%X% §&x 61 ã 45 2006 Language Learning Beliefs in Re ...journal.kate.or.kr/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/kate_61_4_2.pdf · Language Learning Beliefs in Re lation to English Proficiency:

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영어교육 61권 4호 2006년 겨울

Language Learning Beliefs in Relation to English Proficiency: A Korean Sample

Kyung Ja Kim

(Woosong University)

Kim, Kyung Ja. (2006). Language learning beliefs in relation to English proficiency: A Korean sample. English Teaching, 61(4), 27-49.

The primary aim of the study was to compare 286 EFL students’ beliefs with those of 29 native English-speaking teachers. It furthermore examined the influence of student beliefs on English proficiency. Collected data using Horwitz’s Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory and students’ English proficiency scores were analyzed by descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability coefficients, correlations, and ANOVA. Results identified four factors in student beliefs: Difficulty of learning English, nature of learning English, importance of correctness in learning English, and motivation and perceived importance of learning English. The study indicated that students’ beliefs were often consonant with those of their teachers. Mismatches, however, in beliefs between students and teachers appeared in terms of their opinions on L2 aptitude, error correction, pronunciation, and the importance of vocabulary, grammar rules, translation, and cultural knowledge for English learning. Additionally, the results showed that a number of student beliefs negatively affected L2 learning and provided empirical evidence of an association between beliefs and L2 proficiency. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications to improve L2 instruction by reducing conflicts in beliefs between students and teachers were suggested.

I. INTRODUCTION The studies of beliefs about how second or foreign languages (L2) are learned have

received a lot of attention since Horwitz’s pioneering study (1985). In order to understand L2 learner beliefs, Horwitz developed the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), which assesses learner beliefs about L2 learning in five major areas: (1) foreign language learning aptitude, (2) the difficulty of learning a foreign language, (3) the nature of language learning process, (4) learning and communicative strategies, and (5) motivations and expectations about language learning. Learner beliefs, as Horwitz (1987, 1988, 1999) and Mantle-Bromley (1995) reported, have the potential to influence their

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expectations of, commitment to, and satisfaction with the language course. In other words, learners with realistic and informed beliefs are more likely to behave productively in class and work harder outside class (Mantle-Bromley, 1995). Contrariwise, learners’ incorrect beliefs are detrimental to L2 learning and are likely to restrict the variety and flexibility of their strategy use (Horwitz, 1985, 1988; Kern, 1995; Mantle-Bromley, 1995; Yang, 1999). Learner beliefs, for that reason, are important constructs in understanding L2 learning process. What is more, research on the topic has shown that learners’ preconceived beliefs are related to various learner variables, such as L2 learning strategies (Horwitz, 1987, 1988; Hyun Jin Kim, 2001; Kyung-Yong Kim, 2001; Mori, 1999; Gi-Pyo Park, 1995; Yang, 1999), L2 anxiety (Horwitz, 1988; Truitt, 1995a), and learning behavior patterns (Cotterall, 1995, 1999; Gremmo & Riley, 1995). The beliefs about L2 learning have been also linked to learners’ within group factors such as gender, major field of study, and cultural backgrounds (Bacon & Finnemann, 1992; Diab, 2006; Horwitz, 1999; McCargar, 1993; Truitt, 1995b).

Horwitz (1988) and Mantle-Bromley (1995) theorized that learner misconceptions about L2 learning may hinder their progress and persistence in L2 study and ultimately negatively affect L2 proficiency. To date, quite a few empirical studies appeared to have researched the relationship between learner beliefs and L2 proficiency. Ehrman and Oxford (1995) reported that believing that one can learn languages well was significantly correlated with L2 proficiency in speaking and reading. Peacock (1999, 2001) in a study with Chinese EFL students also found statistically significant association between certain beliefs and proficiency: students who (1) underestimated the difficulty of learning L2; (2) believed that L2 learning is a matter of memorization of vocabulary and grammar rule; (3) thought that being allowed to make mistakes in the beginning meant they would find it hard to get rid of them later on; and (4) believed that they should not say anything in L2 until they could say it correctly were significantly less proficient than students who thought otherwise. Similar results have been reported that learner beliefs about L2 learning are of critical importance to gains in L2 competence (Hinenoya & Gatbonton, 2000; Mori, 1999; Rifkin, 2000). Support for the hypothesis that high-proficiency learners tend to have more positive L2 learning beliefs than low-proficiency learners came from Huang and Tsai (2003) who found that there were significant belief discrepancies between high- and low-proficiency L2 learners. However, Hyun Jin Kim (2001) who conducted only a study, to my knowledge, on Korean EFL college learner beliefs related to English proficiency reported that the correlation between beliefs and proficiency was insignificant (r = -.07). Therefore, it seems obvious that more research is needed to identify if learner beliefs are crucial to L2 proficiency in a Korean EFL learning context.

