Tracking Changes In New English-Major Graduates’Learning Beliefs And Strategies:a Longitudinal Study

Learning belief is the learners’overall idea about learning and the proper learning belief plays an important role in improving the English learning achievements. While learning strategy is learning scheme which is made by learners purposely about learning process in order to improve the efficiency of learning.The research about learning belief and strategy began in1975s, Stern, Horwitz are the first person who began the study in the area of learning belief while Rubin, Naiman, Frohlich and Todesco are the representative persons in studying learning strategy during this period. They put their emphasis on learning strategy of good language learners and summarized their learning strategies. Since1980s, the scale of researches in this field has been expanded along with the researchers’ point turning from teachers to students. Chinese researchers have also made abundant academic achievements in this area such as Wen Qiufang, Wu Yian and so on. To sum up, most of researches involve in static study while little research concerns dynamic study and the subjects of the most researches are about junior, senior and college students. There is little longitudinal study about advanced English learners---the graduates in English major. The present research is a longitudinal study and the purpose of the study is to track the changes in their learning belief and strategy through a period of study. The author will discuss the following questions in our study:1.What belief and strategy do English major graduates hold at the beginning of their first year? What is the relationship between learning belief and strategy?2. Will their belief, strategy and their relationship have changed by the end of the year? If there are some changes, what contribute to the changes? The present study used the integration of questionnaire and interview to investigate learning belief and strategy of participants who were2010English major graduates from a key institution in Hunan province. The author of the thesis has made two investigations at the beginning and the end of their first academic year. The results of investigations were input into SPSS and descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and paired-sample T-test were conducted. Furthermore, the results of interview were summarized to explore the influencing factors of the changes in their learning belief and strategy.The results of the present study show that the most frequently used belief and strategy of English major graduates are management belief and strategy. They usually avoid their native language in their learning process. There are positive and significant correlations between each paired beliefs and strategies. Comparing the results of the two investigations, statistically significant changes have been found in management strategy. There are also some changes in the detailed items. The author has summarized the factors that affect the changes including their learning experience, situational and social factors, the observation of their classmates, the guidance of teachers and the characteristic of graduates’education.This research has significant meaning for the development of English major graduates. Suitable courses and plans can be made through analyzing the factors that cause the changes in order to foster qualified talented persons in English.