Investigation On The Correlations Between Learners' Beliefs About Language Learning And Learning Strategies

The present study sought to investigate two variables as: Chinese college English learners' beliefs about language learning and the learning strategies they employed. The relationships between the two variables were also explored.72 undergraduate college English learners participated in the study. Two inventories were utilized, including Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (Horwitz, 1987) and Strategies Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford, 1989). Da(?)a descriptions of the two questionnaires were followed by the correlation analysis between the beliefs subjects held and learning strategies.The study revealed that subjects held both positive and negative beliefs about language learning. Only 10% of the subjects believed that they have special abilities for language learning; 39% of them believed speaking is more difficult to them; as high as 98% of the subjects supported the importance of practice and repeat a lot; though they indicated the unclear attitude towards the nature of language learning, they showed strong efficacy belief about speaking English and eagerness to speak good English. In terms of learning strategies, all the six groups of strategies were in the medium rank (2.5≤M≤3. 4). However, according to the order of means of each category, subjects reported using compensation strategies, the most frequently (M=3.3) and memory strategies, the least frequently (M=2.7). Correlation analysis showed both positive and negative linkages between items of belief inventory and learning strategies. Social strategies and compensation strategies were found to have positive linkages with the beliefs about speaking; cognitive strategies were found to have negative linkages with beliefs about the difficulty of the English language (r=-.416) and metacognitive strategies to have negative relations with special abilities for language learning beliefs (r=-.309), leaving memory strategies unrelated to any belief items.In brief, the results of the study provided us a rough understanding of learners' beliefs and their learning strategies used, also, the connections between beliefs and strategies were probed and proved, teaching recommendations, based on the findings, were discussed.