A Study On The Correlation Between Language Learning Beliefs And Strategies Of Chinese Non-English Majors

Since 1970s, the research focus in EFL began to shift from teachers' teaching to learners' learning. Since then, language teachers and researchers have placed much weight on the role of learners. A large number of researches have been conducted on such learners'variables as language learning beliefs, language learning strategies, learning styles, learning attitudes and learning motivations and so on. Among these variables, language learning beliefs and language learning strategies are highlighted in this study. Based on the previous studies, the present study is designed to investigate language learning beliefs held by Chinese non-English majors and language learning strategies used by them. Meanwhile, the issue of whether gender has an effect on the two variables is addressed. Relationships between beliefs categories, relationships between strategy categories and relationships between the two variables are investigated as well. This study is designed to provide practical pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching in China.The questionnaire adopted in the study is a self-designed one mainly based on BALLI (Horwitz,1987) and SILL (Oxford,1990) with some modifications. A total of 120 college students in Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management have participated in the study and 110 are valid. Descriptive analysis are conducted to identify the underlying factors in learners'beliefs and strategies, then Pearson correlations are used to examine the correlation between the six beliefs and the correlation between the five strategy factors and the correlation between the six beliefs and the five strategy factors, in the end independent samples T-test are performed to compare male and female students'beliefs and their strategies use.Firstly, Descriptive analysis of data from the first questionnaire indicates that students under study hold positive attitudes towards beliefs about self-efficacy and motivation, beliefs about teaching, beliefs about the nature of language learning while they reject mother-tongue dependence beliefs and language aptitude beliefs. Descriptive analysis of data from the second questionnaire indicates that students under study hold positive attitudes towards all the strategies. Secondly, it is to investigate the relationships between learners' beliefs and learners' strategies. It is found out that strategy categories and belief categories are correlated with each other, and the correlation is evident. Among the correlations, both cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies are positively correlated with beliefs about self-efficacy and motivation and are negatively correlated with beliefs about anxiety of speaking and listening to English. The finding reveals that the deeper students believe actively their ability and talent of language learning, the more they use cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies. Thirdly, it is to find out the differences between male and female students' beliefs and their strategy use. The results are a little different from those of previous studies. Male students depend on mother tongue higher than female students, but female students more depend on their teachers.From the theoretical perspective, the study of "Individual Learner Difference" has helped a lot with our understanding of learner variables. A lot of research suggests that beliefs play a central role in learning achievements. Riley (1996) claimed that learners' beliefs about a language might directly influence or even determine a learner's attitude or motivation and also learning behavior when learning a language. In addition, as the mediator between various learner factors and learning outcomes, learning strategy has aroused the interest of language theorists and educators. Ellis (1994) stated that the use of learning strategy influenced the rate of acquisition and the ultimate level of achievement.From the pedagogical perspective, the study lies in that it will enrich language teachers' knowledge of Individual Learner Difference and it will increase language teachers'concern about students'learning beliefs and learning strategy use awareness. The study also promotes language teachers to use flexible teaching approaches in order to improve their teaching efficiency and encourages students to initiatively reflect on their learning characteristics to finally accelerate their language learning development.