The impact of teachers' beliefs and educational experiences on EFL classroom practices in secondary schools

This article reports on an investigation into the beliefs and educational experiences of secondary EFL teachers in Macau SAR, China. The chief questions addressed are: What beliefs and educational experiences do the teachers have? How do they influence teaching? To what extent are conceptions about effective teaching and learning influenced by the social and work environment? Results show that teacher education has a strong influence on teacher beliefs, but also that there are often even stronger external pressures that constrain teachers in the exercise of beliefs. The issues raised in this article are likely to resemble those in other educational environments in the region, suggesting a degree of generalizability in the findings