On College English Learners' Beliefs And Teachers' Beliefs

Linguistic researchers have shifted their focus from investigating effectiveteaching methods to exploring the individual factors of language learners sincethe 1970s. Thus, individual learner differences become the central interest.Being an important factor to impact on language learning and teaching, beliefbecomes one of the key researching targets. However, research on beliefs haslong been ignored in China due to the specific learning and teachingenvironment.There is a growing evidence to show that both learners' beliefs andteachers' beliefs impact on both learners' behavior and learning outcomes andteachers' behavior and teaching effects. Therefore, the present study aims atidentifying beliefs of college English learners and college English teachers, i.e.Chinese college non-English majors and their teachers, including the similaritiesand differences between these two groups, which ultimately helps to find out thesignificant implications for college English teaching and learning.This study analyzed the reported beliefs through questionnaires andsemi-structured interviews among 130 college students and 50 college teachers.The collected data are analyzed with SPSS 12.0. With the data analysis andfurther discussion, considerable similarities and differences are identified atlength. These lead to some significant implications: both teachers and learnersneed to reflect their original beliefs, to single out those inhibitive ones anddevelop those facilitative beliefs;learners should be aware of their preconceivedbeliefs and prepare themselves for autonomy in learning;teachers should playthe role of a mediator. Other factors --English test, materials, and curriculumdesign --also need to be focused on and improved. All these findings andsuggestions may pave a way for further research and contribute to theimprovement of college English learning and teaching.