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Proceeding of the Global Summit on Education GSE 2014 (E- ISBN 978-967-11768-5-6) 4-5 March 2014, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Organized by WorldConferences.net 320

ENGLISH FOR YOUNG LEARNERS (EYL) TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND INTENDED CLASSROOM PRACTICES WITH REGARD TO ADDITIONAL TIME

ALLOCATION GIVEN TO TEACHING ENGLISH: A CASE STUDY

Reshma Rajasaigran SK Bandar Sri Damansara 3

Hamzah Md. Omar & Lee Kean Wah

School of Education & Social Development Universiti Malaysia Sabah

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

This case study investigates EYL Teachers’ beliefs and intended classroom practices with regard to the additional time allocation given to teaching English Language. This investigation was based on three research questions: (a) What core beliefs do English Language teachers hold in regard to the teaching of young learners for an increased time period? (b) What are the intended classroom practices carried out by English Language teachers during the implementation of the increased time allocation? and (c) How has the increased time allocation affected the teachers’ classroom practice and beliefs? The methodology used in this study was a multiple – case study method whereby the data was collected through interviews and document analyses. The data was analysed based on the Miles and Huberman’s (1994) data analysis procedure which includes three basic stages: (a) data reduction, ( b) data display and (c) conclusion drawing and verification. The findings of this study revealed that the teachers’ beliefs and intended practice were consistent with regard to the five aspects of teaching and learning, which were thematically summarized into 3 main categories: (1) Teacher (a) classroom activities, (b) classroom assessment (c) lesson objectives; (2) Student (a) language exposure; (3) Materials (a) attractive materials. The findings suggested that the phenomenon of additional time allocation is of great advantage to the teachers in being able to put their beliefs into practice. The insights from this study point towards the need for TEYL teachers and practitioners to create a community of practice amongst themselves to continually support and learn from one another in coping with the additional time allocation.

Field of Research: teachers’ beliefs , teachers’ practice, teaching context, young learners

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1. Introduction

Changes in terms of educational policies occur from time to time in order to upgrade the quality of education in the country. As such, teachers, being the agent of change in the schools are mostly affected by these alterations since they will have to be well equipped and mentally ready to carry out the changes in school. As a result of the reversal of ETeMS, the Primary School Standard Curriculum (KSSR) has been implemented in the year 2011 beginning in the Year 1 classroom in all primary schools. The implementation of this new curriculum sees many changes, including the addition of teaching and learning time from 240 to 300 minutes per week. As a result, EYL teachers were challenged to teach for an additional time period. As such, there has been considerable speculation about how these teachers would be able to cope with these sudden changes and ensure that their teaching continues to be successful ( Chapman & Kulasagaran ,2010: 2).

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2. Teacher Beliefs and Teacher Practice

Belief is referred as individual personal knowledge, which are constructed from experience acquired through cultural transmission and serves as implicit theories to guide thoughts and actions (Pajares, 1992). In a more specific view, the term teacher belief was defined by Kagan (1992:65; Farrell & Tan, 2007: 383) as ‘unconsciously held assumptions about students, classrooms, and the academic material to be taught.’ On the other hand, the term classroom practice or better known as instructional practice refers to what actually happens in the classrooms. (Farrell & Tan, 2007 : 384). The debate regarding teacher beliefs and practice has been discussed and argued in a great number of studies. Several studies have strongly suggested that the relationship of teacher beliefs and classroom practice go hand – in – hand with equal consistency (Savaski – Acikalin, 2009 ; Bingimlas & Hanrahan, 2010: 417). For an instance, research has found that teachers’ beliefs about mathematics, teaching and learning are consistent with classroom practice (Thompson, 1985; Karaagac & Threlfall,2004 :137). In another study on science teachers, Levitt (2002) concluded that although gaps still exist between the teacher beliefs and the principles of reform, the implication of teacher beliefs is that the teachers are moving in a direction consistent with science education reform. (Savaski – Acikalin, 2009:3).Teachers’ personal theories are formulated and reformulated as they go through the stages of teacher development. Their personal theories become the basis for their personal knowledge about teaching and therefore, as posited by many researchers, they have strong influence on teachers’ planning, instructional decisions and classroom practices. (Lortie, 1975; Olson, 1981; Clark & Peterson, 1985; Bandura, 1986; Clandinin, 1986; Corder, 1988; Tobin, 1990; fullan, 1991; Freeman, 1991; Pajares 1992; Johnson, 1992; Cuban, 1993; Golombek, 1998; Roberts, 1998; Andrew; 2001; Siti Rohani, 2007: 2). 3. Teacher Beliefs and Teaching Context

