An Empirical Study Of Senior High School Students’ Beliefs About English Learning

Learners’ beliefs about language learning have been studied by many researchers and teachers in recent years. As an important aspect of learners’ individual differences research in second language acquisition field, learners’ beliefs about language learning have been confirmed to have great influence on learners’ language learning behaviors, and learning outcomes. However, relevant studies are few in our country and little is known in the issue of senior high school students’ beliefs about English learning. So it is of great necessities and importance to do such a study.This paper aims to investigate English learning beliefs of senior high school liberal arts students and science students. Based on a careful review of the previous studies, two research questions have been put forward:(1).What are the general English learning beliefs held by senior high school liberal arts students and science students?(2). Are there any differences of English learning beliefs between liberal arts students and science students?To answer the research questions, an empirical research was conducted among 220 second year high school students, involving 110 liberal arts students and 110 science students. The present research was made up of two parts: a questionnaire-based investigation and a semi-structured interview. The questionnaire used in the present study was adapted from Horwitz(1988)’s “Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory”, abbreviated as BALLI. 196 valid questionnaires were collected finally, with 95 from liberal arts students and 101 from science students. To have a better understanding of questionnaire findings in investigation, an interview was partially structured on the contents of the questionnaire, and it has been conducted on 16 subjects appropriately selected from participants to further analyze questionnaire findings.Descriptive statistics were used to describe the general English learning beliefs of subjects. Independent samples t-test was employed to analyze questionnaire data and to find whether there are differences of beliefs between two groups. The current study suggests that students hold various English learning beliefs, but some similar beliefs are also found. Research findings also show that there is no significant difference of beliefs between liberal arts students and science students in general. Conclusions can be drawn from the results and discussions that students mostly hold positive beliefs about English learning, and some negative beliefs they have should be corrected.Results of the present study also shed light on high school English teaching and learning issues.