Chinese College Students' Beliefs About English Learning-A Metaphorical Approach

Language learner beliefs belong to the researches of individual differences and have got more and more attention in the field of second language acquisition. So far, there have been quite a lot of related researches abroad. Nevertheless, it is still in the beginning period at home. Among these researches, the quantitative methods like Likert questionnaire or qualitative methods like interviewing method are mainly employed.This research referred to Cortazzi & Jin's(1999) research and was conducted on 350 freshmen in two colleges in Wuhan. The subjects were required to finish the questionnaire with 3 semi-structured questions “English is..., because...” “English learning is..., because...” “An English teacher is..., because...”. With these three questions, metaphors were elicited and analyzed in SPSS to compare the differences and similarities in the use of metaphors by students between different genders and of different proficiency levels. And the results reveal that students mainly use tool, food, nature and necessities to compare English, consumption, accomplishment, skills learning, sports and so on to describe the process of English learning and facilitator, knowledge provider, counselor, dispensable person to describe English teachers. In the quantitative analysis by SPSS, there are significant differences in the use of metaphors to describe English and English teachers by students of different proficiency levels and in the use of metaphors to describe English by students between different genders. Metaphor analysis proves to a effective way to represent and reflect language learner beliefs. Some aspects about English learning are also reflected:(1) Female students are more positive toward English than Male students.(2) Students with higher proficiency are more positive about English and more motivated to learn English and they prefer to take English teachers as the facilitator of learning.(3) Though most students hold positive attitudes toward English, quite a few students feel negative about English, which indicates their lack of objective knowledge about English learning and learning strategies.Language learner beliefs have a great impact on students' choosing of strategies and further affect the effects of English learning. Therefore, it is meaningful for teachers to attach much importance to students' beliefs and help them to shape right beliefs and suitable learning strategies.