英語教學 English Teaching & Learning 31.1 (Spring 2007): 43-76 Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching English to Elementary School Children Posen Liao National Taipei University posen@mail.ntpu.edu.tw Abstract It is generally agreed that teaching is greatly affected by the belief systems of its practitioners. However, teachers’ beliefs need to be probed before teachers can critically reflect on their teaching practices, and in turn facilitate changes to teach more effectively. In Taiwan, research is still at an early stage in terms of evaluating teachers’ beliefs about teaching children English. In order to deepen our understanding of teachers’ beliefs regarding teaching English to children, and discover what similar and different beliefs might be held by in-service and pre-service teachers, this study elicited teachers’ beliefs and also compared the belief systems of in-service teachers with those of their pre-service peers. A total of 99 teachers participated in this study. In an attempt to identify these teachers’ explicit beliefs in a more systematic way, a research instrument, The Questionnaire of Elementary School English Teachers’ Teaching Beliefs, was developed. The questionnaire asked participants to assess their beliefs about teaching children English in three major areas: (1) the nature of children’s English development, (2) teaching methods and techniques, and (3) self-efficacy as an English teacher. Moreover, one open-ended question about “qualifications of a successful elementary school English teacher” was added to the end of the questionnaire to elicit additional beliefs. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, independent t test analyses, and content analysis. It is hoped that teachers in Taiwan can raise their own beliefs about teaching children English to a level of conscious awareness, and then further improve their classroom practices. Key Words: teachers’ beliefs, beliefs inventory, elementary school English education