; Eisenhart, Shrum, Harding, &
Cuthbert, 1988; Pajares, 1992). They see the study of
beliefs to be so steeped in mystery that it has often been
left to the confines of philosophy or theology. Pajares
(1992) suggests that the difficulty also lies in the various
definitions researchers assign to the construct "beliefs,"
and to methodological and design flaws.
Munby (1984) further suggests that the traditional ways
of measuring beliefs, i.e., by using instruments such as
questionnaires and rating scales, have two inherent
drawbacks. The first is that the test score of an
individual has meaning only within the test, and the second
is that test items are thought up by researchers and not the
teachers. He has suggested that a qualitative study of
teachers' beliefs would provide a better picture of
teachers' beliefs "within a context determined by [the]
teacher" (p. 38).
Pajares (1992) acknowledges that "beliefs are a subject
of legitimate inquiry in fields as diverse as medicine, law,
12

anthropology, sociology, political science, and business, as
well as psychology, where attitudes and values have long
been a focus of social and personality research, 11 (p. 308).
However, in the educational field, although beliefs are an
important component of a teachers' thought processes (Clark
& Peterson, 198 6) and play an important role in teachers'
planning of instructional activities (Nespor, 1987), the
study of teachers' beliefs remain "lightly traveled"
(Pajares, 1992, p. 326). But the assumptions remain that
beliefs are important indicators of how teachers will
conduct their classroom instructional activities. It is
held as an item of faith that teachers pursue methods they
believe to be effective ways of teaching.
Nespor (1987) gives an example of a teacher, Ms.
Skylark, who had a particularly bad time as a pupil. As a
teacher, Ms. Skylark believed that classes should be fun and
friendly. She strived hard to achieve a relaxed atmosphere
in her classes; as a result of this, she was not able to
control her class nor complete any instructional tasks with
her students. This suggests that teachers have experiences
that guide and inform their beliefs about certain teaching
behaviors, and as they experience various interactions with
other individuals, they make generalizations and value
judgments that form their belief structures. The
relationship between experience and beliefs and the
subsequent relationship between beliefs and classroom
13

practices are crucial to understanding the teachers'
pedagogy.
When research studies and theorizing about teacher
beliefs and practices are overlaid on the Malaysian
experience and particularly ESL teaching by persons whose
native language is not English what may we find? First, the
teachers have had a Malay experience; they also have had a
language learning experience and a pedagogy learning
experience; they have had social and family experiences.
The list could go on and on, depending on how creative one
wished to be in formulating different categories and
perspectives. Initial language learning experiences may
have an influence on teachers' early conceptions of the
nature of language learning. Subsequently, during formal
professional ESL methods classes at the undergraduate and
graduate level, the teachers are exposed to another set of
theories, methodologies, and approaches to learning English.
These various exposures to the learning of English, and to
the subsequent ESL methods classes, contribute to the
formulation of a host of beliefs regarding the teaching of
English.
Over and above the exposure to different methods of
learning English, exposure to different instructors at
various levels may also influence teachers' beliefs about
language learning. At the elementary and secondary school
levels in Malaysia, it is highly likely ESL teachers would
14

have had non-native speakers of English as their English
instructors; if they had been educated in English-speaking
countries for their professional education courses, the
teachers would certainly have encountered instructors who
were native speakers of English. The experiences with
different sets of English teachers, be they native or non
native speakers of English, are presumed to have a strong
influence on the way beliefs about language learning are
acquired and formed.
It is likely, therefore, that ESL teachers have
competing belief structures that may make it impossible for
them to act upon their beliefs while teaching. The
competing belief structures may have arisen from a variety
of other experiences as well: curricular or organizational
constraints, an inability or unwillingness to question or
explore one's own beliefs and assumptions about language
teaching and learning, and participation in a field that is
constantly evolving and changing (Sinclair, 1984; Pennycook,
1989) .
Because of the inherent complexity of the theoretical
points of influence and decision-making, I elected in this
study to examine the beliefs about language learning and
teaching of a select group of Malaysian ESL teachers who
were teaching in an ESL teacher education program. I also
proposed to examine the relationship of their beliefs to
their instructional practices and to explore the factors
15

that encouraged or hindered the translation of their beliefs
into practices. The study was carried out through the
exploration of the backgrounds, both personal and
professional, and language learning experiences of these
teachers.
Objectives and research questions
In order to explore these teachers' beliefs about
language learning and teaching, and to examine the extent of
the relationships between their beliefs and their classroom
instructional practices, this study pursued the following
research questions.
1. What are the beliefs about language learning and
teaching of a selected group of ESL teachers in
Malaysia?
2. To what extent are teachers' beliefs about language
learning and teaching related to their classroom
instructional practices?
3. What do teachers believe to be factors that encourage
and/or hinder the translation of beliefs into
practices?
By probing these questions with teachers, I have
attempted to identify the beliefs and assumptions that a
selected group of teacher educators in an ESL program have
about teaching English, the relationship of their beliefs to
their practices, the implications of their beliefs for the
16

interpretation and presentation of the curriculum, and on
how they educate future teachers of English to enter the
workforce.
Definition of terms
In order to enhance clarity, some of the terms
frequently used in this study have been defined. I have
sought to define them within the framework that prevails in
current research. These are terms such as beliefs and
belief systems; English as a Second Language, commonly
referred to as ESL; language learning and teaching; also
terms such as standard and form as used in the Malaysian
school system; and finally the terms Bahasa Malaysia and
Malay.
Beliefs and belief system--Beliefs are not easy to
define, nor do they lend themselves to easy
conceptualization. It is not uncommon to hear people
prefacing their statements with the phrase, "I believe...,"
in normal everyday conversations. Because of the intangible
nature of beliefs, in this study beliefs are defined based
on an amalgam of interpretations that have been used by
various researchers. Beliefs are viewed as evaluative,
resistant to change and non-consensual (Abelson, 1979);
beliefs are a way of describing relationships between tasks,
events, actions, or people, and people's attitudes toward
them, (Eisenhart, Shrum, Harding, & Cuthbert, 1988a); and
17

beliefs are personally-held perceptions about the way one
learns and does certain things (Lester, 1990).
It is the premise of this study that beliefs are formed
through our experiences and interpretations of events that
happen to and around us, as well as through our interactions
with others. The way we experience schooling and teachers
in our youth may have an influence on the way we perceive
and conduct ourselves as teachers. If our experiences with
a strict disciplinarian have been particularly traumatic for
us, we might come to believe that being a strict teacher
might not make for a good or an effective teacher. In
summary then, the present study views beliefs as evaluative
and based on personal experiences; beliefs are non-
consensual, i.e., we know that some beliefs we hold dear may
not be held by others; and beliefs are personally held
convictions about the way certain actions, in this study
language learning and teaching, are carried out. A belief
system would then constitute the interconnected set of
beliefs or convictions one has regarding a certain feature
of teaching language; for instance, convictions about the
nature of the reading process and the nature of teaching
reading would form one's belief system about the broad topic
of reading.
ESL and EFL--Prator (1991) acknowledges the confusion
and disagreement often assigned to the terms English as a
second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language
18

