Assessing the Relationship between Teachers’ Beliefs about Exam Preparation and their Teaching Behaviour among Tunisian English Language Teachers: Empirical Evidence from Tunisia

Abstract

Teachers' beliefs have triggered a lot of research interest, especially in high-stakes examination contexts. It is widely acknowledged that the relationship between teachers' beliefs and practices is complex. Hence, this article presents an empirical study to investigate teachers' perceptions, i.e. attitudes towards the English Baccalaureate Exam (EBE) and their beliefs about exam preparation (BEP), as well as the relationships between their AE, BEP and their teaching practices (TP). In other words, this research explores the impact of teachers’ perceptions on what and how they teach English in the context of the EBE. While the majority of research studies are qualitative and based on case studies, the current study used a mixed methods approach, drawing on both (i) quantitative data (questionnaire, 364 English language teachers (ELTs) from 6 governorates selected following systematic random sampling) and qualitative data (classroom observations and interviewees, 4 ELTs). Pearson correlation coefficients and linear regression were used. Results revealed that ELTs showed mixed attitudes and they extensively prepared their students for the EBE to familiarize them with the exam content and format, to prepare them psychologically, and to increase their scores. Owing to the importance of the issue, much focus should be given to teachers’ beliefs.