نظر اساتید دانشگاه و دبیران دبیرستان در رابطه با تدریس زبان به دانش آموزان مقطع ابتدایی در ایران

until now many studies have been done over recent decades throughout the world to show the right age to start english. in iran, research is still at an early stage in terms of evaluating teachers’ beliefs about teaching children english. the problem of at what age to start teaching english and how to teach english to elementary school children has not been solved neither in this country nor elsewhere. in order to deepen our understanding of teacher’s beliefs regarding teaching english to elementary school children and discover what similar and different beliefs might be held by university teachers and high school teachers, this study elicited teachers’ beliefs and compared the belief systems of university teachers (to cherish theory-based beliefs) and high school teachers (to accentuate experience-based beliefs). in order to recognize the teachers’ beliefs, a questionnaire was used. the questionnaire assessed the participants’ views 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. in addition, an open-ended question was added to the end of the questionnaire to obtain supplementary beliefs about qualifications of successful elementary school english teachers. a total of 50 teachers (25 university teachers and 25 high school teachers) participated in this study. data analysis involved descriptive statistics, independent t- test analyses, and content analysis. the results of this research indicated that starting english language teaching at primary education stage can improve better english learning and also there are slight differences of beliefs between university and high school teachers regarding teaching english to elementary school children.