In the meantime, considerable research indicated a reciprocal nature between teachers’ beliefs about L2 learning and their classroom practices (Allen, 2002; Guerrero & Villamil,


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2000; Richardson, 1996; Sharkey & Layzer, 2000). More specifically, L2 teachers’ theoretical and pedagogical beliefs about L2 learning and teaching and their instructional practice are considered to shape a critical part of their prior knowledge through which teachers perceive, process, and act upon information in L2 classrooms (Allen, 2002; Banya & Cheng, 1997; Graden, 1996; Johnson, 1992). In this way, L2 teachers’ beliefs may guide their expectations about student behavior and the decisions they make in the design and implementation of L2 instruction (Pajares, 1992). Accordingly, teachers’ beliefs about how L2 learning process takes place and how L2 ability develops play central roles in improving L2 teaching that might best suit different types of learners in a school environment (Johnson, 1992; Kern, 1995). In addition, such teacher beliefs affect L2 learners’ access to L2 success (Guerrero & Villamil, 2000; Sharkey & Layzer, 2000). Teachers bring their unique beliefs which have the potential to affect their experiences as L2 teachers, on that ground, teachers’ belief systems are of course important elements to our understanding of L2 learning in school settings. Despite such importance of the topic, thus far, none of the published research has yet explored teacher beliefs about L2 learning in a Korean context.

Comparative studies between two or more L2 learning environments have been conducted in many recent studies to examine similarities and differences in beliefs among groups of learners as well as cultural and situational influences on learner beliefs (Diab, 2006; Horwitz, 1999; Kern, 1995; Rifkin, 2000; Truitt, 1995b). These studies reported several broad group variations: (1) ESL and American foreign language students had more confidence in their L2 ability than Asian EFL students; (2) Asians had more instrumental motivations than the Americans; (3) certain beliefs such as motivations and the difficulty of L2 learning seemed to be contextualized in politically and socio-culturally bound learning situation; and (4) similarities appeared between the Korean and Chinese EFL students because of their similar culture, English education systems, and the role of English in the two countries. However, Horwitz (1999) warned that comparison between groups of learners has been difficult since the BALLI does not yield a clear-cut composite score, and consequently, it seems premature to conclude that beliefs about L2 learning differ across cultural groups.

Meanwhile, some L2 scholars have turned their attention to the compatibility of beliefs about L2 learning between learners and instructors. As described by Oxford, Ehrman, and Lavine (1991), when learner beliefs are at odds with those of their instructors, the L2 learning outcomes can be disastrous. Accordingly, suggestion has been raised that research is needed to identify precisely the gap between learners’ and their teachers’ beliefs. Kumaravadivelu (1991) found potential sources contributing to mismatch between teacher intentions and ESL learner interpretations of the goals, the nature, and the learning tasks. McCargar (1993) also reported significant differences in role expectations between ESL

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learners and their American teachers. In addition, few studies have directly compared L2 learners’ and teachers’ beliefs in EFL setting. In a groundbreaking study on the issue, Kern (1995) compared the beliefs of French learning students and their teachers and produced complex results. Students’ beliefs about children’s superiority, language aptitude, need for practice, and use of guessing strategies were consistent with those of teachers. However, students’ opinions on pronunciation, error correction, and the importance of grammar rules which the students considered the major work of L2 learning considerably mismatched with those of teachers. Similar results displayed in a study of Taiwanese EFL students and their teachers that there were conflicts existing in the views of both groups about English learning in spite of some beliefs in common (Banya & Cheng, 1997). Taiwanese students believed that English learning is mostly a matter of memorization of new vocabulary and grammar as well as translation. Later, Peacock’s (1999) comparative study also reported very similar results to those found by Kern (1995) and Banya and Cheng (1997) in which students’ beliefs differed from their teachers’ about the same issues. He suggested that students with beliefs about memorization of vocabulary and grammar rules may be very dissatisfied with a teacher who does not emphasize the learning of vocabulary and grammar structure in classroom tasks, materials, and homework. The mismatches in beliefs between teachers and students, according to Peacock (2001), can be concluded that students may blame difficulties in L2 learning, slow progress, and failure of learning L2, leading to further lack of confidence, frustration, and dissatisfaction.