(EFL). In the United States and United Kingdom, ESL has
often been defined as teaching English to students whose
home language is not English. The main objective in such a
program would be to assimilate these students into the
mainstream English-speaking culture by teaching them the
language that is used in academic, business, and social
circles.
For many people in nations such as the Philippines,
Nigeria, Singapore, and Malaysia--nations formerly colonized
by the United States or Britain-- English language is not
considered "foreign" or "alien" to their culture (Prator,
1991, p. 19), and hence cannot be considered a foreign
language. Therefore in these countries, English is
considered a second language which is still used quite
widely for social and official purposes.
Thus by using this definition, one can say that
teaching English in non-English speaking countries would
constitute teaching English as a foreign language. In
countries such as Germany and Japan--countries which were
never colonized by English-speaking peoples--English is
considered a foreign language; the teaching of English in
these countries is, hence, teaching it as a foreign
language. Indeed this situation is similar to the teaching
of French, Italian, or Japanese in American schools.
Language learning--Language learning is defined as the
formal or informal acquisition of linguistic competence. In
19

this study language learning refers to the learning of
English experienced by non-native speakers of English in a
non-English speaking environment. Formal acquisition of
English refers to learning from language instruction that
occurs in an institutionalized setting such as in a school;
informal acquisition of English may occur initially at home
or through the direct and vicarious experience of being
exposed to the language via the media and the social
environment.
Language teaching--Language teaching is defined as the
formal instruction of language in an institutionalized
setting such as a school. In the program under
investigation in this study, English language teaching is
carried out, specifically at the matriculation level,
through the division of the language into specific
components through courses concentrating on reading,
writing, listening and speaking, grammar, and literature.
Standard and form--In the Malaysian school system,
students go through six years of elementary or primary
school and five years of secondary school. The six years of
primary school are referred to as standard one through
standard six; the equivalent American term is "grade." The
five years of secondary school are referred to as Form I
through Form V; again the equivalent American term is grade
but Form I is equivalent to grade seven.
20

Bahasa Malaysia and Malay--Vlhen Malaysia changed its
language policies soon after independence from Britain in
1957, Bahasa Malaysia, the native language of the Malay
people which was formerly referred to as the Malay language,
became the official language of Malaysia. In this study the
terms Malay and Bahasa Malaysia are often used
interchangeably with little change in meaning. The term
Malay is also used to refer to the Malay people, one of the
three major ethnic groups in Malaysia; the other two being
the Chinese and Indian people.
Potential significance
A significant aspect of this study is that it provides
evidence of personal reflections of a selected group of
Malaysian ESL teachers and evidence of classroom behavior
that informs and illuminates our understanding of the ways
they function in the classroom. Certainly the personal
experiences they have undergone in the process of learning
English as a second language and in their professional
training to become ESL teachers differ from the experiences
ESL teachers in America might experience; the major
difference being the fact that for the Malaysian teachers
English is not their primary home language. But more
importantly, it provides a beginning for developing a
clearer picture of teacher beliefs, practices, and the way
they intersect.
21

Teacher beliefs are considered a powerful conceptual
tool by which to interpret teacher behaviors and the forces
that guide these behaviors. The deepening awareness and
explication of their own beliefs about teaching and their
practice of teaching may help individual ESL teachers and
other ESL teacher educators model for their ESL preservice
teachers pedagogical practices that are congruent with
teachers' beliefs about effective ways of teaching and
acquiring English. Indeed, the teaching models that the
preservice teachers are exposed to while learning English
might have an important effect on how they themselves might
teach English in the future. Furthermore, these students
are experiencing an apprenticeship in teaching, and the ESL
instructors they observe or read about are the models who,
it is hoped, will have a strong influence on them. Indeed,
as Clark (1988) said,
Students begin teacher education programs with
their own ideas and beliefs about what it takes to
be a successful teacher. These preconceptions are
formed from thousands of hours of observations of
teachers, good and bad, over the previous fifteen
or so years. Undoubtedly, students' conceptions
of teaching are incomplete, for they typically see
and hear only the performance side of classroom
teaching (p. 7).
Collecting evidence of the areas in which beliefs and
practices intersect offers a basis for developing a deeper
understanding of the relationship between beliefs and
practices. Congruence or inconsistences between these two
constructs need to be better understood in order to inform
22

language teachers and language teacher educators of the
conditions and variables that exist in the education of
student teachers.

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of
literature relevant to this study. It begins with a brief
review of the historical development of English Language
Teaching (ELT), both in Britain and the United States, and
in non-English speaking countries, especially Malaysia. It
is followed by a discussion of the development of the
various theoretical underpinnings of ELT, and the methods
that grew out of them. Subsequently, a review of research
on teachers' beliefs and their relationship to instructional
practices is presented.
A Brief Overview of English Language Teaching (ELT)
English Language Teaching (ELT) in Britain and the
United States has evolved tremendously since the turn of the
20th century. Over time, it has generated further
distinction, notably the teaching of English as a second
language, at first in the British empire, later in the
Commonwealth, and then in Britain itself. According to
Howatt (1984), the teaching of English as a foreign language
emerged as an autonomous profession in the first half of
this century.
24

The next development evolved through the
reinterpretation of the role of English in the Empire.
Howatt (1984) suggests that the teaching of English in
colonial schools in the 19th century followed largely the
patterns of English taught to native speakers. There was
hardly any attempt to design language activities that
addressed the needs of the non-native speakers.
Subsequently, in the early 1920s there emerged a utilitarian
function for the communication of knowledge in the teaching
of English to non-native speakers.
In many formerly colonized nations such as Kenya,
Nigeria, India, Singapore, and Malaysia, English was
introduced during the colonial era and was at first spoken
mainly by the native speakers of the language. However,
when there arose a need for locally-recruited clerks and
other employees for the government offices and other
businesses, schools were established in which English was
taught (Platt, Weber, & Ho, 1984). Subsequently, English
was used as the language of instruction for other subjects.
In a sense, English was taught to enable the local people to
serve the colonial masters.
It was only in the fifties that the distinction between
English as a "second" and as a "foreign" language (ESL and
EFL) emerged. In defining the terms English as a Second
Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL), I
have used the definitions formulated by Hammerly (1985) who
25

said, "tS]econd language means any language other than the
native language of the learner, whether spoken right in the
community or only in a distant and exotic land" (p. xii).
For the sake of clarity, in this study, English as a second
language refers to the teaching of English in former British
colonies like West Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Ceylon, and
India (Platt et al., 1984). In these countries, English was
the official language and the language of instruction before
these countries gained independence, and even now English is
still the lingua franca, and considered a language of
importance, not only for commerce, science, and technology,
but also as an international language of communication.
Before Malaysia gained independence in 1957, English was
regarded as the official language for government, business,
and education. In the early years after independence, the
new Federation implemented a new language policy, and
adopted Malay or Bahasa Malaysia (as it is now known), as
the official language of the nation (Edwards, 1985). The
rationale for doing this was to unite its diverse peoples
under a common language (Noor, 1986).
In the primary and secondary schools in the U.S., ESL
and in some cases bilingual education, refers to the
teaching of English to immigrant children and Limited
English Proficient (LEP) students whose home language is a
language other than English; this entails providing special
instruction in the English language (Grant & Secada, 1990).
26

