Learners' Beliefs About And Strategies Of Using Translation In English Learning: A Study Of College English Majors In Urumqi

Since research of language learning strategies has become more popular and various types of these strategies were carried out, translation has usually been identified as a cognitive learning strategy. The definition of translation used in the present study refers to students'using Chinese as a basis for understanding, remembering, or producing English.The present study primarily explored the role of translation in Urumqi college English majors'English learning, particularly in terms of their learning beliefs and learning strategies about using translation to learn English, the relations between their beliefs and strategies of using translation, and the relations between strategies of using translation and achievements on the TEM-4 exam. In data analysis, both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used. In the quantitative study, inferential statistical analysis was fully applied. Based on Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, six models were founded concerning strategy use of translation and achievements on the TEM-4 exam exploring their regular relational pattern.A total of 238 English majors from different universities in Urumqi responded to the questionnaires. Based on the pilot study, the questionnaires were revised. The questionnaires'reliability was also tested using the data collected. In order to provide more information about students'learning experiences, interviews were conducted with 10 students randomly selected. The students'TEM4 scores were from the office of the TEM Testing Center. The major findings of the study are listed below:1. English majors in Urumqi strongly believe in the idea that translation has positive effects on enhancing English skills and improving the classroom experience. The total mean of the beliefs (M=3.2595) showed that most participants endorsed the idea that translation played a positive role in their English learning. Besides, English majors in Urumqi frequently used S2(M=3.9076, Use of translation to acquire English forms or structure in areas such as vocabulary, grammar and idioms).Overwhelmingly, the total mean of the five strategies indicated that in their English learning process they sometimes used translation to study English (M=3.0484).2. B1(Beliefs about positive effects of translation on affective and metacognitive aspects of English learning) was significantly and positively correlated with all five strategies, and could predict the variance of all five translation strategies; B2 (Beliefs of positive effects of translation on enhancing English language skills and classroom interaction) was significantly correlated and positively correlated S1(Translation as a learning strategy to enhance specific language skills such as English reading,writing and speaking), S3(the avoidance of Chinese in using English) and S4 (Use of translation as a social learning strategy), S4(Use of translation as a social learning strategy) and S5(Strategies to use learning aids such as dictionaries and to take notes) and could predict the variance of S1and S4; B3 was significantly correlated with S1and S4, but could not predict the variance of them.3. S1, S2, S3 and S4 were significantly correlated with the achievements on the TEM-4 exam in a negative trend. Only S2, S3 and S4 could predict the variance of achievements on the TEM-4 exam. This indicated the more the strategies are used, the lower the achievements are on the TEM-4 exam.