LAUSR

Abstract Teachers' beliefs about research are critical to their research engagement. This study investigated Chinese English language teachers’ beliefs about what counts as research and what value research has. Interviews were conducted with 12 English teachers from two Chinese tertiary education institutions. Thematic analysis revealed that their beliefs about what counts as research ranged from book/dictionary compilation and translation, through literature synthesis and teaching reflections, to principled inquiry. The value of research for them was representative of a continuum ranging from meeting institutional research requirements, benefiting teaching, to professionalism and satisfying psychological needs. The teachers from the two institutions displayed differences in their beliefs about research. These differences were attributed to the dissimilarities in their personal research experience, the institutional culture, and the manageability of research. The findings provide pertinent implications for tertiary education institutions and language departments as well as for language teachers to become more research-engaged.