In most cases, the special instruction requires that an ESL
student be "pulled out" of mainstream classes to receive
English lessons, or to have an ESL teacher work closely with
the regular classroom teacher. While ESL teachers in the
United States are usually native speakers of English, ESL
teachers in Malaysia are customarily second language
speakers of English.
An example of English as a foreign language (EFL)
teaching, defined as teaching English in a host country
situation, is English teaching in countries such as Japan,
Saudi Arabia, and Germany. In these countries, English is
taught as one of the subjects in the curriculum. Indeed, it
may not even be required in order to obtain a high school
diploma. English is taught in these countries in much the
same way as French or German is taught in the U.S.--as
another foreign language.
In Malaysia, some people have argued that English is
becoming more akin to a foreign language rather than a
second language as more and more of its citizens become less
proficient in English. I maintain, however, that the second
language status will continue to be preserved as the
government becomes more aware of the need to have the
citizens proficient in English in the interest of
international trade and industry, science and technology,
and international communication. Indeed, as the country
moves into the 21st century and achieves the status of an
27

industrialized nation, similar to that already achieved by
Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore, it is likely that English
learning will gain momentum and regain some, if not all, of
its former importance.
Theoretical Development of ELT
Various approaches or methods to the teaching of
English as a second/foreign language have evolved since the
beginning of this century. Hammerly (1985) argues that
comprehensive theories of language teaching have only
developed in recent years. He further says that the history
of language teaching has been largely one of methods based
on implicit partial theories. According to Hammerly (1985),
the theories that have been in use are the Logico-Literary
Theory, the Structural-Behaviorist Theory, the Naturalistic
Theory, the Sociopsychological Theory, and the
Sociolinguistic Theory. A discussion of the theoretical
developments of English language teaching follows in order
to provide a clearer illustration of the developments.
The Logico-Literary Theory spawned the Grammar-
Translation Method in which translation is used to practice
grammar. A fundamental purpose of learning a foreign
language using this method is to be able to read its
literature. Little emphasis is accorded to the development
of the student's ability to communicate in the target
language, and the student's native language is used
28

liberally during instruction (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). One
consequence of this is that graduates of grammar-translation
programs are able to describe language linguistically and
read the literature, but can hardly speak with any measure
of fluency.
The Structural-Behaviorist Theory accounted for the
development of the Audio-Lingual Method--a method which had
significant impact during the Second World War (Krashen &
Terrell, 1983). At that time, the public became aware that
the available methods of teaching foreign languages were
deficient especially if speaking profiency were the goal.
Language educators had to find a quick and effective way for
soldiers to communicate in the native language of the
country in which they were stationed. Hence, the Audio-
Lingual Method was born--a method that emphasized the
learning of dialogues through drills and memorization.
Language learning, according to this method, is a process of
habit formation, and the teacher serves as a model speaker
of the target language (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). In contrast
to the Grammar-Translation method, the use of the student's
native language is religiously avoided under the assumption
that its use would interfere with the acquisiton of the
target language. However, a contrastive analysis of the two
languages is used by the teachers in order to predict
possible grammatical or pronunciation difficulties. In the
teaching of English to Bahasa Malaysia speakers, for
29

example, an ESL teacher might predict difficulty for the
learners acquiring or learning the verb "to be" as verb
conjugations do not exist in Bahasa Malaysia.
Another theory in use is the Naturalistic Theory in
which language learning is thought to be more successful if
it imitates as closely as possible the process of natural
language acquisition, i.e., the learning of the first
language/mother tongue. Methods that share some features of
this theory are the Direct Method, the Total Physical
Response method(Asher, 1977), and the Natural Approach
(Krashen & Terrell, 1983). A feature of the Total Physical
Response (TPR) approach is that language teaching should
closely imitate that which an infant hears, that is,
commands and instructions from a caregiver. A principle of
the Natural Approach is that comprehension precedes
production. Thus there is a period of silence before a
speaker can produce speech. An important feature of the
Natural Approach is the requirement that a learner's
"affective filter" to learning a language must be lowered in
order to maximize acquisition. "Affective filter" is
defined as the positive or negative feelings a learner has
toward the target language people and culture. The higher
the affective filter, the higher is the resistance to
learning, and hence, the more difficult it will be to
acquire the target language (Krashen & Terrell, 1983).
30

Other theories that have been popular in the field of
second language teaching are the Sociopsychological Theory
and the Sociolinguistic Theory. The former generated
various methods such as the Silent Way (Gattegno, 1972),
Community Language Learning (Curran, 1976), and
Suggestopedia (Lozanov, 1978) . These methods stress the
importance of the learners' feelings. According to Hammerly
(1985) these methods went well with the mood of the sixties
and seventies which emphasized that young people wanted to
"do their own thing" (p. 18). The latter theory produced
the Communicative Approach in which communication is valued
over grammatical accuracy.
All of these theories, and the methods that grew out of
them, have led to a diversity in the ways English is taught
and learned. This diversity is reflected in the ways
teachers make sense of the curriculum and, subsequently,
make decisions about instructional practices, for example,
one teacher may regard a reading text and its accompanying
exercises as strictly the transmission of information and
that the interpretation of the text is strictly the author's
own; another teacher, however, may judge reading as
involving the students' prior knowledge or schema and that
the students' own interpretations of the text are equally
valid.
The plethora of methods available to the language
teachers has significant implications for English teaching
31

