Belief Construction and Development: Two Tales of Non-native English Speaking Student Teachers in a Tesol Programme

This article explores the construction and development of two non-native English speaking student teachers’ beliefs throughout a one-year teaching English to speakers of other languages programme in a university in the United Kingdom. The research used a qualitative case methodology to illuminate individuals’ understanding and perceptions. The study employed three data collection instruments: semi-structured interviews, observation of micro-teaching sessions and student teachers’ written reflections on their teaching. Data analysis focused on how beliefs developed within five dimensions of belief, namely, subject matter, learning, teaching, learners and the teacher. The study suggests that teacher education programmes shape and develop pre-service teachers’ beliefs. A major contribution of this study is to argue that the development of student teachers ’ beliefs mirrored identity shifts of NNS student teachers in the programme; a finding which has the potential to inform the future design of language teacher education programmes.