A Study On Students' English Learning Beliefs In A Senior High School

For a long time,the research on foreign language teaching has been focusing on exploring individual factors that affect student's language learning.As one of learner's individual differences,learning belief affects learner's learning process and outcomes in a certain degree.A large number of researches have been conducted on this issue in recent years,but only a few studies have examined the English learning beliefs held by senior high school students.Even fewer studies have investigated the differences in English learning beliefs between high proficiency students and low proficiency students.Hence,this study aims at exploring senior high school students' general English learning beliefs in a Chinese school,and comparing the English learning beliefs between high proficiency students and low proficiency students,in order to investigate the different English learning beliefs held by them.A sample of 273 senior high school students from Yichun participated in this study(including 115 males and 158 females).Two instruments were employed to collect the data,i.e.Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory”(BALLI)developed by Horwitz in 1987 and an interview.Eight students from either high proficiency group or low proficiency group were invited to the interview after they finished the questionnaire.With the help of SPSS 20.0,frequencies,means and standard deviations were calculated;Independent Samples t-test was used to analyze differences in the five dimensions of language learning beliefs.In addition,Mann-Whitney test was used to analyze the differences in English learning beliefs between high proficiency students and low proficiency students.The data of this study showed that these senior high school students generally held positive beliefs towards English learning.As to the five dimensions of the BALLI questionnaire,they showed a higher level of motivations and expectations of English learning.As to whether they possess the aptitude to learn English well,most of them were neutral,only a small number of students saw themselves as gifted learners.What's more,significant proficiency differences existed in 10 items(30%)of the BALLI questionnaire,In general,high proficiency students held stronger beliefs than low proficiency students,and they tended to be highly motivated and felt more optimistic about the future of their English learning.The findings of this study can provide some implications for English teachers and students.The teachers should firstly make a comprehensive survey of students' English learning beliefs before teaching,so that they can help students to set up correct learning beliefs.Secondly,teachers should not have any prejudice towards low English proficiency students,because teacher's attitudes towards them would affect their learning motivations.Thirdly,English teachers should try their best to create a relaxing and harmonous learning atmosphere,and set different learning tasks for different proficiency students.What's more,teachers should help students to form correct beliefs of attribution.As for senior high school students,they should set a realistic and practical learning goals,and try their best to find out a suitable learning method for themselves in order to acquire this language.