Teaching is Not Always Easy: Mexican Pre-service English Teachers’ Beliefs on Teaching and Learning

Abstract

One of the main goals of language teacher education programs is to prepare professionals who can respond to the growing demands of society for quality instruction. However, we often find that training in current theories and methods has limited impact on pre-service teachers’ long established beliefs and ultimately on their practice. The purpose of this qualitative interpretative study is to explore the conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson, 2008) used by pre-service teachers when writing their teaching philosophy as a way of unveiling their underlying cognitive mappings. We propose that making future teachers aware of the entrenched metaphors they use to talk about teaching and learning might be a first step in changing their observable behavior. The results of this study show that in spite of exposure to current theories on teaching and learning, pre-service teachers tend to keep outdated theories. This work in conjunction with other strategies will help teacher trainers to foster integration of current ideas about teaching and learning in their students and to recognize their role in improving language education.

Metaphors as Trails of University English Language Instructors’ Perceptions About Emergency Remote Teaching in Turkey

“…Thus, understanding teachers' way of thinking may help us make sense of their teaching practices. Although we can find ample research on the perceptions of pre-service teachers (see e.g., Kavanoz, 2016;Keser-Özmantar & Yalçın-Arslan, 2019;Rakicioglu-Soylemez et al, 2016;Şimşek, 2014;Villarreal Ballesteros et al, 2020), in-service teachers (see e.g., Asmalı & Çelik, 2017;Seferoğlu et al, 2009) and university instructors (see e.g., Aktekin, 2013;Oktay & Vancı-Osam, 2013;Yesilbursa, 2012) through metaphors regarding teaching, students' roles and their roles as teachers (Oxford et al, 1998), so far there has been little work in the reviewed literature (Alan, 2021;Kaban, 2021) that unearths university instructors' perceptions regarding emergency remote teaching through metaphors during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to fill this gap, this study aims to elicit metaphors generated by English preparatory school language instructors to unveil their perceptions in relation to emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”