The sources of beliefs of the teachers who participated in the study are the previous learning experience in primary, secondary, college and classroom teaching experience.
4.2.1 Previous learning experience
All the three teachers who participate in this study stated that their learning experience in English started from primary school to tertiary institution and what they experienced as learners in the schools influenced their teaching practices. Esther mentioned that she was first taught by native speakers of English and later by Ghanaians and that the approach her teachers employed in their classroom teaching focused much on English grammar. She mentioned that grammar approach to the teaching of the English language had so much influence on her that she also focused much on grammar in her teaching. She stated that:
Excerpt 4.16
When I was in university too, my lecturers paid great attention to our grammar knowledge and would correct any slight mistake we made while speaking… I got this idea of focusing on grammar from my teachers and I have tried it in my teaching too and I found it to be very useful. It assists students a lot in their use of English in writing, speaking and so on.
Esther also mentioned that she loved to teach pronunciation of words, phonetic transcription of English words, and grammar because the areas were usually emphasized in the classroom by her previous English teachers. She learnt how to phonetically transcribe English words from her teachers who were natives of English. She said:
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Excerpt 4.17
Uhm, you see, I like to teach phonetic transcription of English words because my teachers who were from Britain and some of my lecturers in the University of Nigeria taught me how to transcribe very well. I learnt a lot from them. I also transcribe English words for my students so that they can pronounce them correctly, you know correct pronunciation is important in order to get your listeners to understand you.
Yusuf stated in the interview that his past learning experience influenced his teaching. He mentioned that his English language learning experience from primary to secondary school was about memorizing rules and new words, explicit exposure to the grammar of English, speaking and writing. He further said that teaching speaking, writing, explicit grammar and new words are very important in ESL teaching and learning because he leant a lot about the English language through them from his past teachers. Yusuf revealed that:
Excerpt 4.18
My past teachers determined and dominated classroom discussions, we have to listen attentively to them. Most times, their teaching was based on memorisation of new words and rules, ahm, they taught us explicit grammar as well. Also, our teachers focused on speaking and writing. But I hate memorisation of grammar rules because I got puzzled whenever I tried to remember them most times. I know it is important for students to memorise some rules like past tense rules, future tense, rules changing active voice to passive and so on.
Aminah reported a similar experience:
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Excerpt 4.19
Ah, they, they employed repetition method, in fact, they made us repeat whatever they teach us so they we would retain them in our memories. When they teach singular and plural or regular and irregular verbs or whatever, as they mentioned a particular word, for example, a regular verb like dance, its past form is danced, that is regular. I also enjoy using the method in my class because it helps learners to memorise what I teach easily.
It could be inferred from the teachers’ past experiences about ESL learning that they all learnt English in a behaviourist way. Their past teachers dominated the classroom talk and acted as the sole providers of knowledge while students were passive learners. Thus, they imitated their past teachers teaching approaches in their own teaching. Previous learning experiences as a source of teachers’ beliefs were mentioned by almost all the researchers in the fields of education and second language teaching and learning. They believed that prior learning experiences of teachers have a strong influence on their classroom teaching practices (Nespor 1987; Johnson, 1994; Yook, 2010; Borg &Al-Busaid, 2012).
4.2.2 Classroom teaching experience
All the participants related that their classroom teaching experience also influenced their teaching practice. Classroom realities determined how they conducted their lessons. For instance, Aminah recounted her teaching experience with senior secondary three students in her school (SS3):
Excerpt 4.20
I was used to giving my students examples only from the prescribed textbooks when I started teaching but I realized in a short time that the
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students wanted me to provide them with examples outside of the textbooks. One of the students said to me one day that “aunty why can’t you give us examples apart from the ones in our textbooks”. I felt bad that very day and since then, I have made it a habit of giving different examples that are related to my classroom lessons outside of the textbooks.
Esther recalled her unsuccessful effort to teach only in English:
Excerpt 4.21
I did not achieve my teaching goals when I taught only in English. Immediately I introduced my students L1 in my teaching, I began to see positive results in my classroom.
Yusuf described how his teaching experience influenced the ways he teaches now. He recalled that:
Excerpt 4.22
When I started teaching, I did not make use of repetition frequently when teaching vocabulary and some grammar rules, however, I noticed that there were lazy students in the class, they didn’t want to learn at all. I needed to force them to repeat what I teach them many times so that they could internalize them. This experience informed me why my past teachers used the approach in their teaching.
Phipps and Borg (2009) study revealed that teachers’ teaching experience tremendously influence their practices. Also, Yook (2010) and Basturkmen (2012) reported that practical teaching experiences of teachers dictate to them how classroom instruction should be conducted. Therefore, this study findings are
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supported by the findings of previous studies on the sources of teachers’ beliefs (AlAlili, 2010; Liaw, 2012; Julius, 2015).
It is interesting to note that the teachers were mainly influenced by prior