A Study Of Freshmen's Beliefs About English Grammar Instruction

Ever since Rubin firstly described common characteristics of good language learners, people began to realize that methods of language teaching alone would not lead learners to succeed, thus they were aware of the importance of individual variation in language learning. Learners'beliefs about language learning constitute one of the important inquiries in this field. Therefore, an increasing number of studies have been undertaken from learners'perspective. Studying learners'beliefs might help explain and predict behaviors that learners demonstrate when learning a new language. What a learner believes about language learning will trigger and result in a particular attitude and learning behavior. Unrealistic beliefs or misconceptions about language learning can impede learning process. It is especially important for the freshmen who have just shifted from a high school to a college, whose language learning beliefs will undergo tremendous changes.The purpose of the present study is to undertake an investigation to find out the beliefs about English grammar instruction held by Chinese freshmen. Studies that investigate learners'beliefs about grammar instruction in China are still limited. Therefore, the researcher intends to explore this topic. Two research questions are addressed as follows:1) What are freshmen's beliefs about grammar instruction toward four English skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing)?2) What different beliefs about grammar instruction do the freshmen have from different education backgrounds?216 freshmen of 2009 non-English majors in Soochow University, Jiangsu Province were involved in the present study. The main study instrument was the open and closed-ended questionnaire, and the following interview was also employed to gain some in-depth and supplementary data. Major findings are summarized as follows:Firstly, the freshmen, on the whole, hold positive beliefs about English grammar instruction. The freshmen present the wide agreement about the role of grammar instruction toward reading and writing skills. However, some students fail to realize the importance of grammar instruction in listening and speaking. The data obtained from the questionnaire indicate that most freshmen give the overwhelming priority to speaking among the other three skills. Although freshmen dream of speaking English fluently, the relationship between grammar instruction and spoken English seems not clear to them. Students prefer fluency to accuracy in speaking English.Secondly, different education backgrounds exert not only influence on students'language learning beliefs but also much impact on their beliefs about specific aspects such as English grammar instruction. The main difference of education background lies in the different focus of teaching in high school. Freshmen from city high schools were less convinced of the need for grammar instruction and were more enthusiastic about improving communicative skills than freshmen from town schools.The findings offer some pedagogical implications for college English grammar teaching in China: Firstly, EFL teachers in colleges should continue to attach deserved importance to grammar instruction in the teaching of the four skills, and especially try to make students understand the indispensable role of grammar instruction in listening and speaking. Secondly, EFL teachers in colleges should know carefully about their students'varied beliefs about grammar instruction, and try to cultivate their suitable belief system of grammar instruction in college English learning. It is important for teachers to help students modify their restricted beliefs and remove their unsuitable beliefs about grammar instruction.