This book explores language teacher beliefs in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading instruction in the context of Chinese university English instructors. Since the 1990s, there has been a renewed interest on teacher beliefs in the domain of language teacher cognition. However, most studies in this area aim at investigating the relationship between particular aspects of teacher beliefs and classroom practices, largely ignoring the complexity of teacher beliefs. This study explores the issue from an alternative perspective by conceptualizing teacher beliefs as a complex, dynamic and multi-faceted system. By adopting five rounds of interview and four classroom observations, the year-long study reveals seven key features of the belief system shared among six participants. It calls for the holistic, complex and insider view to examine teacher beliefs in relation to the sociocultural and historical contexts where the teachers work and live.

Teacher beliefs play a fundamental role in the education landscape. Nevertheless, most educational researchers only allude to teacher beliefs as part of a study on other subjects. This book fills a necessary gap by identifying the importance of research on teacher beliefs and providing a comprehensive overview of the topic. It provides novices and experts alike a single volume with which to understand a complex research landscape. Including a review of the historical foundations of the field, this book identifies current research trends, and summarizes the current knowledge base regarding teachers’ specific beliefs about content, instruction, students, and learning. For its innumerable applications within the field, this handbook is a necessity for anyone interested in educational research.

"Language teachers are concerned with the relationship between what they know or believe and what they practice. In this book, Yang Gao thus addresses this gap. Using the complex dynamic system theory, he reports the characteristics of the Chinese EFL teachers' belief system and highlights the complexity of the system, the non-linearity, and unpredictability of the subsystems. He further explores the relationships between the stated beliefs and the actual practices among the Chinese EFL teachers. One of the key contributions through the book is the conceptualized model in studying EFL teachers' beliefs and practices"--

This book examines how and what teachers think in their practice of language teaching.

Globalization has not only changed our society, it has also had a profound effect on education. Many schools deal with student populations that due to migration have become increasingly multilingual. Politically, few would argue against the importance of multilingualism; rather, it is promoted to the fullest. However, in practical terms the challenges associated with teaching and educational policies have increased manifold as a result of the linguistic diversity among student bodies. Reading is certainly regarded as a key learning skill, however, the question arises as to how the students' life-world multilingualism is taken into consideration. Furthermore, being considered part of teachers' professional competence, teachers' mental processes and perceptions (beliefs) have been the focus in several different academic fields. Previous research suggests that there are significant links between teachers' beliefs and practices. This thesis explores the aforementioned aspects in greater detail, with the overall aim to gain a deeper understanding of teachers' beliefs and strategies when teaching reading in multilingual settings. Using a cross-disciplinary, qualitative research approach, the empirical inquiry is based on case studies within different, linguistically diverse settings. The case studies include classroom observations as well as teacher interviews in German, Swedish and Chilean grade 4 classrooms.

Using the complex dynamic system theory, Yang Gao reports the characteristics of the Chinese EFL teachers' belief system and further explores the relationships between the stated beliefs and the actual practices among the Chinese EFL teachers.