Given the base, it seems reasonable to presume that learner and teacher beliefs about language learning influence how both learners and teachers approached and felt about their L2 classes. With respect to the research studies in which Korean students have been targeted, only a few BALLI studies have appeared in relation to the use of learning strategies (Hyun Jin Kim, 2001; Kyung-Yong Kim, 2001; Gi-Pyo Park, 1995) and learners’ anxiety (Truitt, 1995a). Most recently, Kyungsim Hong-Nam (2006) identified and compared L2 learning beliefs between monolingual Korean and Korean-Chinese bilingual EFL learners. Thus, there has been a lack of empirical research on Korean students’ beliefs about L2 learning. Besides, no research, as stated earlier, has been conducted examining the beliefs about language learning of EFL teachers in Korea. What is more, little effort has been made to empirically test the issue that there is a significant association between certain beliefs and L2 proficiency. If learner beliefs do not change over time, as Kern (1995) reported, and if learner incorrect beliefs negatively affect L2 learning, it may be suggested for L2 teachers to take a more active role in finding out what beliefs their students and themselves have and to work toward correcting some of the counter- productive beliefs (Peacock, 1999). Therefore, it is entirely appropriate to examine both Korean students’ and their teachers’ beliefs about English learning in order to further to the theoretical underpinning of the foundations of L2 beliefs.


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The aim of this study was to identify the beliefs about language learning of first-year English students and their teachers and to compare student beliefs to those of teachers. The purpose of this comparison was to determine potential mismatches in students’ and instructors’ beliefs about English learning. It also examined the associations of the student beliefs and English proficiency. To this end, the three following research questions were set out:

1. What beliefs do Korean college students have about English learning? 2. How do students’ beliefs about English learning compare to those of their instructors? 3. How do students’ beliefs about English learning influence their English proficiency?

II. RESEARCH METHOD

1. Participants Eleven EFL intact classes from a university took part in the present study. A total of 286

participants’ average age was 18.6, ranging from 17 to 32. All the participants were first-year students from the Tourism Management, Engineering, Food Science, and English departments and enrolled in a compulsory English course “General English” at the time of participating in the study. There were 150 males (52.4%) and 136 females (47.6%). The greater part of the participants believed that travel to English-speaking countries (N=251, 87.8%) or having English-speaking friends (N=267, 93.4%) would help them learn English. Furthermore, 97 students (33.9%) indicated that their own independent study is the most influential factor in their effective learning of English, followed by teachers (N=81, 28.3%) and learning materials (N=43, 15%). The participants represented a wide range of English proficiency, even though 175 (61.2%) reported their proficiency as “not good,” compared with other students in their class. Eleven (3.8%) rated their level as “good,” 72 (25.2%) as “medium,” and 28 (9.8%) as “very poor.” However, none of them reported it as “excellent” in the self-assessed English proficiency.

A total of 29 teachers who took part in the study were the student participants’ native English-speaking instructors of General English. Thirteen teachers (44.8%) were from the U.S. and the remaining 16 came from Australia, Canada, U.K. and South Africa including two Korean-English bilinguals. Their average age was 37.5, ranging from 27 to 62. Twelve were women and seventeen were men. Fourteen of them had a teacher’s certificate in English. The amount of English teaching experience ranged from 1 to 4 years, with an average of about 3 years. Of the 29 teacher participants, 22 (75.9%) rated their students’ English proficiency as “not good.” Meanwhile, all teachers and 227 (79.4%) students

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believed that emphasis on speaking and listening skills in English classes is more important than that on reading, grammar rule, writing, or culture.

2. Instruments and Procedures

The present study consisted of a modified version of the BALLI and a background

information questionnaire designed by the researcher. The BALLI contains 34 items to survey learner beliefs with 5-point Likert scales (1=Strongly disagree, 5=Strongly agree) for participants to self-report the extent to which the statements applied to themselves. For the validity of the BALLI, the original items were developed from an extensive collection of interviews with language learners and teachers (Horwitz, 1985). In order to complete the items in students’ native language, the BALLI without an established Korean version was translated into Korean by English-Korean bilinguals. In addition, as Sakui and Gaies (1999) suggested the need for the development of context-sensitive instrument to measure beliefs about L2 learning, some modifications were made to the original BALLI items to correspond to a Korean-specific English learning and teaching context. “Foreign language” and “some languages” were replaced with “English” to ensure that the scale referred only to a student’s beliefs about learning English instead of foreign language learning in general. Furthermore, one item was added to the inventory to consider the role of memorization in English learning. The questionnaire for students, thus, contained 35 items.

