The current study is an attempt to provide insights into the nature of tensions and consistencies between teachers’ belief-practice relationships and how these impact on teaching practices. The study aims to address three main research gaps. Firstly, it explores EFL teachers’ belief-practice consistency level in relation to the teaching of speaking, an understudied curricular domain. Secondly, the phenomenon is examined from two major perspectives: teachers’ perceptions of their own pedagogical contexts and their core-peripheral belief systems, thus using a multi-perspective approach which is usually not the case with other studies in the field. Finally, the study took place in Kazakhstani secondary school EFL classrooms, a geographical context which has not featured at all in the language teacher cognition literature to date. Using a multiple-case design and multiple methods of data collection, the research project explored the relationship between four EFL teachers’ stated beliefs and classroom practices in relation to the teaching of speaking. The teachers were interviewed and observed over a period of nine months. The findings provide evidence of how speaking instruction unfolded in the classroom and the multiplicity of factors which shaped teacher decision-making and behavior. Specifically, the insights from my study highlight the impact of a) teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical contexts, b) their core and peripheral beliefs, and c) the interaction of all these factors on the enactment of their speaking instruction beliefs. These findings carry important implications for the field of language teacher cognition, and for teacher education and professional development.

En stor del av unga barn spelar digitala spel på sin fritid och flera studier har visat på positiva effekter på ungas engelskaförmåga genom detta. Med tanke på dess potential för lärande vore det intressant att undersöka lärares uppfattningar om dem och hur de använder dem. Syftet med detta arbete var att undersöka på vilka sätt som lärare i engelska för lågstadiet använde digitala spel i sin engelskundervisning samt vilka utmaningar och möjligheter de ansåg fanns i detta användande. Inom ramen för studien genomfördes fem intervjuer med lärare från olika kommuner och skolor i Sverige. Intervjuernas innehåll kategoriserades genom den fenomenografiska ansatsen. Resultatet diskuterades även utifrån ramverken LTC och TPACK. Resultatet visade att alla utom en lärare använde digitala spel i engelskundervisningen i syfte att variera undervisningen eller att motivera eleverna. Bingel och elevspel.se användes mest. Utmaningar som lärarna såg med spelen var tidsåtgången, teknik som strular, en svårighet att anpassa spelen ur ett didaktiskt perspektiv samt att det skulle öka elevernas skärmtid ytterligare. Möjligheterna de såg var motivation, variation, nivåanpassning, mer självgående elever samt att spelen gjorde lärandet lustfyllt. Inställningen till digitala spel verkar bero på ålder, intresse och yrkesverksamma år, samt deras uppfattning om teknologisk och ämnesspecifik kunskap.

The purpose of this study is to explore upper secondary school English teachers' beliefs and practices for free online machine translation (FOMT) tools. It is believed that students are using these tools, but the focus of this study is to highlight what teachers think and how they are addressing FOMT usage by students. Participants are currently teaching various English levels in upper secondary schools throughout Sweden and have varying degrees of experience. This study includes a brief background of previous studies detailing teachers' attitudes and methods for incorporating machine translation (MT) in their language teaching. The theoretical framework used for this study is language teacher cognition and translation in language teaching. The results reveal that the previous research conducted in this area has not yet influenced teachers' language classrooms methods. Teachers' education and language learning experience may explain this disconnect to current research. There is a common theme that teachers do not mind using FOMT tools in their personal lives but strongly recommend other sources for their students.

Japanese non-native English-speaking EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers in secondary education (JEFL teachers) work in a different educational context from language teachers in Europe. The purpose of this exploratory research is to identify the distinctive ways in which JEFL teachers think, know, believe and do. These concepts are subsumed under the general heading of JEFL teacher cognition, particularly as this applies to teaching and teacher education in Eigo Kyoiku (English education in Japan). The overall purpose of exploring JEFL teachers’ cognitions is reflected in four research guiding questions (RQs): 1) to identify the nature of JEFL teacher cognition; 2) to see any particular influences that might help shape JEFL teacher cognition; 3) to learn to what extent JEFL teachers’ cognitions are consistent with their actual practice of teaching; and 4) to discuss the ways in which the concept of language teacher cognition (LTC) may be understood and situated in the Japanese context. The research consisted of two studies: a) a quantitative Preliminary Study administered to 62 JEFL teachers and 81 modern foreign language (MFL) teachers in Scotland, in order to identify any areas regarding JEFL teacher cognition; and b) an in-depth Main Study based on a qualitative and ethnographic approach, featuring 10 JEFL teachers. This made use of qualitative data analysis and the applied KJ method, and also drew on complexity theory, through reflective and reflexive processes with particular reference to retrodictive qualitative modelling (RQM). The results of the Main Study are presented as 16 concept maps, each of which represents a featured aspect of JEFL teacher cognition (ATC). It represents the signature dynamics of each ATC and points to the variation and tension which JEFL teachers experienced in relation to each ATC. The research suggests that, although LTC have certain universal characteristics, it needs to be explored on the assumption that it is situated socially, culturally, locally and personally.

No description available.

During March 2020, Swedish upper secondary schools switched from traditional teaching to crisis online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a lack of research on crisis online teaching, but there is research on online teaching and English online teaching. The fundamental difference between online teaching and crisis online teaching is choice, as crisis online teaching is mandated due to external factors beyond the teachers’ control. Transition from traditional teaching to crisis online teaching forces teachers to rely on their Technical Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). This was an instrumental case study using a semi-structured in-depth interview with a non-probability purpose sample that examined how three experienced English teachers in Western Sweden modified their teaching as well as the challenges and opportunities they experienced during crisis online teaching. Time was found to be a factor that affected crisis online teaching because the teachers interviewed reported that they were given two days to prepare in which they also had professional development to learn new platforms. In regard to professional development, teachers needed more and differentiated professional development due to teachers’ different levels of TPACK. The professional development also needed to explicitly show teachers to integrate the digital tools and platforms into their English teaching.