The Sustainability of Form-Focused Instruction in Classrooms: Chinese Secondary School EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices

Abstract

Form-focused instruction occupies an important position in China’s secondary schools. However, middle school English teaching has been criticized for the sustainability of form-focused instruction. The new English Curriculum Standards for China’s secondary English teaching suggest that grammar teaching should be integrated into communicative activities, but no precise guidance is provided on how to integrate grammar into communicative activities. This study investigates teachers’ beliefs and practices about form-focused instruction, as well as the factors influencing their beliefs and practices, in the context of China’s secondary schools. Data were collected through 33 classroom observations and interviews with 3 teachers with different levels of experience. The findings reveal that, overall, the teachers preferred form-focused instruction, focus on forms and explicit teaching. The teachers with more teaching experience adopted communicative approaches of form-focused instruction, integrating form and meaning at different times inductively. The teacher with fewer teaching years adopted traditional, isolated, and deductive methods of grammar teaching. The differences between the teachers were found to be influenced by various factors, including teaching and research activities, curriculum standards, examinations, and learning experience. The teachers’ beliefs and practices and the gaps and connections between theoretical domains and classroom practices were discussed and implications were provided.