An adapted version of BALLI for teachers was used to elicit teacher beliefs about English learning that might be unique to the target population and to allow comparison of student beliefs with those of their teachers. This scale was almost identical to the student BALLI and contained 28 items, while 7 items (5, 13, 16, 21, 24, 29, 31) that were not relevant to teachers were excluded (e.g., “I feel timid in speaking English with other people”) from the student version. The teacher version of the BALLI was completed in English.

The second questionnaire was designed to obtain background information about the students and teachers, such as their gender, age, major field of study, travel experience to English-speaking countries, nationalities, and teaching experiences. In addition, questions including student participants’ self-assessed English proficiency, effectiveness of travel abroad experience for English learning, the most influential factor for students’ English learning, and aspect that should be emphasized in English classes were asked.

Classroom teachers administered BALLI and background information questionnaires to their students during their regular English class meeting in the beginning of spring semester in 2006. The response rate, thus, was 100%. The student surveys were not completed anonymously in order to examine the associations between their belief systems and English proficiency. Student identification numbers, hence, were included in the survey to use only in conjunction with the students’ responses and their English exam


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scores. The teacher survey was distributed to all 36 teachers who were teaching General English and 29 completed and returned, with a response rate of 81%.

The English proficiency scores consisted of two parts: midterm and final examinations administered by native English-speaking teachers in all the eleven General English classes. The contents of the midterm exam were similar across classes that evaluated students’ English oral communicative abilities using an interview in individual or a role-play in group. The total mark for the midterm exam was 20-point. The final exam was standardized written across 11 classes and there were no speaking or listening components. All 40 questions (20 short-answer and fill-in-the-blank items and 20 multiple choice items) were on communicative grammar construction. The final exam counted for 40-point. Thus, the two scores were combined to make one comprehensive English proficiency score, with a maximum possible score of 60.

3. Data Analyses

In analyzing data, descriptive statistics (frequencies, means, and standard deviations)

were computed for all students’ and teachers’ responses to the BALLI and background information items as well as English proficiency scores. A factor analysis was performed to extract underlying factors for the students’ beliefs. Correlations between midterm oral scores and final written scores were calculated. One-way ANOVA was used to examine the relationship between students’ beliefs and English proficiency. Cronbach’s alpha of the Korean version of the BALLI for students was .72, while it was .74 for teachers. Although the teacher participants were smaller than the students in number, slightly higher reliability on the surveys for teachers indicated the teacher participants’ responses were more consistent across BALLI items. On the whole, the Korean version of the BALLI was internally consistent in measuring student beliefs about English learning.

III. RESULTS This section reports the results of factor analyses on BALLI items as well as the results

of ANOVAs of belief factors and English proficiency. The descriptive results such as frequencies, means, and standard deviations of the BALLI for students and teachers are presented together in tables for easier comparisons.

1. Results of Factor Analysis on the BALLI Items

A factor analysis was conducted to determine the underlying patterns of student beliefs

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about English learning. Principal components analysis, followed by varimax rotation which is an orthogonal method, was used to make the factors more interpretable.

TABLE 1

Difficulty of Learning English Item 1* 3 5 M SD

16. I have a special ability for learning English. (.72)** S 78*** 20 2 2.09 .88 5. I believe that I will learn to speak English very well.

(.68) S 23 29 47 3.18 .93

S 26 40 35 3.14 1.01 6. Korean students are good at learning English. (.65)T 42 52 7 2.52 .83 S 72 26 2 2.19 .68 4. English is a/an (1) very difficult, (2) difficult, (3)

medium difficult, (4) easy, or (5) very easy language.1 (.57) T 55 31 14 2.45 .95

21. I feel timid speaking English with other people. (-.56) S 14 15 70 3.83 1.08

S 6 14 80 4.04 .89 33. Everyone can learn to speak English. (.54) T 21 10 69 3.62 1.18 S 24 24 52 3.00 1.27 34. It is easier to read and write English than to speak

and understand it. (.51) T 45 24 31 2.79 1.18 S 29 23 48 3.13 1.00 10. It is easier for people who already speak a foreign

language to learn English. (.49) T 0 24 76 3.90 .62 S 22 29 49 3.33 1.24 25. It is easier to speak than write English. (.47) T 17 10 73 3.79 1.11 S 20 23 56 3.53 1.12 30. People who speak more than one language are very

intelligent. (.36) T 24 59 17 2.86 .79

S 71 17 13 2.26 .97 15. If someone spent one hour a day learning English,

how long would it take him or her to speak English very well? (1) 1-2 years, (2) 3-5 years, (3) 6-10 years, (4) over 10 years, (5) he/she can never learn English well.2 (.35)

