A. In Literature. Thus, 25% of the participants within the study did not have an academic background in education, and had focused on literary structure and analysis rather than education as a major staple in their own training. These teachers had more of a critical evaluation background in comparison to teaching methodologies. Having a Literature background has been shown to impact the teaching methodologies and strategies implemented in language learning, especially with teachers that are non-native speaking themselves (Braine, 1999).
The questionnaire showed that overall, teachers with a literature background actually thought much differently in regards to the importance of grammar. These participants averaged a response of 1.15 in regards to the importance of grammar being the crucial element to judge understanding and competence of a language. This shows that these participants believed there were other more important criteria that would show language competency. Moreover, these participants highly disagreed with the idea that grammar should be taught as a means to an end. The average score here was 0.78, showing a clear belief that grammar should be taught independently of other ideas associated with language. Again, there was an average of strong disagreement in regards to the concept of knowledge of structures guaranteeing a strong capability to speak in English and the idea that grammar has to be mastered in order to communicate fluently with other English speakers. Not only did these teachers view grammar as less important in language capabilities, but the asserted that the study of language is best done independently, and not as a vehicle for doing something else. Thus, this shows a very clear and distinct contrast to the opinions of teachers with education background, who placed a stronger importance on grammar and knowledge of the linguistic structures in language acquisition. In opposition of teachers with more educational backgrounds, teachers with Literature degrees tend...
Essentially, this is because of an increased belief that language learners, early on, should not be responsible for deciding how the language is taught to them.
The interview process also revealed a lot about teacher perceptions. Teachers with education backgrounds, like the other categories of teachers, tended to show strong belief in the importance of both listening and speaking because it helped students get used to the sound of the language being learned. This then took a higher importance to writing and
reading in the language, as was also repeated in all categories of teachers. Essentially, listening helps speakers imitate the necessary sounds and phrases present within the language being learned (Adank, Hagoort, & Bekkering, 2010). It turns out that 100% of participants with a Literature background believed that students should have been exposed to only English from the very beginning of their training. Teachers with education backgrounds were much more inclined to
place less importance on starting English learners with English from the very beginning.
Most Experienced Teachers
Teachers were also separated into groups based on experience. There were thirteen teachers with over ten years of
teaching experience, making up about 54.16% of the
population. These individuals were noted as being in the group with the most teaching experience.
The questionnaire did show a similar trend in regards to experience groups and their perceptions on the importance of grammar in language acquisition and learning. In regards to Statement 1, which claimed that grammatical correctness is the most important criterion to judge language abilities, teachers with the most experience showed a 35.6% average agreeing. That means that a little over one-third of the most experienced teachers believed that grammar was the most important element in language acquisition. This was the group that agreed with this statement the most, showing that more teachers with more than ten years of experience had such grammatical demands. The most experienced teachers had a large majority of 47.9% that believed that early learners of a language should not be expected to suggest what the content of the lesson should be or what activities are useful. This means that the most experience teachers had less of an importance placed on the fluid structure of the learner-centered model, favoring instead a more rigid discipline in the early understanding of language.
