Beliefs of Chilean University English Teachers: Uncovering Their Role in the Teaching and Learning Process

Abstract

Beliefs continue to be an important source to get to know teachers’ thinking processes and pedagogical decisions. Research in teachers’ beliefs has traditionally come from English-speaking contexts; however, a great deal of scientific work has been written lately in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. This study elicits 30 Chilean university teachers’ beliefs about their own role in the teaching and learning of English in university environments. Through a qualitative research design, the data collected from interviews and journals were analyzed, triangulated, and categorized based on semantic content analysis. Results of the study indicate that university teachers reveal challenging and complex views about what it is like to teach English as a foreign language in a university context in Chile. The article concludes with a call to reflect on the importance of beliefs unravelling in teacher education programmes.