Learning to unlearn faulty beliefs and practices in English language teaching

Abstract

Our actions arise from our beliefs about life: what we need and how best to achieve it. This article asks English language teachers to undertake an open-minded examination of some long-held beliefs in our profession and of the teaching practices that derive from those beliefs. Perhaps, based on this examination, teachers may wish to modify some beliefs and, correspondingly, change some practices. The particular beliefs examined in the article are as follows: people who begin second language learning at a younger age will be more successful than those who start at an older age; native speaker varieties of English (e.g., those spoken native-English speaking countries) should be valued over non-native varieties (e.g., those spoken in outer and expanding circle countries); the best outcome is for second language learners to use English only and stop using their mother tongue in and out of the classroom; in second language instruction, systematic, explicit and detailed instruction of grammar deserves top priority; vocabulary is considered less important than grammar; pragmatic competence need not be taught as students can acquire it on their own; learning depends on suffering, thus the famous saying “no pain, no gain”; teaching learning strategies deserves a great deal of attention; teaching materials should be difficult in order to move learning forward, and only lazy and uninformed teachers use cooperative learning.

Indonesian EFL Teachers' Identity Construction in a Global Englishes Era

“…In addition, regarding the native speaker fallacy, many professional educators were still questioning this concept (Renandya et al, 2023). Based on the observation results, T2 and T7 still tended to use inner circle English accents in the process of English language teaching.…”

“…Likewise, the employment of an English-only policy in EFL classroom contexts could also give positive and negative impacts. Renandya et al, (2023) argued that the best way of teaching English is to enforce an English-only policy in the classroom.…”

“…Additionally, some of the teachers also often used teacher-made handbooks that were arranged by the association of English teachers. Renandya et al (2023) said that choosing the acknowledged words and familiarizing the grammar local rules had a significant role to assist the students' learning process. That was the reason why some of the teachers employed teacher-made handbooks due to teaching purposes and adjusting the students' proficiency levels.…”

“…Whereas it is believed that the native models had no impact to address the recent sociolinguistics geographies of English (Boonsuk et al, 2021). Renandya et al (2023) also argued that speaking like native speakers may not be the most desirable since nowadays, English has become a global language.…”

Bimese Prefixes in Sentences to English for Maintaining Local Language of Bima

“…Learning new things, however, is not the only thing that enables us to grow." (Renandya et al, 2023). "Learning a language is often associated with learning the grammar of the language.…”