Language Learning Beliefs, Language Learning Strategies And Their Relationship With English Achievement

With the development of psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology, the focus of studies on language learning shifted from how to teach to how to learn, and individual differences attracted more and more attention in second language acquisition researches. Language learning beliefs and language learning strategies, as parts of individual differences in second language acquisition, have drawn much attention of English language researchers and teachers. It suggested that language learning beliefs and language learning strategies have a profound effect on learners'learning behavior and outcomes. The present study is intended to investigate the two aspects in the hope of providing practical implications to English teaching and learning in China.Through the questionnaire and data analysis,95 juniors from Southwest Jiaotong University participated in the study. The study adopted quantitative study methodology and analyzed data with SPSS (16.0). After descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations analysis, independent sample t-test and multiple regression analysis, this thesis makes a survey of Chinese EFL learners'language learning beliefs, the choice and use of language learning strategies and the relationship between beliefs and strategies. The relationship of each variable with the English achievement has been detected, and as well, the study will find out which beliefs and strategies have the biggest influence on the achievement respectively. In addition, the similarities and dissimilarities in language learning beliefs and language learning strategies between high-proficiency and low-proficiency students will also be investigated.The study has the following main results. In the three categories of beliefs, formal practice beliefs are a little more preferred than the functional beliefs. Mother-tongue-reliance beliefs are the students'least preference. As for the language learning strategies, students have the same trend of preference with language learning strategies. There is a strong positive relationship between functional beliefs and formal practice beliefs, and mother-tongue-reliance beliefs are not correlated with formal practice beliefs or functional beliefs. Formal practice strategies are positively correlated with functional strategies, whereas mother tongue-reliance strategies are correlated with none of the other two strategies. As for the relationship between LLB and LLS separately, there are strong positive relationships between belief and strategy variables. All the categories of LLB and LLS have a significant correlation with the CET-4 achievement. Except for the mother-tongue reliance beliefs, there are significantly statistical differences of the LLB and LLS between the high-proficiency and low-proficiency groups. Mother-tongue reliance belief is the best predictor of English achievement among the three beliefs, and it could predict negatively the achievement. Formal practice strategy is the best predictor of the achievement among the LLS which could positively predict the achievement.In brief, the results of the study provided us a rough understanding of learners'beliefs and their uses of learning strategies. By encouraging appropriate briefs, teachers may enhance effective strategies in language learning and therefore, further promote their English skills from all aspects.