This study sought to investigate teachers’ beliefs regarding the team teaching
through a questionnaire with Korean English Teachers (KETs) and English Language
Instructors (ELIs) who are working in the team teaching program at public
elementary schools in Korea. The KETs and ELIs believe that team teaching helps
students and KETs’ English proficiency especially with speaking, listening and
pronunciation. The result showed that the KETs and ELIs are generally involved in
managing team teaching. They, however, need to discuss and communicate
exclusively to identify each other’s role for effective team teaching. They believe that
team teaching helps students experience the diversity of culture. But, cultural
differences, between the KETs and ELIs, might be more problematic for the KETs.
The KETs and ELIs cited the four positive aspects of team teaching: providing
authentic language input for English proficiency, improving the quality of teaching,
instruction in two languages, and a non-threatening environment for students to speak
with native speakers of English. Clear communication with a partner, undergoing
team-teaching without any training and dealing with personal conflicts were the most
difficult aspects of team teaching. They commented that the four most important
aspects of team teaching: clear communication with a partner, mutual understanding
and open-minded attitude for each partner, defining each other’s role in the class, and
the KETs’ confidence and willingness. Throughout this study, two important key
elements appear to be necessary for a successful team teaching program: (1) ongoing
communication including the identification of individual roles and planning classes with
mutual understanding to lessen personal conflicts (2) development of ‘teachers training
program’ for team teaching to foster compatible team members.