Mainstream Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs about English Language Learning and Teaching: Contextual Factors and Belief Change

Increasing numbers of English language learners (ELLs) are resulting in mainstream teachers across the United States taking on the responsibility of teaching ELLs. This demands the preparation of all teachers to teach this linguistically diverse student body. Yet adequate preparation of these educators depends on insight into the beliefs that preservice teachers carry with them to the classroom and the possibility of belief change as a result of experiences. The purpose of the present qualitative study was to better inform teacher preparation programs by exploring factors that cultivate differences of beliefs among preservice mainstream teachers and whether preservice teachers experienced a change in beliefs about ELL issues after the completion of English as a second language (ESL) coursework. Our findings show that different factors were influential in bringing a change in beliefs. It was found that after ESL coursework there was a shift in preservice teachers’ beliefs toward greater alignment with principles of ESL education.