Learners' Beliefs And Language Proficiency In SA Context: A Case Study Of Chinese Students Taking PRE-sessional Language Course In The UK

Learner beliefs have always been considered as stable and static.However,recent research on learner beliefs started to highlight their dynamic and variablenature.Meanwhile,many researchers(Kinginger 2008,Norton 2010,Wong 2010)have mentioned the change of learner beliefs in study abroad context.Considering that the related research in China is still under-presented,thecurrent study aims to explore the effect of study abroad(SA)on learner beliefs.Holding the assumption that learners' perspectives and thoughtsguide their learning behaviors(Horwitz,1987,1988;Wenden 1987;Barcelos 2003)anddetermine the ultimate success of their learning(Ellis,2004,2008),the current study also tries to investigate how the change of learner beliefs influences the language learning proficiency.The data for the study were collected from thirty Chinese students attending a pre-sessional language courses in ELTC at the university of Sheffield.The datawere drawn from the questionnaire,semi-structured interviews and the IELTS score.Combining the quantitative and qualitative results,the current study answers three research questions: 1)How learners' beliefs change in SA context? 2)How learners' language proficiency changes in SA context? 3)What is the relationship between the learners' English proficiency and their beliefs about language learning? The resultsindicate that learners show changes in their language learning beliefs after a period of language learning in SA context.Participants report their beliefs inlearner autonomy and self-confidence has significantly strengthened duringSA sojourn.Also,there were statistically significant gains in proficiency,as measured by the IELTS,occurred during the pre-sessional language program.In current study,it seems that there existed no statistically significant relationships between the overall changes in beliefs and gains or losses in proficiency.However,the moderate correlation between beliefs about analytic learning and the IELTS score has reported in current research.By investigating the relationship between learner's language learning beliefs and language proficiency in SA context.The change of language learning beliefs and language proficiency have been observed in this research.The current study acknowledges that language learning beliefs have some kinds of influence on the change of language proficiency.However,it also noted that SA context is not a guarantee of the change of beliefs and the improvement in language proficiency.Theimprovement in language proficiency can be influenced by some other factors like the frequency of making contact with native speakers,the course setting of language agencies,the teaching quality of language tutors and other,etc.