6.1 Conclusion
This study aimed to investigate two experienced EFL elementary school teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices in teaching large multilevel classes in hope to promote teaching effectiveness in the elementary school level. Various sources of data were collected to assure the validity of the study namely, teacher questionnaire, interviews, classroom observations, and the researcher’s reflective journals. Overall speaking, Ms. Chou and Ms. Yin’s teaching practices were generally consistent with their beliefs. However, the teachers slightly differed in their beliefs, personalities, and attitudes towards teaching English to large multilevel classes in the elementary level.
In terms of the teacher’s beliefs toward teaching English to large multilevel classes, both teachers believed that they should teach according to the Nine-year Integrated Curriculum Guidelines and focus their teaching target towards the majority of the class. Moreover, both teachers firmly believed that effective teachers should demonstrate a great amount of flexibly in their instructions in order to meet the diverse learning needs of the students. Hence, a variety of activities such as pair work, group work, and multilevel homework assignments were commonly detected in both Ms. Chou and Ms. Yin’s teaching.
As for the difficulties the two teachers encountered when instructing large multilevel classes, in addition to commonly reported difficulties found in previous research findings such as large class sizes, limited class time, and student’s individual differences (Y. -Z. Chiang, 2003; Wang, 2006), findings of this study also showed that Ms. Chou and Ms. Yin’s teaching effectiveness were greatly affected by contextual variables especially inadequate teaching materials and parental interference with the
teaching process. Both teachers reported that the imported textbooks from the U.S.
were too difficult for most of their students, especially for the slower learners. The teachers had difficulty in assuring whether each individual understood the textbook contents within the limited amount of class time. Also, some students’ parents were incapable of helping their children review their schoolwork at home, causing them to become anxious in sending their children to cram schools. If the textbooks were appropriate for students’ level, the teachers would have more time for individual support, such as designing extended activities for the average and advanced learners or providing one-to-one remedial instructions for the slow learners.
In conclusion, results of this study highlighted the importance of teacher’s beliefs on their classroom practices. Hence, in order to practice effective teaching in multilevel classes, teachers have to adjust their attitudes and respect the fact that large multilevel classes are a natural phenomenon. It is believed that, if teachers conduct effective teaching solutions to minimize the gap between students’ English competence, their students would eventually benefit from their practices and achieve optimal learning outcomes.
6.2 Pedagogical Implications
The findings of the present study offer several pedagogical implications respectfully made for the frontline teachers, students’ parents, the school administrators, teacher training programs, and educational authorities.
First of all, it is suggested that the frontline teachers need to become more aware of how their beliefs influence their teaching, and how their classroom practices eventually affect their student’s learning outcomes. As suggested by Yang (2000), teachers should learn to reflect on their own teaching and change their deeply-held beliefs according to their teaching experiences, teaching context, and students’
characteristics in order to minimize the gap between teachers’ beliefs and their practices. Also, Ms. Chou and Ms. Yin stressed that teachers should show positive attitudes towards becoming effective teachers; teachers should learn to conduct alternative classroom practices based on their teaching contexts and prior teaching experiences. Besides, teachers should also maintain a communicative network with students’ homeroom teachers and their parents in order to keep track of students’
learning progress and offer appropriate practices to meet each student’s needs.
Moreover, findings of this study showed that the older the students become, the less confident the slower learners are in learning English. Hence, to avoid having slower learners in the upper grades, it is hoped that teachers in the lower grade levels could provide immediate remedial support for the slower learners in their large multilevel classes.
Second, it is important for parents to participate in the students’ learning progress.
As mentioned by Ms. Yin, teachers, parents, and students form an effective learning triangle, each member has to contribute in the learning process in order to maximize their learning. More specifically, teachers should try their best to conduct effective teaching practices even within the limited amount of class time; students should pay attention and enthusiastically participate in classroom activities; and parents should help their children review what they have learned at school. In this way, it would be assured that students would gain solid English competence.