and learning, especially for second language learners. For
one thing, it means that students have been exposed to a
particular method depending on the time they learned English
and the convictions of their teachers. For another, non
native English language instructors who were trained in a
methods course when a certain method was prominent are
likely to have been taught that particular method.
Consequently, the way these teachers may have initially
learned English may be different from the way they were
taught pedagogical skills in the ESL methods class. This
may lead to the development of conflicting beliefs or
uncertainties about the best way to teach English. Thus it
is important to discover whether exposure to different
methods while initially learning the language, and then
while taking professional ESL methods classes, have
influenced teachers to teach in differing styles.
Teachers' Beliefs and Practices
Many attempts to define beliefs have generally
considered beliefs in relation to knowledge (Pajares, 1992;
Nespor, 1987; Abelson, 1979). Abelson (1979) noted that
with the advent of cognitive science, it became possible to
examine belief systems in relation to other aspects of human
cognition and human affect. Although the study of belief
systems is closely related to the study of knowledge
systems, Abelson asserted that the former have sufficient
32

unique features to warrant their study as a separate topic.
Abelson, and subsequently, Nespor (1987), identified
seven distinguishing features between beliefs/belief systems
and knowledge. As opposed to knowledge, beliefs are 1) non-
consensual, 2) based on existence or non-existence of
certain conceptual entities, 3) representations of
alternative worlds, 4) dependent on evaluative and affective
components, 5) dependent on critical episodes in life, 6)
unbounded, and 7) held with varying degrees of certitude.
These features, according to the authors, differentiate
beliefs from knowledge. For example, the non-consensual
nature of beliefs may be seen in the following situation.
In English language teaching, although two teachers may
possess the same knowledge about grammar, the way they teach
it may differ. One teacher may believe that teaching
grammar is a matter of memorizing rules, while another may
believe that teaching grammar must involve meaningful use of
the language. Thus beliefs can be considered as the lens
through which teachers interpret knowledge that guide their
behaviors.
In a comprehensive study of the research literature on
teachers' beliefs, Pajares (1992) noted that the difficulty
in defining the term "belief" has compounded the examination
of teachers' beliefs. He suggested that defining beliefs is
at best a game of player's choice. According to him,
beliefs have travelled under the guise of "attitudes,
33

values, judgments, axioms, opinions, ideology, perceptions,
conceptions... implicit theories, explicit theories, personal
theories, internal mental processes, repertoires of
understanding..." (p. 309).
Other researchers have offered other definitions.
Eisenhart, Shrum, Harding, and Cuthbert (1988a) offer
axioms, culture, perspective, social strategy, rules of
practice, practical principles, and cognitive style, as some
of the terms or synonyms used to describe teachers' beliefs
prevalent in educational research literature. They also
noted, " [A] belief is a way to describe a relationship
between a task, an action, an event, or another person and
an attitude of a person toward it." (p. 53). Kagan (1992a)
says that teachers' beliefs are a provocative form of
personal knowledge; and although somewhat misleading,
teacher beliefs have generally been defined as preservice or
inservice teachers' implicit assumptions about students,
learning, classrooms, and the subject matter to be taught.
Clark and Peterson (1986) regard teachers' theories and
beliefs as an important component of teachers' thought
processes. Although not a focus of this study, other
components of teachers' thought processes are teacher
planning (preactive and postactive thoughts) and teachers'
interactive thoughts and decisions. They suggest that
teaching innovations that take teachers' beliefs into
consideration are more likely to be regarded with
34

enthusiasm, persistence, and thoroughness. They also say
that teachers' beliefs are one basis for teachers' classroom
decisions. However the other components of teachers'
thought processes are also reflective of and contributory to
beliefs and practices.
Eisenhart, Cuthbert, Shrum, and Harding (1988b) echo
this sentiment. In a study of the effects of policy changes
on teachers' work, they discovered that educational policies
that are implemented without attention to teachers' beliefs
are seldom implemented the way researchers suggested. For
example, the inclusion of resume-writing in an English
curriculum was not accepted by a group of teachers in their
study who believed that it was not their job to teach
students to write job resumes. For another group of
teachers, however, teaching resume writing was a welcomed
relief from the tedium of teaching English grammar rules.
These researchers identified three domains of teachers'
beliefs toward their work activities. These were positive,
mixed or ambivalent, and negative attitudes toward
activities. Teachers in their study felt most positively
toward activities that pertained directly to classroom
instruction, for example, fostering student achievement. In
contrast, teachers felt least positively toward activities
outside their immediate classroom milieu, for example,
developing new curricula. Hollingsworth (1989) studied the
beliefs of preservice teachers prior to, during, and after a
35

9-month graduate teacher education program. In that study,
she discovered that "preprogram beliefs served as filters
for processing program content and making sense of classroom
contexts" (p. 168).
Horwitz (1988) makes no distinction between beliefs
about language learning and beliefs about language teaching.
She says that there is a degree of overlap between the two.
In her study assessing the beliefs of students regarding the
learning of a foreign or second language (1985), she
discovered that it is essential for students to assess their
beliefs and assumptions about language learning in order to
either reject or support long-held beliefs about language
acquisition. For example, students who believe that
learning a foreign language is easy will be disappointed if
their experiences do not mirror their expectations.
In the same manner, teachers who perceive language
learning to be easy will place unnecessary expectations on
their students, and will be disappointed if the students are
not making the expected progress within a certain period.
Consequently, teachers must also assess or question their
own beliefs about language learning. Their expectations of
students' achievement should be realistic in order to
facilitate both their own teaching and the students'
learning. Horwitz (1985) further says that the assessment
of the linguistic backgrounds of both teachers and students
will insure the most effective language teaching. An
36

awareness of the differences and/or similarities between the
linguistic backgrounds and experiences of teachers and
students might alert teachers to possible problems and
difficulties that their students are likely to encounter in
learning a new language.
In a study on developing a measure for assessing ethnic
beliefs, Murphy (1985) suggests that it is essential for
teachers to assess the beliefs that students might have
toward the speakers of the language they are learning. The
example he provided related to American students' beliefs
regarding the German people. An evaluation of the students'
beliefs about the Germans revealed both positive and
negative attitudes toward the Germans. For example, a
student whose steel town was facing economic difficulties,
blamed the German steel industry. According to Krashen and
Terrell (1983), a negative attitude might lead to high
anxiety which in turn prohibits effective learning of the
target language. In a similar manner, teachers' beliefs and
positive or negative attitudes toward the target language
group may facilitate or hinder their own teaching.
Fenstermacher (1979) argues convincingly that if
policymakers want teachers to change their practice, it is
necessary that teachers' existing beliefs be examined. Only
when knowledge about their beliefs is available will
teachers scrutinize their classroom actions, and think about
whether they need to make changes or modifications to their
37

