Development of teaching beliefs and the focus of change in the process of pre-service ESL teacher education

This study sets out to investigate how preservice English as a second language (ESL) teachers shape their beliefs in the process of experimenting with new teaching methods introduced in the teacher education program. A 4- year longitudinal study was conducted with four randomly selected ESL preservice teachers. Their theoretical orientations of ESL instruction were tracked at intervals through a protocol which consisted of descriptive accounts, surveys, lesson plan analysis, lesson recording and interviews. Despite the fact that these 4 student teachers had shown different theoretical orientations in the protocols, they shared similar patterns of instructional practices in the teaching practicum. It was also found that the new teaching method practiced in the teacher education program was re-conceptualised by these student teachers in the actual teaching context because of the strong influence of their personal agency beliefs. [Author abstract, ed]