T 51 21 28 2.86 1.16

S 34 45 21 2.84 .98 3. English is easier to learn than other languages. (.32)T 62 21 17 2.38 1.35

Note: S=Students, T=Teachers * 1=strongly disagree or disagree, 3= neutral, 5=agree or strongly agree. **Factor loadings of each item on the four-factor are given in parentheses. ***Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Four factors with eigenvalues greater than 2.0 were extracted and labeled: (1) Difficulty

of Learning English, (2) Nature of Learning English, (3) Importance of Correctness in Learning English, and (4) Motivations and Perceived Importance of Learning English,

1 Frequencies of each response option are as follows: 1=12%, 2=60%, 3=26%, 4=1%, and 5=1% for

students, while 1= 17%, 2=38%, 3=31%, 4=14%, and 5=0% for teachers. 2 Frequencies of each response option are as follows: 1=19%, 2=52%, 3=17%, 4=10%, and 5=3%

for students, while 1= 3%, 2=48%, 3=21%, 4=14%, and 5=14% for teachers.


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respectively. The four factors accounted for 48.5% of the total variance. The results of the four factors are summarized in Tables 1 through 4. In each table, participants’ responses of 1 and 2 (strongly disagree and disagree) were combined together, as were their responses of 4 and 5 (agree and strongly agree), to provide more meaningful comparative results and to make overall trends in both participant groups’ responses (Cotterall, 1999). Each item was considered separately since the BALLI measures manifold beliefs about L2 learning and does not yield a single composite score for the extracted factors (Horwitz, 1987, 1999). In this section under the results of factor analysis, a few BALLI items to which only students responded are addressed and other beliefs of student will be presented in further detail in the separate section.

TABLE 2

Nature of Learning English Item 1 3 5 M SD

S 5 10 85 4.22 .84 35. English learning involves a lot of memorization. (.71) T 13 3 83 3.79 .94

S 12 14 74 3.92 1.02 12. It is best to learn English in an English-speaking country. (.69) T 21 10 69 3.93 1.19

S 34 33 33 2.99 .98 2. Some people have a special ability for learning English. (.66) T 7 10 83 4.10 .86

S 11 23 65 3.64 .90 17. The most important part of learning English is learning vocabulary words. (.64) T 58 21 21 2.72 1.03

S 8 19 73 3.89 .87 27. Learning English is different from learning other academic subjects. (-.60) T 3 3 94 4.24 .69

S 66 24 10 2.16 .99 32. English is structured in the same way as Korean language. (.56) T 100 0 0 1.14 .35

S 30 44 26 2.99 .98 28. The most important part of learning English is learning how to translate from Korean to English. (.47) T 86 14 0 1.76 .69

S 8 12 80 3.93 .87 1. It is easier for children than adults to learn English. (.45) T 24 3 73 3.86 1.19

S 35 46 19 2.33 .89 19. Female students are better than male at learning English. (-.39) T 42 31 28 1.69 .97

S 24 20 56 3.43 1.07 8. It is necessary to know English-speaking cultures in order to speak English. (.34) T 66 3 31 2.69 1.36

As Table 1 displays, Factor 1 consisted of twelve items. The items obtained high

loadings in Factor 1 seemed to represent the general difficulty of learning English. Items about the students’ perception of difficulty in learning the specific skills such as reading (Item 34) and speaking (Item 25) also loaded on this factor. Item 15 assessed estimates of the amount of time required to learn English. More than two-thirds of students (78%) felt that they did not have a special ability to learn English and 70% of them felt timid about

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speaking English with other people. However, 47% of students believed that they would learn to speak English very well; while about one-quarter (23%) disagreed.

The second factor had 10 items as detailed in Table 2. The items in this factor indicated various issues related to the nature of learning English. For example, items 17, 28, and 35 concerned the students’ expectation about the focus of the English learning task, while items 8 and 12 considered the role of environment or cultural contact as an important factor for successful English learning. Students’ beliefs about foreign language aptitude (Item 2) and the relative ability between children and adults (Item 1) and between male and female (Item 19) in learning English also loaded on the second factor. Students’ perceptions about English learning compared to other subjects (Item 27) and structural differences between Korean and English also had moderate loadings on this factor.