existing practices. It is thus important that ESL
instructors' beliefs about English be examined in order for
them to be as effective as possible in their practice, as
well as in helping their students to acquire the language.
However, the study of ESL instructors' beliefs must also
include reflection about them on the part of the believers,
not just by researchers.
In Malaysia, most ESL instructors, either at the
college or public school level, have experienced the process
of learning English as a second language. The initial
learning took place in schools or at home, and subsequent
learning has taken place at the tertiary (college) level.
Other experiences of learning English may have come from the
television, radio, and newspapers, and from members of their
family and friends who are proficient in English. It is
likely that these teachers were exposed to different styles
of teaching and different methods of learning English,
depending on the method prevailing at that time.
Subsequently, in their own training as ESL teachers and in
their ESL methods classes, they may have been introduced to
yet another different approach to teaching English.
The exposure to different styles and methods of
learning English, whether formally or informally, and then
to the ESL methods classes may lead to the development of
competing belief systems regarding the teaching of English.
Furthermore, this exposure may also lead to different styles
3 8

of teaching that may or may not be congruent with the
teachers' own beliefs about language learning and teaching.
Conclusion
The review outlined above demonstrates to us the
evolving field of English Language Teaching (ELT), and
presents recent research on teachers' beliefs. The evolving
nature of English language teaching has the potential to
affect not only students, but also their teachers who have
to keep pace with developments in teaching methods and
theories. Certainly, the constant development in the field
will- contribute significant influences on the way teachers
design instructional activities, on the way they present
these activities to their students, on whether teachers keep
up with the theoretical and pedagogical developments in the
field, and on whether they remain comfortable with what they
perceive to be the tried and tested ways of teaching the
language.
Discussions about method remain hotly debated in the
field. Many researchers inevitably include discussions of
the orthodoxy or dominance of certain methods in their
writings (see Prabhu, 1990; Pennycook, 1989; Howatt, 1984;
Richards, 19 84; Richards & Rodgers, 1982). Celce-Murcia
(1991) made an interesting observation that often language
teachers are unaware of the history of the field and of the
developments in language teaching. Teachers, certainly,
39

must be informed of the history of language teaching and of
past and current theories about the nature of language
learning and teaching; this is essential in order for them
to formulate a coherent set of beliefs about teaching
methods that can better inform them of their practices, the
subject matter they teach and the clients they serve.
By examining the beliefs of the ESL instructors, and by
exploring with them their own instructional practices, I
hope to discover what teachers' beliefs are about language
learning and teaching, whether teachers' beliefs are
consistent with their classroom practices, and find out the
conditions and variables that encourage or inhibit teachers'
practice of what they believe to be best practices in
language learning in their classrooms.
40

CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Overview
This study examined the beliefs about language learning
and teaching of a selected group of Malaysian ESL teachers.
It also examined the nature of the relationship between
teachers' beliefs about language learning and teaching and
their classroom practices. A descriptive case study
methodology was used. In case studies, descriptions are
likely to be complex, holistic, and involve a myriad of
related variables (Stake, 1983). The case study method was
used because description and explanation were sought rather
than prediction based on cause and effect (Merriam, 1988).
Selection of Participants
A large group interview was planned between a group of
ESL teachers and me to permit me to introduce my research
and seek their assistance. But because I was in the United
States without the possibility of a short trip to Malaysia,
another option was considered in order to facilitate the
decision-making process. Before I returned to Malaysia from
the U.S. to arrange for my study, I sent a packet of
documents to a teacher in the program whom I had asked in an
earlier visit to act as my assistant. The packet contained
41

copies of 1) a form letter addressed to the teachers
explaining the nature and purpose of my research, (see
Appendix A), 2) an abstract of the dissertation proposal,
and 3) the Informed Consent Statement (see Appendix B). The
purpose of sending these documents ahead of my visit was to
inform the teachers of my research intention, and to allow
them time to think through the possibility of becoming
involved in the study before I arrived at the site.
As soon as I arrived at the site, I immediately
conferred with my assistant and discussed possible
participants for the research study. Several times during
the first week of my visit there, I met and spoke informally
with the teachers in the program from which the subjects
were to be selected to find out who might be interested in
participating in the study. I explained the nature and
purposes of the research inquiry, and what would be expected
of the teachers should they decide to participate. I also
replied to their questions and concerns regarding the
intention and direction of the study. As it was well into
the third week of their semester, I thought teachers would
have smoothed out any snags in their timetables and would be
in a better position to say whether or not they could
participate in the study.
From these informal meetings, four instructors were
invited to participate in the in-depth study. Selection was
based on clarity of educational and theoretical beliefs
42

espoused in our initial discussions, and also on what I
projected to be possible differences of theoretical
orientations among the individuals. Another criterion for
selection was the respondents' sincere interest and
willingness to participate in an intensive. A further
factor that was considered was that these four participants
were representative of the two spectrums of Malaysian ESL
teachers. Two of them were educated when the language of
instruction in schools was English, and the other two were
educated in the early years when the medium of instruction
changed to Bahasa Malaysia. I conjectured that looking at
two sets of teachers educated in two different mediums of
instruction might offer two contrasting descriptions of
teachers' experiences.
The four participants were college-level ESL
instructors who have bachelor's degrees in either education
or ESL, and master's degrees in applied linguistics or
education. One has also obtained a doctoral degree in
sociolinguistics. All of them have learned English as a
second language either beginning at home or in the Malaysian
public schools. The language of instruction in these
schools could have been all-English or all-Bahasa Malaysia,
or it could have been in transition from all-English to all-
Bahasa Malaysia (the language of instruction in schools
changed from English to Bahasa Malaysia in the early
seventies). Three of the participants have obtained some
43

part of their professional training in universities in the
United Kingdom, and the fourth received both her bachelor's
and master's degrees in the United States. Two of them also
received their first degrees in Malaysia. Three of the
participants have taught at the public school level prior to
teaching at the college level.
At the time of this study, the participants had
teaching experiences ranging from three to 37 years. These
instructors have taught the various components of English
such as grammar, reading comprehension, writing, and
listening and speaking, and critical thinking at the
matriculation level. This is the way the ESL curriculum is
divided in this program. Of the four participants, only one
has taught in the degree program.
Data sources
Multiple data sources were used in order to obtain a
holistic picture of the teachers. These were semi
structured interviews with the participants in the study
(Merriam, 1990); observations of their classrooms; semi
structured interviews with teacher-selected students in
order to elicit their views about language learning;
examination of documents such as teachers' lesson plans,
handouts, homework assignments, student journals, and others
that were identified as the study progressed; informal
conversations with non-participant teachers in the faculty
44

