Beliefs And Strategies Of Adult English Learners At Training Schools

Since the mid-1980s, language learning beliefs (LLB) and language learning strategies (LLS), as two important parts of learners’individual differences, have drawn much attention of researchers and language teachers in China. However, most of the researches focused on regular college students or middle school students. So far, there have been few researches about LLB and LLS held and used by adult English learners at training schools, especially at those run by private sectors. Hence, in order to fill in this vacancy, the present study attempts to investigate the learning beliefs and learning strategies of such a special group of English learners in the hope of providing pedagogical implications to adult English teaching and learning in China.68adult English learners from three well-known training schools in the city of De Zhou participated in the research. Through a questionnaire and some interviews, the author collected the data about the subjects’ learning beliefs and learning strategies, and then analyzed these data by using SPSS. Three statistical procedures, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and independent sample t-test, were conducted respectively to explore the subjects’ learning beliefs and learning strategies, to examine the interrelation between the two variables, and to analyze the differences of the two variables between high and low proficiency adult learners.Several findings were revealed:(1) The subjects held a wide variety of beliefs about English learning. Among the five belief categories in BALLI, the beliefs of motivations had the highest mean (M=3.82), followed by the beliefs of learning and communication strategies (M=3.40). The beliefs of the nature of language learning had the lowest mean (M=3.15).(2) The subjects’use of English learning strategies fell into medium level. Among the six strategy categories in SILL, the most frequently used strategies were compensation strategies (M=3.25), followed closely by metacognitive strategies (M=3.24). Affective strategies (M=2.80) were used the least frequently.(3) The subjects’beliefs about English learning were related to their choice and use of learning strategies both positively and negatively.(4) The adult learners at training schools with different English proficiency held different learning beliefs, and the belief differences between the high-proficiency group and low-proficiency group were statistically significant in all the belief categories except motivation beliefs.(5) High-achievers used a wider range of strategies at a higher frequency than low-achievers. There existed significant differences in the use of cognitive, metacognitive and compensation strategies between the two groups.Based on the findings, several pedagogical implications for this group of adult English teaching were put forward with the hope of sensitizing teachers at training schools to the importance of adult learners’ English learning beliefs and learning strategies and promoting them to help learners develop positive learning beliefs and use proper learning strategies, raise learners’ autonomy learning awareness, and cultivate them self-directed learning ability for future lifelong learning.