Although there have been much work done to link teacher beliefs to teacher practice, there is still little we know about how teachers’ belief is related to their environment. Context plays a very important role in the relationship of teacher beliefs and practice. Ajzen (2002) found that some of the elements that cause a mismatch between beliefs and practices are human behaviours, time, resources and course content.(Mansour, 2007 : 32) Research has shown that teacher cognitions and practices interact and that contextual factors determine the extent to which teachers are able to implement instructions congruent with their cognitions (Woods 1996: 21).According to Mansour,(2007 : 32) teachers’ belief and practice cannot be examined out of context but are always situated in a physical setting in which constraints, opportunities or external influences may derive from sources of various level, including the curriculum. In the same vein, Ernest (1988 in Bingimlas & Hanrahan,2010: 420 ) viewed context as playing an important role in how beliefs are put into practice. He found the two key factors for a mismatch between beliefs and practices: a) the powerful influence of the social context and most importantly, b) the institutionalized curriculum, which includes the curricular scheme. This certainly shows that context is an extremely important aspect in shaping teachers’ belief and putting it into action. Since most studies indicated that educational belief in general and teachers’ beliefs in particular are not context – free (Pajares, 1992: 315), it is of utmost importance to include contextual factors which have helped to mould beliefs. Therefore, researchers must study the context – specific features in belief in terms of connection of beliefs with other belief systems and contextual issues (Pajares, 1992: 316). Time allocation affects the lesson, teacher and most importantly the students. The flow and content of the lesson might be affected if teachers do not make a good decision in terms of time management for each and



every stage of their lesson. As such, this study would explore the context specific feature of teachers’ belief in terms of increased time allocation. 4. Conceptual Framework

Based on the objectives of the study, this conceptual framework was developed (Figure 1). It portrays the emerging conceptual framework used for studying the influence of Primary school English Teachers’ intended practice and beliefs during the increased teaching time.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework – The influence of Primary school English Teachers’ Intended Practice, Belief and Phenomena.

Bandura's Reciprocal Determinism holds that cognition/ person, behaviour and environment determine each other and vice versa. In other words, it means that the environment influences the behaviour of an individual, and in return, the behaviour of the individual also influences the environment. As such, it means that not only the environment influences the person, but the person also influences the environment. Besides that, the environments and the human behaviour also influence the person in terms of cognitive, affective and biological events. This simply means that the world and a person’s behaviour mutually cause each other.

This concept is well represented by the three variables which support the framework of this study: belief, practice and phenomena. This is illustrated in Figure 1.The conceptual framework above illustrates the three main variables in this study and how it is interconnected to each other .The environment is related to the phenomena of this study, i.e. increased teaching time, the person is linked to the practice carried out by primary school English teachers in their Year 1 Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) classrooms and the final element, behaviour is related to the teachers’ belief.

Belief

(Teachers’ attitude)

Intended Practice

(Implementation in the

classroom)

Phenomena

(Extended time period)