lounge; and informal conversation with the supervisor of the
TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) teacher
preparation program. Students who participated in the study
were selected by the teachers involved in the study. The
students represented a spectrum of abilities, from weak, to
average, to good based on the teachers' evaluations. The
students were not the focus of this study, but their input
was considered important as a form of triangulation of
teacher reported and researcher observed teaching by the
participants.
The key participants were interviewed three times
outside of their class times. These interviews which were
usually between one to two hours were conducted in the
privacy of the Faculty Resource Room, the Conference Room,
or in the teachers' own offices. Other secondary sources
were interviewed in an informal manner, either in the
faculty lounge or along the corridor. The interviews with
the non-participant teachers and teacher-selected students
were a way of triangulating data. For example, the
interview with some students of the participants enabled me
to find out whether teachers articulated their language
beliefs to their students, and whether, if they did so,
their students were able to identify these beliefs in their
daily interactions with their teachers.
Another data source was observations of the classroom
teaching of the selected participants. Initially two
45

observation sessions of their classroom teaching were
planned for each instructor; however, illness and an
unscheduled week-long mandatory inservice workshop for the
teachers prevented the observation of two of the subjects
for the second time. I was able to observe two teachers
twice in their classrooms, each observation period was one
hour. The other two teachers were observed once each, one
for a two-hour period and the other for a one-hour period.
Following Merriam (1988), my role was as "observer as
participant" in which my involvement as participant in the
class activities was regarded as definitely secondary to my
role as information gatherer.
All the teachers introduced me to the class the first
time I observed them; invariably, I was greeted very
politely by the students. The observations focussed on
instructional features that teachers professed they carry
out in class, for example, the use of lectures, group work,
grammar drills, communicative activities, handouts; the
general behavior of the teachers and students; and student
and teacher interactions. As it was impossible to
concentrate on all aspects of classroom action at the same
time, I only concentrated on features that I anticipated
would illuminate my research questions. These were
teachers' beliefs about language learning and teaching; the
relationship of beliefs to instructional practices; and the
46

factors that encourage and/or inhibit the translation of
beliefs into practices.
The interviews with and observations of selected
teachers constituted primary data sources for the study;
data from the students and the supervisor, the informal
conversations with faculty, and the documents constituted
secondary data sources.
Data collection techniques
The interviews were tape-recorded in order to allow me
to concentrate on such things as "non-verbal behaviour and
physical environment of activities" (Hammersley & Atkinson,
1983, p. 159). The use of the tape-recorder allowed for
accuracy, and also provided accurate documentation for
quotations, or illustrations in support of my interpretation
of the data.
As mentioned earlier, the primary participants were
interviewed three times. The first interview was rather
exploratory; we discussed the personal and professional
developments of the teachers. Their language learning
experiences were also discussed at this interview. In
addition I asked preliminary questions about their
theoretical orientations and beliefs of the participants,
and the sources of their beliefs if they could identify them
in their personal history as students and teachers.
47

The second interview was an in-depth session which
followed a classroom observation. To follow Elbaz (1981),
after the first, and before subsequent interviews, I played
the tape-recording of the interview several times in order
to make preliminary notes and to write down questions to be
asked at the next interview session. The second interview
served to clarify questions that I had regarding the
classroom observation; teachers were also invited to explain
and elaborate on some of their classroom actions. It was
also an opportunity for them to ask me questions regarding
the progress and direction of the study. At this interview,
too, I shared my preliminary interpretations about their
conversations with me, and sought clarification about these
interpretations. In the interviews we talked about
students, the syllabus, the theories and nature of language
learning, and their professional experiences. We also
continued our discussion about their beliefs and classroom
practices.
The last interview followed the last classroom
observation. Besides clarifying certain observation
features with them, it also served as a debriefing session,
at which time I confirmed with my respondents individually
my exploratory interpretations of their words and classroom
behaviors. This reconfirmation was carried out by asking
them again certain questions that I had posed at the
previous meeting. When there was a need, for example when
48

participants wanted to confirm what they had said
previously, portions of the recording were played back to
them, or excerpts from the fieldnotes read to them. I also
apprised them of the subsequent steps in my research study,
and informed them of the possibility that I might need to
contact them further for clarification should the occasion
arise. This interview also served another purpose, i.e.,
the respondents were encouraged to affirm, modify, or
repudiate my interpretations of what they had said in the
preceding interviews.
Classroom observations were initially tape-recorded in
order to provide accurate documentation of events. The
purpose was also to enable me to concentrate on other
features or activities in the classroom that could not be
captured on tape. However, the use of the tape-recorder was
subsequently discarded as the background noise that came
from the outside was constant, and prevented a clear tape-
recording from being obtained. Perhaps, it is important to
note here that none of the classrooms was air-conditioned;
in order to facilitate the flow of air and, hopefully, a
cooling breeze into the classroom, each classroom was
equipped with windows on the left and right side of the
room. The classrooms were also separated from one another
by thin walls that did little to filter out the noise coming
from one classroom to the other. Although many times during
the observations, I had to strain my ears in order to hear
49

what the teachers and students were saying, the students and
teachers generally seemed to be oblivious to this irritating
distraction. Noise came from vehicles coming in and out of
the compound, from the blowing of the horns of mobile
vendors, from other classrooms, from the shrieks and
laughter of children playing outside their houses close to
the building, and even from the raucous chirping of the
birds which could be heard very clearly. Another source of
noise came from the hum and whirr of the four ceiling fans
in the classrooms that valiantly attempted to provide some
cooling breeze.
As mentioned earlier, observations focussed on
practices that teachers said they followed in their
teaching. I had also hoped to observe atypical happenings,
things that might not illustrate teachers' beliefs but might
highlight occurrences peculiar to that situation. There
might be incongruence between beliefs and practices.
Merriam (1988) says, "As an outsider an observer will notice
things that have become routine to the participants
themselves, things which may lead to understanding the
context" (p. 88). In the subsequent interviews, teachers
were asked to clarify or explain any perceived
incongruence.
Another data source was the fieldnotes which I
consistently wrote during both the interviews and
observations. The observation fieldnotes were kept in a
50

separate folder that I had created for each participant.
Any class handouts or lesson plans that I received from them
were identified and included in the folder. I also kept a
research journal in which I jotted down pertinent ideas
about each participant and questions that I considered
important to ask at the subsequent meetings. As soon as
each interview was over, and as soon as time allowed, I
reviewed the fieldnotes, and wrote narratives based on the
interviews. I followed Erickson's (1986) suggestion that a
fundamental principle of this subsequent reflection and
write-up was that it should be completed before returning to
the .field to do further observation. When time did not
allow, I narrated my observations into a tape recorder. In
order to avoid fatigue and memory lapses, I interviewed only
one participant a day. The fieldnotes were used to record
the participants' non-verbal language like facial
expressions or hand gestures, and descriptions of settings--
features that would certainly be missed on the recording.
When all the interviews had been conducted and the data
gathered, I transcribed verbatim each tape-recording of the
interviews; important information such as the time, date,
and place where the interviews occurred were recorded.
During the transcription process, I continued to make notes
of ideas that arose or to jot down on the wide margins of
the pages themes or questions that frequently emerged. The
pages of each interview transcript were numbered to
51