TABLE 3

Importance of Correctness in Learning English Item 1 3 5 M SD

S 10 13 77 3.96 .94 22.

If beginning students are permitted to make errors in English without correction, it will be difficult for them to speak correctly later on. (.60)

T 66 14 21 2.55 1.24

S 95 5 0 1.47 .60 9. People shouldn’t say anything in English until they can say it correctly. (-.58) T 100 0 0 1.10 .31

S 33 31 36 3.05 1.09 23. The most important part of learning English is learning grammar. (.57) T 72 10 17 2.38 1.26

S 6 21 73 3.92 .88 26. It is important to practice English with cassettes or tapes. (.53) T 52 14 35 3.34 1.26

S 2 2 96 4.59 .63 18. It is important to repeat and practice English a lot. (.50) T 14 0 86 4.07 1.07

S 14 15 71 3.62 1.00 14. It’s OK to guess if you don’t know a word in English. (.46) T 0 3 97 4.62 .56

S 11 11 79 4.08 .96 7. It is important to speak English with an excellent pronunciation. (.36) T 55 14 31 2.65 1.32

Seven items loaded onto the third factor. As shown in Table 3, Factor 3 addressed

students’ beliefs about the importance of accuracy and correctness in learning and speaking English. The importance of grammar study loaded on this factor with a moderated loading. Items 18 and 26 referred to traditional learning strategies and items 9 and 14 involved communication strategies (Horwitz, 1988). These strategies might be directly linked to students’ actual English learning practice.


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TABLE 4 Motivations and Perceived Importance of Learning English

Item 1 3 5 M SD 13.

I enjoy practicing English with the English- speakers I meet. (.66) S 70 22 8 2.01 .98

31. I want to learn to speak English well. (.64) S 3 2 95 4.67 .66 29. If I learn English very well, I will have better

opportunities for a good job. (.64) S 2 1 97 4.72 .58

24. I like to learn English to get to know its speakers better. (.59) S 62 18 20 2.40 1.09

S 13 18 69 3.84 1.11 20. Korean students think that it is important to speak English. (-.42) T 24 28 48 3.27 1.00

S 62 29 9 2.33 .89 11. People who are good at math or science are not good at learning English. T 79 14 7 1.69 .97

Note: Item 11 loaded four factors simultaneously, with a loading of -.17, .11, .10, and -.18, respectively.

The final factor in Table 4 contained 5 items. The items in this factor reflected the

motivational components in learning English such as the enjoyment derived from practicing English (Item 13) and the likelihood of using English in the future (Items 24 & 29). One item dealt with the perceived value of English in Korean society also loaded on the fourth factor. It should be noted that there was some items that remained below a loading of .40 were included in each table to provide the comparative data between students and teachers. For that reason, Item 11 was also included in Table 4 although the factor loadings were very small in relation to the critical value in the factor analysis. Students intensely agreed that they want to learn English well (95%) and that English skills will give them better job opportunities (97%). However, they did not enjoy practicing English with the English-speakers (70%) and 62% of them disagreed that they want to learn English to get to know its speakers better.

2. Similarities and Differences in Students’ and Teachers’ Beliefs

The following section reports the highlights of similarities and differences in beliefs

between students and teachers rather than treat exhaustively each BALLI item. The comparisons will be organized in terms of the four-factor solution of student beliefs about English learning.3

3 The differences in beliefs between students and teachers depend on one’s unit of analysis. When

one treats each factor as the unit of analysis and constructs composite scores for each factor, different results would appear (Kern, 1995).

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1) Difficulty of Learning English Although many students (72%) and teachers (55%) judged English to be a difficult

language, 80% of students and 69% of teachers believed that everyone could learn to speak English. However, with respect to the difficulty of L2 learning, only 7% of teachers agreed that Korean students were good at learning English, while 35% of the students selected this response. In addition, 62% of teachers strongly disagreed or disagreed that “English is easier to learn than other languages,” whereas 34% of students disagreed to the statement. Accordingly, 14% of teachers believed that English could never be learned if someone spent an hour a day learning English, although both groups’ estimates of the amount of time required to learn English were quite similar that more than one-half of each group perceived it would take 3-5 years under the condition. Furthermore, a large number of teachers (76%) thought that it was easier for people who already speak a foreign language to learn English; whereas less than one-half of the students (48%) associated with this statement.

