Stated Beliefs and Classroom Practices on Grammar Teaching: The Case of Three EFL Teachers

Abstract

Employing a qualitative multiple case design, this study examined the stated beliefs and actual practices of three EFL teachers on grammar teaching and to what extent they matched. The participants were purposefully selected and the data were collected through interviews, classroom observations and delayed interviews. Qualitative content analysis scheme and constant comparison model were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that teachers’ stated beliefs and classroom practices regarding grammar teaching were in contrast in several points which included the presentation of the target structure, grammar teaching activities and their corrective feedback preferences while teaching grammar. It was also found out that the main reasons of these mismatches were several institutional and student- related factors. Based on these findings, how the teachers turned their beliefs into classroom practices while teaching grammar was presented in a figurative way.