facilitate reference and retrieval of information in the
writing up process of the study. During analysis, and
subsequent writing, fieldnotes were juxtaposed against the
transcripts as a means of verifying and amplifying data.
The data sets--verbatim transcriptions of each interview,
fieldnotes, and personal analytic memos--were combined to
produce individual case studies of the participants.
Data analysis techniques
Preliminary and exploratory analysis was ongoing,
beginning with the first interview and observation. This
aided in the formulation and clarification of research
questions that continued into the process of writing up the
study (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1983). In other words,
"theory building and data collection are dialectically
linked," (p. 175). The process of data collection and
analysis was recursive and dynamic--the initial interview
was followed up by subsequent interviews to allow for
clarification and modification; analysis became more
intensive once all the data had been collected although it
had been a continuous activity (Merriam, 1988).
Following Merriam, the data that had been gathered were
organized in sets in order to build the case report for each
respondent, for example, interview transcripts, observation
fieldnotes, lesson plans, syllabus, and class handouts, were
gathered together into a single folder for each participant.
52

Before I embarked on the actual writing of the study, I
perused each data set in its entirety several times to allow
themes or topics to emerge. According to Merriam (1988),
"[a]t this stage the researcher is virtually holding a
conversation with the data, asking questions of it, making
comments, and so on" (p. 131). During these readings, I
continued to take notes, make comments, and note queries,
and these were recorded in the margins of the field notes,
or in my journal. I also made a list of general themes for
each participant which aided in the subsequent coding
activity.
After these readings, I began coding the data into the
themes that emerged, for example, personal history, family
influences, formal and informal language learning
experiences, main influences in learning, professional
education, teaching experiences, instructional practices,
and language beliefs. These data were then transferred onto
index cards, for the first case study, and computer files
for the subsequent case studies; these data were identified
by a code I had assigned for each respondent. The manual
transfer of units of information onto index cards was
subsequently replaced in favor of the faster transfer of
information on computer files, this latter technique
mirrored closely what was done manually with the index
cards. The interview number and page number of the
interview transcript were also recorded at the top of each
53

index card and computer file. Information that was recorded
on each index card and computer file pertained to the themes
that were dominant for each respondent. These data were
subsequently categorized into the broader themes that guided
the write up of each case study. The categories that were
developed related to l) the respondents' personal history,
2) their language learning experiences, and 3) their
language beliefs and teaching practices.
Data from documents such as lesson plans and class
handouts were scrutinized and summarized according to the
features of methods that they embodied, or that the teachers
identified as embodying certain methods of teaching English.
This information was interwoven into the themes that emerged
in order to illustrate further the relationship between a
teacher's instructional practices and beliefs. The
fieldnotes from the observations and other documents were
juxtaposed against the interview transcripts in order to
provide a narrative rendering of each respondent.
In the writing phase, I used the words of the
respondents in order to capture the essence of their speech
and to minimize misinterpretation on my part. Although the
data were from formal interviews, it must be noted that
these speeches occurred in a conversational manner.
Although I had a set of interview protocol to guide me (see
Appendix C), occasionally we also discussed other issues
that did not pertain directly to the research questions but
54

which contributed a natural ambience to the atmosphere.
This was encouraged in order to make the tone of the
interviews less threatening to the respondents and to help
them open up to me more spontaneously. As is to be
expected, the interview sessions reflected normal speech in
that they were often characterized by fillers, false starts,
pauses and hesitations, repetitions, and simultaneous speech
by both respondent and researcher. Another characteristic
of conversational speech is that there is less monitoring of
speech and less attention paid to grammatical accuracy, a
fact of normal speech. Although by any standards these
respondents are considered to be very fluent speakers of
English, the reader may find some grammatical idiosyncracies
of Malaysian speech such as the deletion of verb endings,
the misuse of certain modality, the use of the historical
present, and some occasional turns of phrases or word
choices that might sound unfamiliar to the native-speaker
readers but which are extremely common in the Malaysian
variety of English, a fact acknowledged by Platt, Weber, and
Ho (1984). Initially I used "sic" to indicate when the
respondents used non-standard English. However, that seemed
to be more distracting than helpful. Therefore in the final
presentation, I have not used "sic."
These quotations, which have been footnoted according
to the interview number and page number of the interview
transcript, have been reproduced verbatim in the case
55

studies. The use of ellipses indicates a pause in the
conversation. The first number in the parenthesis indicates
the number in the series of interviews for each respondent;
the number after the colon indicates the page number of the
interview transcript. Whenever data from the observation
fieldnotes are directly quoted, they are footnoted according
to the number of the observation; this information is then
followed by the date and month when the observation
occurred. Data from student interviews are footnoted
according to the date when they occurred.
Establishing trustworthiness
In qualitative studies it is essential that the
researcher outlines his or her method for establishing that
the studies have been conducted in the most trustworthy
manner possible. In experimental studies the issues of
internal and external validity are already built into the
process of research design. But since this was a
qualitative study it was necessary to follow Merriam's
(1988) broad concepts of internal validity, reliability, and
external validity in order to establish the study's
trustworthiness.
Internal validity deals with the issue of how the
findings matched reality. In this study, the issue of
internal validity was dealt with first by triangulation, in
which multiple sources of data and multiple methods were
56

used to confirm findings to assure that the information from
various sources were consistent. Multiple sources referred
to the various groups of people who were interviewed in the
study--the primary participants, the students, and the non
participant instructors--the syllabi, the texts and other
supporting documents. The multiple methods criterion was
met by a series of interviews and observations that I
engaged in. A second method used to establish internal
validity was member checking in which data and
interpretations that initially were made by me were taken
back to the participants at subsequent interviews for
confirmation or modification. During the second and last
interviews I reminded subjects about what they had said in
previous interviews and asked them to confirm, modify, or
change what they had said earlier. This was considered to
be neccessary as during the analysis and writing process,
the subjects were not easily-reached by me.
The last method was persistent observation, the purpose
of which was to permit me to identify those characteristics
and elements in the situation that were most relevant to the
problem or issue being pursued (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).
Persistent observation also allowed me to identify and
assess salient factors and crucial atypical happenings.
Persistent observation is distinct from prolonged engagement
whose purpose is to allow a researcher to learn the culture
of the setting. If a researcher is totally new to a
57