Related to the difficulty of the specific learning aspect of English, the data indicated some differences between the two groups. Nearly half the teachers (45%) disagreed that “it is easier to read and write English than to speak and understand it.” In contrast, over one-half of the students (52%) thought that reading and writing English is easier than speaking it. However, when asked the relative difficulty of speaking and writing in separate learning tasks, 49% of students and 73% of teachers agreed that speaking is easier than writing (Item 25).

2) Nature of Learning English

In student and teacher opinions related to the nature of learning English, there were

certain beliefs that the two groups were strikingly similar. A large number of the students (85%) and teachers (83%) thought that English learning involved a lot of memorization and 74% of students and 69% of teachers viewed that English is best learned in an English-speaking country. Furthermore, most students (73%) and teachers (94%) believed that learning English is different from learning other types of learning. The both participants also strongly endorsed children’s superiority in learning English. The entire teacher sample (100%) and 66% of students perceived that there were structural differences between Korean and English languages (Item 32).

Meanwhile, the beliefs about the nature of learning English also varied strongly between the two groups. Only 33% of the students believed in the concept of English learning aptitude, while the majority of teachers (83%) believed in the existence of special abilities for English learning (Item 2). Fifty-eight percent of teachers rejected that the most


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important part of learning English was learning vocabulary words, although 65% of the students supported the statement. In addition, 86% of the teacher sample disagreed or strongly disagreed with the idea that learning English is mainly learning to translate from Korean, and none of them agreed to the statement. But, 26% of students agreed to the importance of translation. Fifty-six percent of the students placed a very high value on knowledge of the target language culture, while 66% of teacher did not endorse the statement. What is more, 46% of the students chose the neutral response when asked if females are better than males in learning English, however, 42% of teachers did not support the statement.

3) Importance of Correctness in Learning English

In terms of the beliefs about the correctness while learning English, the overwhelming

majority of students (95%) and teachers (100%) disagreed with the statement “people shouldn’t say anything in English until they can say it correctly.” Accordingly, a large number of all the participants agreed or strongly agreed that guessing a word in English is permissible (Item 14). Furthermore, students (96%) and teachers (86%) endorsed the importance of practicing English (Item 18). However, a substantial number of students (77%) revealed that it would be difficult to speak correctly if beginning students were allowed to make errors in English without correction, while the teachers (66%) rejected this idea. A clear difference between students and teachers was also found in the importance of grammar study that most teachers (72%) disagreed with the primacy of grammar learning in English classes, while only one-third of students disagreed with that statement. Furthermore, students (73%) endorsed the importance of practicing English with cassettes or tapes, as a matter of course, they agreed that it is important to speak English with an excellent accent (79%). But, support for the importance of practice English with cassettes (35%) and excellent pronunciation (31%) was considerably weaker among teachers; on the contrary, more than half the teachers disagreed with the two statements (Items 7 & 26).

4) Motivations of Perceived Importance of Learning English

With regard to the motivation about English learning, 4 out of 5 items were relevant to

only students, thus, teachers responded to only one statement about the importance of learning English in Korean society (Item 20). The result indicated that many students (69%) believed that ability to speak English is important in Korea, while support for this item was markedly weaker with the teachers (48%).

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3. The Relationships between Students’ Beliefs and English Proficiency Three students did not provide their identification numbers indicating that they would

not release their English test scores. In addition, 19 students did not take either the oral midterm or the written final exam of General English. Belief data for these students were excluded from all further analyses, and therefore 264 students’ belief data and both oral and written tested English proficiency scores were included in the analyses. Table 5 gives preliminary analysis results of tested and self-rated English proficiency scores. There were significant differences in written test and self-rated English proficiency scores by major field of study, while there were no significant differences in any scores by gender. Furthermore, self-assessed proficiency was significantly correlated with all tested scores at p <.001 with coefficients ranging from the lowest being .28 to the highest being .95, except for the relation of self-rated proficiency to the oral midterm score (r =.05, p =.45).

TABLE 5

Descriptive Summary of English Proficiency Scores by Major Tourism (N=85)

English (N=35)

Engineering(N=81)

Food science (N=63)

Total Sample (N=264)

Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Oral 16.5 2.9 15.4 3.9 16.3 3.2 17.1 2.4 16.5 3.1

Written* 26.6 7.5 31.8 4.2 29.7 6.3 28.3 9.1 28.6 7.4 Oral & Written 43.1 8.8 47.2 6.9 46.0 9.0 45.4 10.7 45.1 9.2

Self-rated* 2.2 .7 2.5 .6 2.2 .7 2.0 .5 2.2 .6 *p <.01 in the ANOVAs.

