Mismatches Between Student and Teacher Perceptions of Current and Ideal Foreign Language Classroom Practices

Abstract

While perceptual mismatches of language practices between teachers and learners can foster learners’ low levels of engagement, motivation, and performance and have a negative impact on the teacher-learner relationship, few have examined how these two groups perceive current classroom practices and what teachers and learners actually want in their classrooms. Using mixed methods, we examined mismatches between student and teacher perceptions in Korean secondary school levels. Data were collected through questionnaires completed by 725 middle and high school students and 194 in-service English teachers, and through semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers. Exploratory factor analysis and repeated-measures ANOVA were performed to determine underlying constructs of the questionnaires and to compare student and teacher groups. Results of current English teaching indicate that students and teachers have similar perceptions of less frequent involvement in the communicative approach than non-communicative language teaching (explicit grammar instruction, translation, mechanical exercises), but teachers perceived that non-communicative teaching practices occurred more often than did students. Regarding ideal classroom practices, students prefer the non-communicative teaching approach, whereas teachers favored the communicative approach. Based on interview data, we investigated why students and teachers held different perceptions of ideal teaching practices from the perspective of teachers.