Classroom Activities

Teaching Materials

Language Exposure

Classroom

Assessment

Lesson Objectives



5. Methodology 5.1 Research Approach

Qualitative research can be broadly characterized as the in-depth detailed study of a small number of cases primarily using subjective observational techniques (Ragin 2004 ; O’Connor 2003:25). Since this study requires a detailed and in – depth exploration, it is only appropriate to conduct a qualitative research approach. Qualitative research approach is generally employed to describe and answer questions regarding participants and contexts. The researcher studies the perspectives of the participants towards events, beliefs and practice and strives to capture the human meaning of social life as it is lived, experienced and understood by the research participants (Gay and Airasian, 2003: 163) As far as this study is concerned, it would explore the beliefs and practices of EYL teachers who are teaching Year 1 young learners for an increased time period. 5.2 Research Design As this study seeks to explore a single case i.e. increased time allocation, in terms of particularity and complexity, the research design that would be carried out is a case study. Case study is the study of particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important circumstances (Stake, 1995: Patton, 2002: 297). It consists of a single case in which I would explore in terms of seeking to understand the teachers’ perspective. Most studies search for what is common and pervasive. However, in the case study, the focus may not be on generalization but on understanding the particulars of that case in its complexity. 5.3 Population and Sampling The population of this study refers to English teachers in the district of Ranau, Sabah. These teachers taught English to young learners in national primary schools which are also known as Sekolah Kebangsaan (S.K.). These young learners were between 5 years old to 6 years old. The size of the population is approximately 50 teachers. However, the sample size that is determined for this study is 4 people. The rational for selecting teachers themselves as the participants of this study is because it is best to find out from the people who are directly involved in the process of teaching and learning themselves. 5.4 Sampling Procedure

Participants were selected based on a non random sampling method whereby prior knowledge and experience was used to identify criteria for selecting the sample.The sample was then chosen based on one main criterion, i.e. primary school English teachers who are teaching English to Year 1 pupils. Qualitative researchers are often interested in selecting purposive and judgement samples. The rational for choosing a purposive sampling procedure is so that this study could be narrowed down to the intended population and to gain a rich range of data.

5.5 Research Method In order to increase the credibility of the findings, a multiple data collection method was carried out pertaining to the topic of this study. A multiple data collection method was applied because this triangulation approach was necessary as the studies did not have all information needed to comprehensively answer questions concerning each case.



5.5.1 Document Analysis The first type of documents was reflective essays completed by all four participants. Participants were asked to describe their feelings and explain what they thought about their beliefs and practices in the classroom due to the additional time allocation. The rational for analysing their reflective essay is to acquire more information to support the data from the interview in order to answer these research questions: What core beliefs do English Language teachers hold in regard to the teaching of young learners for an increased time period? And what are the current classroom practices carried out by English Language teachers during the implementation of the increased time allocation?

The second documents that were analysed are lesson plans. Some of the important information that was available in the lesson plans were the objectives, activities, materials and the teachers’ reflections the plethora of information available in this lesson plan was used to answer Research Question 2: What are the current classroom practices carried out by English Language teachers during the implementation of the increased time allocation? 5.5.2 Semi Structured Interview This interview focused on specifically how the participants utilize the long teaching time in their English Language classrooms. It also enabled the participants to explain and describe their classroom practice in detail. Another reason for carrying out this interview is to be able to triangulate the data obtained in order to ensure that it is credible and to be able to control the data obtained. These questions in the semi structured interview answered these Research Questions: What core beliefs do English Language teachers hold in regard to the teaching of young learners for an increased time period? And what are the current classroom practices carried out by English Language teachers during the implementation of the increased time allocation? 5.6 Data collection

5.6.1 Research Procedure

In order to complete this study systematically and ensure the validity of the data, a five- stage- procedure was carried out. The first stage is the pilot study that was conducted based on the semi structured interview on two participants. Following this, amendments were conducted based on the feedback given by the participants. Once the necessary amendments have been made, the sampling procedure was carried out in which 4 primary school English teachers were selected based on a purposive sampling method around the district of Ranau, Sabah. Participants were briefed on the study, its purpose and other ethical issues. The fourth stage involves conducting a questionnaire on the participants. This questionnaire was administered individually. The collection method of the questionnaire was through mail and as well as e-mail. In order to triangulate the data obtained from the questionnaire and to probe deeper on the participants’ responds, a semi structured interview was carried out.

5.7 Data Analysis

5.7.1 Within Cases

All four cases were presented separately in terms of their belief and practice to give a clearer picture of this study. In presenting the analysis for this section, two Research Questions would be answered; a) What core beliefs do English Language teachers hold in regard to the teaching



of young learners for an increased time period? b) What are the current classroom practices carried out by English Language teachers during the implementation of the increased time allocation? During this analysis, there seem to be three main categories emerging from the raw data. They were the teacher, the students and the materials. Table 1 indicates the data obtained from each participant which were thematically summarized into the aforementioned 3 main categories:

Matt

Core Beliefs Current Classroom Practice

The Teacher -It is essential to carry out a variety of suitable activities and classroom assessments for young learners

