Primary Teachers’ Beliefs about Teacher Talk in ESL Classrooms: a Perspective from India

‘Belief’ is a common concept in various research literatures in sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy and many other disciplines. Despite the diversity in the use of this term in educational context, the prior research and reviews on teachers’ beliefs about teaching/learning contribute to an agreement on some characteristics of teacher beliefs (Fang, 1996; Kagan, 1992; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1992; Woolfolk Hoy, Davis, & Pape, 2006). Teachers’ belief systems are built up gradually over time and consist of both subjective and objective dimensions. Teachers’ beliefs influence their consciousness, teaching attitude, teaching methods and teaching policies, and finally, learners’ development. Primary teachers’ beliefs regarding teaching/learning English has been the subject of many studies over the last few decades. As Richards and Lockhart (1996:29) state, ‘what teachers do is a reflection of what they know and believe’. Teachers’ belief system plays decisive role in teaching/learning of English at primary level. Many researchers have studied beliefs of teachers like beliefs about language learning, about learners, and about themselves as language teachers (Liao & Chiang, 2003; Richards, Tung, & Ng, 1992; Yang, 2000); but there is very less study carried out on teachers’ beliefs about teacher talk and teacher talk features. The present paper focuses on primary teachers’ beliefs about teacher talk and teacher talk features in ESL classrooms. Ten in-service primary English teachers (five from English Medium and five from Marathi Medium primary schools) are the subjects of the present paper. The paper discusses these teachers’ beliefs regarding the amount of teacher talk, use of mother tongue (i.e. Marathi), and some teacher talk features like questioning, paraphrasing and repetition, and feedback.