5.4 Conclusion

The aim of this study is to profile the beliefs of teachers of FSFL about teaching and learning in online learning environments. This chapter has presented these beliefs following a preliminary analysis and coding. What the analysis revealed is that teachers’ beliefs are heterogeneous, they are spread over a wide range and cover a broad selection of topics and aspects of school life. Two categories and twelve sub-categories grouped approximately 400 beliefs. The categories derived from the coding are not definitive. They could have been organized somewhat differently and some of the beliefs might have been grouped in multiple categories or in other categories. However, what is important in the grouping of the beliefs is that some commonalities could be identified and that boundaries could be established to allow for inclusion of all the data.

Some of these beliefs reflect an enthusiasm for use of OLEs and highlight their advantages for teaching and learning FSFL. Others focus on the many challenges to teaching and learning with OLEs. The beliefs covered many different aspects of the teaching world such as teachers, students, technology, the curriculum, time, text-books, information, teaching approaches, communication, training, equipment, motivation, control and roles to mention but some of the beliefs uncovered by this study. In relation to beliefs about the teaching of FSFL, teachers referred to many aspects such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and culture. In terms of the tools of OLEs, teachers referred to chat rooms, e-mail, the World Wide Web, MOOs, and discussion lists. In relation to beliefs about the types of activities in which students can engage in online, there were references to virtual visits, web-publishing, e-mail correspondence, online research, and collaborative projects. In terms of approaches, teachers made reference to project-based learning, task-based learning, Communicative Language Teaching and resource-based learning.

There were some aspects related to teaching and learning which were not represented by teachers’ beliefs. While there were references to administrators and many to students and to teachers, there were few if any beliefs related to parents. Beliefs about testing and evaluation were few although there were many beliefs related to covering the curriculum. While there was minimal reference in the beliefs to the use of OLEs in the teaching of content areas like history, there was no reference to use of these environments for the teaching of other subject areas in French such as science or math even though these subjects figure as part of the French-Immersion curriculum in Canada.

There were other aspects of the beliefs which were not addressed by this chapter. The profile revealed that there were many differences and even contradiction and conflicts evident in the beliefs. The profile also revealed that while some teachers are enthusiastic about use of OLEs for the teaching of FSFL, others are more cautious and some are evidently opposed to their use. How can we explain these differences? How can we explain the contradictions and the conflicts? The purpose of the next chapter is to interpret the beliefs, to attribute a larger meaning in terms of educational theories and paradigms. Chapter 6 takes the analysis one step further in order to provide an interpretation of the beliefs in each category. The analysis focuses on patterns and similarities in types of beliefs in order to understand what the beliefs reflect in terms of the approaches, philosophies and trends which have characterized language teaching during the past 100 years.