-Carried out classroom assessment and a variety of activities (role plays, singing, watching cartoon)

The Students -More exposure to the target language and increased teacher – student contact

-Created ample opportunity for teacher – students contact -Interacts with his students on a daily basis

The Materials -Utilizing attractive classroom materials

-Brought a variety of attractive materials to his classroom

Hani

The Teacher -It is important to come up with various interesting activities -Assessment should be carried out - Lesson objectives should be practical and achievable

- Carried out classroom assessment frequently - Carried out a number of different activities - Achieved most of her lesson objectives

The Students -Increased language exposure would lead to increased learning

- More contact with the language - Enables them to retain the contents of the previous lessons

The Materials -It aids the teacher to entertain students, enables teachers to achieve their objectives, attracts students’ attention and it meets students’ needs.

- Utilized attractive and interesting materials

Jay

The Teacher -A variety of interesting activities should be carried out - Assessment should be carried out sporadically

-Carried out numerous interesting activities and assessments -Able to achieve lesson objectives frequently

The Students -Increased learning and increased contact with teacher

- Increased usage of the language

The Materials -Should be suitable and appealing

-Makes use of the existing ones and also produces his own

Fiza

The Teacher -Essential to conduct a variety of activities

-Carried out a variety of interesting and suitable activities



-Important to produce and generate achievable lesson objectives

-Able to achieve objectives more frequently

The Students her students would learn more of the language

able to spend more time with her students and track their progress

The Materials -Ensure that a range of different materials are used -Materials provided by teachers should be attractive

-Creates a variety of attractive and interesting materials

5.7.2 Cross Cases

In analysing these four cases separately, there appeared to be certain patterns whereby they were consistent in terms of their belief and practice. All four teachers were agreeable in terms of the effect of the additional time allocation on the teacher, the students and materials. The consistency of the teachers’ core beliefs ad their intended practice can be viewed clearly in Table 2:

*B=Belief, P=Practice

Table 2: The consistency of teachers’ core beliefs and their intended practice with regard to additional time allocation on themselves, their students and the materials 6. Findings & Discussion

6.1 English Language Teachers’ Core Beliefs In Regard to the Teaching of Young Learners for

an Increased Time Period

Upon analysing the data, there appears to be a sequential pattern in which the aspects of the teachers’ beliefs are presented. It is evident that the teachers seem to link the additional time allocation firstly to their belief of increased language exposure amongst their students. (Matt/ Interview/pg7).Based on a study conducted by Mayberry, Lock & Kazmi (2002), it showed that language-learning ability is determined by the onset of language experience and exposure during early brain development, independent of the specific form of the experience. This

Effect of Additional Time Allocation on Themselves

Effect of the Additional Time Allocation on Students

Effect of the Additional Time Allocation on Materials

B P B P B P

√ Interesting and suitable Activities

√ √ Teacher – Student Contact

√ √ Variety

√

√ More classroom assessments

√ √ Increased Learning

√ √ Attractiveness

√

√ Achievement of objectives

√ √ Suitability

√



indicates that language exposure is certainly very important in acquiring a second language during the early stages. Following that, the findings in this study seem to reveal the additional time allocation is linked to the classroom activity because as there is an abundance of language exposure and it can only come into play through the use of interesting classroom activities. As Brown (2001: 88) mentioned, ‘because children are focused in the immediate here and now, activities should be designed to capture their immediate interest’. Hence, coming up with interesting activities to cater to young learners is believed to be very important. Subsequently, this leads to the beliefs that suitable and attractive materials are indeed essential to support the activities that are to be carried out in a young learners’ classroom. Based on the feedback, one teacher particularly mentioned that the students would be bored if they were not catered with colourful and attractive materials (Fiza, Interview, line 94 - 98). This is certainly true as Brown (2001:88) stated that ‘short attention spans do come into play when children have to deal with material that to them is boring, useless or too difficult.’ The importance of materials consequently leads to the teachers’ beliefs on the importance of assessment to assess the effectiveness of the classroom activities and materials used. In a study, Black and Wiliam (1998:1) have associated the classroom to a ‘black box’ whereby they postulated that what happens in the classroom is unknown. As such, they stressed the importance of classroom assessment for teachers to be familiar with their students’ progress.

