Integrating research into language teaching: Beliefs and perceptions of university teachers

ABSTRACT

Internationally, universities and policy-makers are calling for stronger integration of research into teaching. However, it is unclear how to implement this in practice in different disciplinary areas and contexts. This study contributes to this understanding with a focus on language teaching in the Chinese context. We surveyed 152 university teachers regarding their beliefs about and their perceived actual integration of research in their teaching practice. The teachers highly valued integration of research in teaching in an ideal situation but perceived low integration of research into their actual teaching practice. This gap was smaller for teachers from research-intensive universities and for those who had more research experience and spent more than 25% of their work time on research. Other reasons for this gap included fixed curricula, heavy teaching tasks, lack of student motivation and difficulties reconciling integration of research into teaching with the institutional aim of improving students’ language proficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Language education
• integrating research into teaching
• inquiry-based learning
• research–teaching nexus
• teaching beliefs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education (China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences under Grant 16XJC880002.

Notes on contributors

Yanjuan Hu

Yanjuan Hu (PhD) is associate professor in Higher Education at the Faculty of Education, Southwest University in China. She obtained her PhD at ICLON, Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching. Her research focuses on university teachers’ beliefs and perceptions regarding the integration of research into teaching. She also studies cultural, historical and social-economic influences on teachers’ educational beliefs and teaching practices.

Roeland M. van der Rijst

Roeland M. van der Rijst (PhD) is assistant professor in Higher Education at ICLON, Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching. His research was on the research‒teaching nexus in the sciences, aiming at improving our understanding of how to bridge the gap between research and teaching in undergraduate university science education. His current research focuses on inquiry based learning and teaching in higher education.

Klaas van Veen

Klaas van Veen (PhD) is professor of Educational Studies and Director of the Teacher Education Department at the University of Groningen. His main research interests refer to teachers’ professional development in the context of their workplace.

Nico Verloop

Nico Verloop (PhD) is professor of Education and past dean of ICLON Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching, and past president of the Dutch Educational Research Association. He supervised about 30 PhD research projects in the fields of secondary and higher education, a number of them pertaining to comparisons between education in China and Western Europe.