Third, school administrators are suggested to provide a mutual space and time for English teachers to exchange their thoughts and problems in the process of instruction. Thus, teachers could seek practical and effective instruction strategies together to overcome the difficulties in teaching. Also, school administrators should reconsider the adequacy of adopting imported English textbooks as the main teaching material at the level of compulsory education. Administrators should constantly listen
to teachers’ suggestions and try their upmost to provide necessary assistance for teachers to practice effective classroom practices. Besides the schools, teacher training programs should address to the teaching dilemmas caused by large multilevel classes and provide more in-service training programs, seminars, and workshops related to such issues.
Finally, this research also suggests that the educational authorities should rethink the contents of the Curriculum Guidelines and redefine the true meaning of
“communication.” Overemphasis on speaking and listening skills in the lower grade levels would lead to setbacks when teachers have to instruct reading and writing skills when students attend higher grade levels. Also, the need for immediate remedial English support starting from grade one is urgent. The suggestion of providing two homeroom teachers in each class may also be taken into consideration.
If teachers, parents, school administrators, and educational authorities could all contribute to meet students’ learning needs, it is hoped that large multilevel classes would no longer be interpreted as an insolvable teaching dilemma for EFL teachers in Taiwan.
6.3 Limitations of the Research
In this section, the limitations of the present study are discussed. Since this research aimed to provide a detailed analysis of experienced EFL elementary school teachers’ beliefs and practices in teaching large multilevel classes, two teachers were invited to participate in the research process. Due to this limitation, the findings displayed here should not be over-generalized to illustrate all EFL elementary school teachers in Taiwan.
Second, due to the researcher’s tight schedule, investigation of this study was conducted for three months. However, the researcher stressed that there was always
something interesting and inspiring to learn after each interview and observation.
Hence, an extended time frame or more longitudinal research in the field is recommended to gain a broader perspective of EFL elementary school teachers’
beliefs and effective practices in teaching large multilevel classes.
Third, all interviews and observations in this qualitative study were conducted according to the two participants’ available time. However, due to the teachers’
different teaching schedules, the researcher was not able to conduct the study following an organized data collection procedure. To make the data collection process more systematic, it is suggested that a more parallel structure for the data collection should be conducted in the future.
Finally, the reported contextual difficulties and effective teaching strategies identified by the teachers were limited to their particular teaching contexts; the same problems may not occur in different teaching contexts. Also, the suggested teaching strategies might not always be effective for other EFL teachers. However, it is hoped that the findings of this research could serve as useful references for teachers who teach in similar situations.
6.4 Recommendations for Future Research
Owning to the limitations of this study, recommendations for further research on teachers’ beliefs and practices in teaching large multilevel classes are suggested in this section.
First, this research was based on two experienced EFL elementary school teachers in northern Taiwan. In order to gain a more comprehensive and broader viewpoint of how experienced EFL teachers in various contexts think and act towards teaching large multilevel classes, it is suggested that similar qualitative studies should include experienced EFL teachers in different countries.
Second, findings from this study showed that students’ multilevel English competence have become more and more obvious in higher grade levels. Aware of this situation, the researcher believes that there is a need to gain insights into junior and senior high school EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices in teaching large multilevel classes, the teaching difficulties they encounter, and the effective teaching strategies they adopt to achieve students’ optimal learning outcomes. By doing so, teachers of different school levels might be able to understand each others’ problems and find effective solutions together. In this case, it is hoped the “continuity” of the English teaching/learning objectives listed in the Nine-year Intergraded Curriculum Guidelines would be better practiced.
Finally, investigation of this study was conducted for only three months. In order to investigate in-depth on how teachers’ classroom practices influence students’
learning outcomes, longitudinal qualitative studies of experienced EFL teachers’
beliefs and practices in teaching large multilevel classes in different elementary school contexts are recommended.
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