The emphasis on the importance of classroom assessment hence seem to lead to the teachers’ belief on the ultimate goal of the language classroom; which is the lesson objective. This study revealed that the teachers strongly believe in the importance of generating and achieving objectives. They reckon that it is important to come up with simple and realistic objectives (Jay, Interview, line 142 - 144 According to Stern (2001:340), ’if the ultimate objective of language teaching is effective language learning, then our main concern must be the learning outcome’. This clearly shows that these teachers are aware of the importance of achieving objectives. From the discussion above, it is evident that there is a sequence present in the teachers’ belief system. The teachers seem to have a certain pattern set in their mind whereby one aspect seems to lead to another. Figure 2 clearly represents these aspects:

Figure 2: The Sequential Order of Teachers’ Beliefs In Regard to the Teaching of Young Learners for an Increased Time Period

6.2 The Intended Classroom Practices Carried Out by English Language Teachers during the Implementation of the Increased Time Allocation

The findings from this section indicated that there seem to be an interesting sequence to the teachers’ intended practice in the young learners’ classroom. This pattern was consistent throughout the responses of all participants. Unlike their beliefs, there seem to be a slight difference in terms of its arrangements. In responding to their intended practice, the first aspect that seem to surface is the materials used in the classroom in coping with the additional time allocation. The teachers in this study made sure that their materials are suitable and attractive in order to attract their students’ attention due to the vast time extension. Interestingly, two of the teachers used the Internet as a source of classroom materials (Hani, Interview, line 81 - 82). Dudeney (2007:3 ;Rosnida & Zainor, 2009: 112) postulated, ‘teaching using materials from the Internet has great potential in improving learners’ motivation as they are visually attractive, easy to use, and easy to understand ’. This intended practice seem to

Language Exposure Classroom Activity Materials Assessment Lesson Objectives



surface as a result of their core beliefs on materials used in the classroom. Hence, the beliefs were put into practice.

Following this, the next aspect that the teachers seem to mention is to carry out a variety of activities to capture their young learners’ attention (Hani, Interview, line 88 - 90) The reason classroom activities come to their mind is because it is the only means in which the aforementioned materials can be utilized. Most successful lessons give students a number of different activities during the class hour, keeping minds alert and enthusiasm high (Brown, 2001: 153). While discussing classroom activities, it tend to bring the teachers to the topic of language exposure. As classroom activities seem to provide either increased or decreased language exposure, these two aspects are rather close to each other. It is learnt that the teachers in this study managed to fully utilize their classroom hours so that the extra time allocation doesn’t go to waste (Hani, Interview, line 16 - 17). This condition of increased language exposure has lead to increased learning whereby their students are learning more of the language because of the more teaching time. According to Wilga Rivers (1987: 4-5; Brown, 2001: 165) ‘through interaction, students can increase their language store. In interaction, students can use all they possess of the language’. Hence, the interaction between the teachers and their students is definitely helping the young learners in acquiring the target language.

The next aspect that seem to surface while discussing classroom activities is lesson objectives. As classroom activities are closely related to lesson objectives, the teachers seem to have plenty of ideas in achieving them. The findings of this study revealed that the teachers didn’t want to be overambitious by coming up with objectives that are impossible to achieve (Hani, Interview, line 124 - 128). Furthermore, they intend to achieve their objectives more frequently as compared to before as they had more time for teaching and learning to take place (Jay, Interview, and line 146 - 149). As Francis (2011:1) mentioned, ‘as a classroom teacher, you want to engage your students in productive learning time. This is time when your students are engaged in meaningful and appropriate work. The more productive learning time you have, the more your students will learn’. As such, the additional time allocation enabled teachers to achieve their objectives more frequently as compared to before.

