Do teachers and students share similar beliefs about teaching and learning strategies?

This empirical study investigates the beliefs of teachers and students regarding strategies for learning and teaching Chinese tones, which constitute a crucial feature of the spoken language and often cause problems for learners. Two online questionnaires that listed 11 Chinese tone learning strategies and 7 tone teaching strategies were administered to 60 Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) students and 15 CFL teachers in the UK Higher Education sector to examine the links (if any) between reported use of strategies, belief about their effectiveness, and proficiency levels. The results showed that the strategy use reported by teachers and students in this study corresponded with their beliefs regarding the effectiveness of the strategies. However, it was also found that teachers and students generally held different beliefs about the effectiveness of the strategies and that proficiency levels can influence the beliefs of teachers and students. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.