Teachers’ beliefs and practices in the teaching of english as a foreign language in Senior High Schools in Waikabubak, West Sumba

This study aims to find out the senior high school English teachers’ beliefs and practices in the teaching of English as a foreign language in secondary education in Waikabubak, West Sumba, Indonesia. Four senior high school English teachers teaching in one private school and one public school in Waikabubak, West Sumba, Indonesia were interviewed and observed regarding their conceptions of the teaching of English to senior high school students. The findings of the study revealed that the four teachers participated in this study believe that the objective of the teaching of English to senior high school students is for communication and that its learning on the whole should be viewed as a student-centered learning. This view aligns with the CLT method. However, when it comes to error treatment, all of them consider errors undesirable and should be corrected immediately which somewhat reflects the GTM view of errors. The four of them showed some mismatches in their beliefs and teaching practices. Teachers’ lack of awareness of their teaching practices and beliefs, some factors from the teachers’ accounts, and the student factor were indicated to be the causes of the mismatches