setting, he or she would have to spend a considerable amount
of time learning the norms, procedures, and culture of the
environment. Erickson (1986) says that oftentimes
researchers must conduct a comprehensive survey of the
setting and its surrounding environments prior to beginning
the research activity. This entails that the researchers be
at particular places at particular times. This "sequential
sampling" (p. 143) allows the researchers to obtain the full
range of events that occurred in the day. Because of my
previous experience as teacher and coordinator of the
program, and my familiarity with many of the teachers, the
length of time needed to reacquaint myself with the culture
was indeed shortened. However, that previous experience did
not negate the necessity to reorientate myself to the recent
changes and developments in the program both in terms of
policies and curriculum, and change in staff and faculty.
According to Merriam (1988), "[R]eliability is
problematic in the social sciences as a whole simply because
human behavior is never static" (p. 170). Merriam further
says, "Because what is being studied in education is assumed
to be in flux, multifaceted, and highly contextual, because
information gathered is a function of who gives it and how
skilled the researcher is at getting it, and because the
emergent design of qualitative studies precludes a priori
controls, achieving reliability in the traditional sense is
not only fanciful but impossible" (p. 171). However, there
58

are ways to ensure reliability in qualitative studies.
Merriam suggests making clear the researcher's positions
vis-a-vis his or her biases, assumptions, and theories. In
order to be clear, I kept a reflexive journal which was "a
kind of diary in which the investigator on a daily basis, or
as needed, records a variety of information about
'self’ .and method" (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 327).
Another was triangulation in that multiple sources of data
and multiple methods of collecting data were used. A
summary report of my reflection is presented in Appendix D
to permit the reader to assess the validity of my report.
External validity deals with whether findings of one
study can be applied to another. In the traditional sense,
this refers to the generalizability of the study. Lincoln
and Guba (1985) suggest providing a rich, thick description
of the phenomenon under study. They say this is necessary
in order to "enable someone interested in making a transfer
to reach a conclusion about whether transfer can be
contemplated as a possibility" (p. 316). This study
employed such a method to ensure external validity. I have
described the program, the setting, the student body, and
the individual faculty members, and most importantly, the
way in which the faculty members make sense of their own
beliefs and practices.
The last issue to be dealt with in this section is the
question of ethics. Ethical standards outlined in the Human
59

Subjects Form were met. Each participant filled out and
signed the Informed Consent Statement (see Appendix B) to
indicate agreement to participate in the study. As has been
mentioned in another section, participants were invited to
participate in the study. The purposes of the study were
outlined to them, as were the methods to be used. Steps
have been taken in order to ensure the anonymity of the
participants and the setting. Pseudonyms have been used for
all proper names, program, and place names. Details
regarding special places and people were altered to protect
the anonymity of both the setting and the participants.
Presentation of the study
The study is presented in four case studies of the four
subject teachers. Under each case, the experiences and
interpretations of the participants are organized and
presented according to themes that emerged. According to
Merriam (1988), "[A] theme is an over-arching concept or
theoretical formulation that has emerged from data
analysis," (p. 190). Further, a theme is large enough to
encompass much of the data collected and analyzed.
Discussion of overall findings involved a cross-case
analysis of the various cases studied; this is presented in
Chapter Eight. Cross-case analysis increases the potential
for generalizing beyond a single case, and would provide
evidence of similarities and points of divergence in beliefs
60

and practices of the subjects. As Merriam (1988) notes, the
cross-case analysis makes the conclusions more compelling
for a wider population and helps confirm or disconfirm data
in the individual cases. Data that had been gathered were
summarized by themes in which findings from other sources
and literature were interwoven and integrated into the
narrative. The conclusion and implications of the findings
from this study and implications for future research are
discussed in the concluding chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR
THE SOLDIER
This is the story of Mr. Sarjit, a 37 year veteran of
teaching. Although the central focus of this study was an
examination of teacher beliefs about language learning and
teaching, it was considered important to include a portrait
of the respondent's early years because it is during this
time that the foundation for language learning is set. For
Mr. Sarjit, it was when he learned to speak English and his
initial experiences as a student of language played a large
role in influencing his beliefs about learning a language.
The data for this story were collected from a series of
formal and informal encounters. I interviewed him three
times, each time between one and one and a half hours. To
ensure privacy and maximum tape-recording quality, the
interviews with Mr. Sarjit were conducted either in the
conference room at his school or in an unoccupied office.
Verbal permission to record the interviews had already been
sought prior to the interviews. Formal permission was
included in the Informed Consent Statement which he read and
signed before the study began. Mr. Sarjit did not seem
perturbed by the presence of the tape-recorder, although at
first, he was leaning forward toward the recorder which was
placed on the table separating the two of us and speaking
62

more to the machine than to me. We also met informally on
several different occasions in the faculty lounge and along
the corridor, and sometimes we carried on a conversation
during those times. I observed him two times while he was
teaching, once in a writing class and the other time in a
grammar class which was, admittedly, his favorite subject.
At the time of this study, Mr. Sarjit was teaching five
hours of writing and ten hours of grammar per week.
His story presents a portrait of a man who witnessed
WWII, who lived in Malaya when it was still colonized by the
British, and who came into teaching during a time of
national development. Mr. Sarjit also represents a group of
teachers whom one might call, sadly, a "dying breed". In
present-day Malaysia, it is uncommon to find a teacher whose
formative years were spent when Malaya was under British
rule and whose education singularly followed the British
system of education. Most of these teachers have retired
from the profession.
The Making of a Teacher
Mr. Sarjit was born into a Punjabi-speaking family in
1930 in a small town in the largest state in Peninsular
Malaysia. This was twenty-seven years before Malaya (now
Malaysia) gained independence from Britain, and twelve years
before the onset of World War II. He began primary school
in his hometown in 1938 and it was here that he started to
63

learn English, a language then used for public communication
as well as for instruction. His schooling continued until
1942 when WWII erupted in his part of the world with the
arrival of Japanese troops in Malaya. The Japanese were
successful in driving the British army from Malaya and they
stayed on until their surrender to the Allies in 1945.
Mr. Sarjit's early years in school did not follow what
one could consider to be a conventional pattern of
schooling. As mentioned earlier, his first years of primary
schooling were interrupted by the arrival of the Japanese
army. During the first year of the Japanese occupation, Mr.
Sarjit went to a Japanese school where he was required to
learn the Japanese language. He did not remain long at the
Japanese school, however. He fell ill and his parents sent
him to a temple to recuperate and to learn the Punjabi
language (his first language) more extensively. But even
so, he learned Japanese.
I was quite fluent up until five or six years
after the war. And then it all rotted. (1:11)
He attributed his loss of Japanese speaking ability to a
lack of usage, which to him is an important factor in
learning a language, and because it was no longer necessary
to speak Japanese in then British Malaya.
After the war ended he went to school for another
year. The old British school system was immediately re-
instituted at war's end. But this once more was interrupted
because his parents decided to go back to India where they
64

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