In discussing classroom objectives, the next aspect that seems to arise is classroom assessment. This is because classroom assessments play an important role in confirming the achievement of lesson objectives. One of the purposes mentioned is so that they are able to track their students’ progress and offer them either enrichment or remedial classes (Jay, Reflective Essay, line 25 - 27). As Boston (2002: 1) pointed out, ‘When teachers know how students are progressing and where they are having trouble, they can use this information to make necessary instructional adjustments, such as re-teaching, trying alternative instructional approaches, or offering more opportunities for practice. These activities can lead to improved student successes’. As such, in coping with the additional time allocation these teachers have made full use of the extra time to carry out classroom assessment for the benefit of their young learners from the discussion above, it is evident that there is a pattern present in the teachers’ intention for practice. The teachers seem to have a certain pattern set in their mind whereby one aspect seems to lead to another. Figure 3 clearly represents these aspects:

Figure 3: The Sequential Order of Teachers’ Intended Practice In Regard to the Teaching of Young Learners for an Increased Time Period

Materials Classroom Activities Language Exposure Lesson Objectives Classroom Assessment



6.3 The Effect of Increased Time Allocation on Teachers’ Classroom Practice and Belief The findings seem to show that most of the teachers’ intended practices were in alignment with their core beliefs. The teachers’ beliefs in terms of the five aspects mentioned above have seemed to be generally consistent with their intended classroom practice. This supports the concept of Bandura’s Reciprocal Determinism. It refers to the view that personal factors in the form of cognition, affect and biological events, behaviour and environmental influences create interactions that result in a triadic reciprocality (Pajares, 2002:1). In reference to this study, the personal factor in terms of the teachers’ beliefs has an effect on their behaviour which refers to their classroom practice through the environmental factor, which is the extended time period. Their intention to practice is undoubtedly based on their core beliefs. The ‘pushing’ factor that has enabled the teachers to put their beliefs into practice so conveniently is the implementation of the additional time allocation. It has encouraged the teachers to apply what they believe is appropriate directly into their young learners’ classroom. Hence, the additional time allocation has become a gateway for these teachers to freely apply the five aspects of their beliefs, i.e. classroom activities, materials, classroom assessment, language exposure and objectives. It is found that the teachers were able to put their beliefs into practice with the help of the additional time allocation. Here, it shows that the phenomena has given the teachers an added advantage because they have more time to practice what they have believed which they couldn’t carry out much due to the time constraints. A study carried out by Hawkins & Klas (1997:3) supported this findings, whereby time management was found to be the highest ranking stressor. As such, teachers wound find it difficult to teach as there is less time. Hence, it is found that the additional time allocation has enabled the teachers’ beliefs to be consistent with their intended practice. The findings of this study is parallel with the work of Haney, Czerniak and Lumpe (1996; Mansour, N,2009:30) who determined that teacher beliefs are significant indicators of the behaviors that will be present in the classroom. In addition, Pajares (1992: 307) also cited that “beliefs are the best indicators of the decisions individuals make throughout their lives”. Thus, this simply shows that just like the results of this study, teachers’ beliefs have been found to influence their intended classroom practice. Hence, this study has proven that as a result of the implementation of the additional time allocation, the teachers have intended to apply all their beliefs in their classroom. This leads to the consistency of the aforementioned aspects, whereby all the five aspects of their beliefs seem to be in agreement with the intended practice.

7. Conclusion & Future Recommendation The emerged findings and potential limitations found in this study offer recommendations for further studies in this area. It is apparent that more studies can be conducted in this area of EYL. Hence, one of the recommendations for future studies is that since this was a qualitative study that dealt with a small number of participants and an in depth investigation, it is recommended that a future research to be conducted based on a quantitative study. It could be carried out with a larger number of participants and cover a range of features to seek statistical findings. As this study was conducted in one district only, future research can be conducted to cover a range of them in order to get a more general data. As this is a cross – sectional study that was carried out at a limited time frame the teachers’ development in future is unknown. Hence, a longitudinal study that performs repeated



observations for a longer time period would also be appropriate to be carried out. Since this data was limited to two instruments, a future study could be carried out by including an additional research procedure which is observation. In this way, the data would be more accurate and this would generate precise findings. This study has provided better understanding of the phenomena of extended time and teachers’ belief and intended practice in regard to young learners. It has successfully brought into light some of the interesting findings such as the teachers’ core beliefs, their intended classroom practice and the extent these two features are in alignment. It has certainly helped to address the need to understand the teachers’ beliefs as they are the key players in transmitting knowledge to the students. Such understanding would allow policy makers to keep this group of people in mind during the process of new implementations. It is hoped that this study would be able to serve and encourage a community of practice amongst other EYL teachers to gain insights in coping with the additional time allocation.

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