Resumen de Function-Based vs. Meaning-Based Beliefs in Teaching Vocabulary
Ghaffarzadeh Hassankiade, Mozhgan Alsadat
Teachers are highly influenced by their beliefs, which are related to their ideas, to their views of the world and to their values and conceptions of their environment. Departing from the premise that teachers' beliefs are one of the most significant issues in education, this study investigates the effects of language teachers’ beliefs about teaching vocabulary on learners’ vocabulary intake in language learning classrooms. The research attempts to identify which one of the teachers' lexicon teaching beliefs is more effective in enhancing learners' vocabulary intake. The beliefs which are under question are divided into two groups: meaning-based and function-based beliefs about teaching lexicon. The study looks at the effect of teachers’ actions (related according to their stated beliefs) on learning vocabulary by Iranian EFL learners. The findings indicate that: a) the learners who were taught by teachers that placed more emphasis on function-based beliefs are more successful in learning lexicon than those who were taught by teachers focusing more on meaning-based beliefs; b) the result is the same for both genders.
