Stability and Variability in Pre-Service Language Teachers’ Beliefs

Abstract

Recent approaches to second language learning have focused on the role of individual differences, out of which beliefs seem increasingly to be drawing researchers’ attention. While focus on teachers’ beliefs has been theorized with regard to their definitions and content, there is a dearth of empirical research on beliefs as to how much changeable or unchangeable they can be. The study to be presented examines stability and variability of two pre-service language teachers’ beliefs—a very motivated student who intends to become a professional language teacher and an unmotivated one who has joined language teaching studies in order to learn foreign languages, with no intention of becoming a professional teacher. The focus of the study was on both generic and domain beliefs, the former comprising the perception of different aspects of the teaching profession in general, whereas the latter presenting the subjects’ opinions on three language subsystems (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation). The study was a longitudinal one lasting almost 3 years, and the data obtained within that time comes from the use of the following qualitative research instruments: the subjects’ narrative accounts, their choice of metaphors, mind-mapping, diaries on their teaching practice, interviews and the researcher’s observations. The results showed that the change on some of the beliefs did occur, although there were areas where the beliefs changed very insignificantly.