The Relationship between Iranian ELT Instructors’ Beliefs about Language Teaching and Their Practices in Real Classrooms

Teachers play different roles in multidimensional process of language teaching and their beliefs about language teaching might influence their practices. Donaghue (2003) stated that beliefs guide teachers in their practice. However, Argyris and Schon (1978) claimed that there is almost a discrepancy between teachers’ beliefs about language teaching and their practices in the classrooms. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between Iranian ELT instructors’ beliefs about language teaching and their real practices in classrooms. To achieve this goal, the researchers accidentally selected 369 Iranian ELT instructors and 512 Iranian students. To collect the required data, the researchers employed Teacher’s Beliefs Questionnaire (TBQ) to elicit instructors’ beliefs about language teaching and Students’ Satisfaction Questionnaire (SSQ) to elicit to what extent Iranian instructors applied their beliefs in their practices. Besides, to verify the results of questionnaires, the researchers interviewed nine instructors. The results revealed a positive significant relationship (p?0.05) between instructors’ beliefs about language teaching and their real practices in classrooms. The findings proposed some applicable implications that can be applied by policy makers and curriculum designers to provide facilities to support reflective teaching and to improve teacher education programs.