In order to answer research question three, mean scores for the tested English

proficiency were constructed. Students’ oral and written English proficiency scores loaded on each response option were added up and then divided by the number of the students. In addition, ANOVAs were conducted to test the relationships between students’ beliefs and their English proficiency. Table 6 shows frequencies and mean scores broken down by response option, together with Fisher’s F values for group differences. The same provisions explained in previous tables such as the combined response options and whole numbers in percentage are used in the table.

Statistically significant associations were found between certain beliefs and English proficiency. Students’ proficiency with regard to the difficulty of learning English, those who believed that they would learn to speak English very well were more proficient than those who disagreed (Item 5). The students who judged English as a language of medium difficulty were more proficient than those who thought it difficult or easy to learn (Item 4). Furthermore, the students who under- or overestimated the difficulty of learning English were less proficient than those with a more realistic expectation (Item 15).


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TABLE 6 Relationships between Student Beliefs and English Proficiency (N=264)

Item Strongly disagree/Disagree

Neutral Agree/

Strongly agree

F

Factor 1: Difficulty of Learning English 5. I believe that I will learn to speak English

very well. 24%(41) 37% (46) 39% (46) 7.92**

4. English is a/an (1) very difficult or difficult, (3) medium difficult, (5) easy or very easy language.

73% (44) 25% (48) 2% (47) 6.50**

15. If someone spent one hour a day learning English, how long would it take him or her tospeak English very well? (1) 1-5 years, (3) 6-10 years, (5) over 10 years or he/ she can never learn English well.

70% (45) 17% (48) 13% (41) 7.01**

Factor 2: Nature of Learning English 12. It is best to learn English in an English

speaking country. 11% (49) 14% (41) 75% (45) 6.18**

32. English is structured in the same way as Korean language.

64% (47) 26% (40) 11% (46) 12.30**

28. The most important part of learning English is learning how to translate from Korean to English.

28% (48) 44% (45) 27% (43) 7.16**

8. It is necessary to know English-speaking cultures in order to speak English.

24% (44) 20% (42) 56% (46) 4.07*

Factor 3: Importance of Correctness in Learning English 22. If beginning students are permitted to make

errors in English without correction, it will be difficult for them to speak correctly later on.

11% (48) 12% (41) 77% (45) 5.17**

23. The most important part of learning English is learning grammar.

32% (48) 32% (42) 36% (45) 8.58**

26. It is important to practice English with cassettes or tapes.

7% (45) 21% (41) 72% (46) 7.06**

18. It is important to repeat and practice English a lot.

2% (30) 1% (41) 97% (45) 9.17**

14. It’s OK to guess if you don’t know a word in English.

15% (44) 16% (39) 69% (47) 15.61**

Factor 4: Motivations and Perceived Importance of Learning English 29. If I learn English very well, I will have better

opportunities for a good job. 2% (36) 1% (42) 97% (45) 3.03*

24. I like to learn English to get to know its speakers better.

61% (45) 19% (42) 20% (48) 5.38**

Note: Mean scores of overall English proficiency (oral & written) are given in parentheses. *p <.05, **p <.01 in the ANOVAs.

Students’ English proficiency related to their beliefs about the nature of learning English, those who agreed to the statement, “It is best to learn English in an English speaking

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country,” and who supported the primacy of translation in the English learning process were less proficient than those who thought otherwise. Those who had linguistic knowledge (Item 32) and who endorsed the importance of knowledge of the target language culture (Item 8) were more proficient than those who believed differently. Regarding students’ beliefs about the importance of correctness in learning English, those who disagreed with the importance of error correction and grammar study were more proficient. Furthermore, those who had beliefs about practice and guessing in English learning were more proficient. Finally, the students who were more motivated either for better job opportunities or wanting to get to know English-speakers better were more proficient than those who were less motivated.

IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS This study has sought to identify college students’ beliefs about English learning and to

compare their beliefs to those of English teachers. It has furthermore examined the links between student beliefs and English proficiency. The data resulting from the BALLI demonstrated that the students displayed the difficulty of learning English, beliefs about the English learning process, importance of correctness while learning and speaking English, and motivation in relation to the perceived value of English in Korean society. The study also indicated that students’ beliefs were consistent with those of their teachers in some points such as their beliefs about relative difficulty of English, optimism about English learning, child superiority, guessing, and importance of practice. However, the students, compared to their teachers, had stronger optimism that everyone including themselves could learn to speak English well, accordingly, their estimates of time needed to learn the target language were 3-5 years or less. However, this optimism was not due to a belief that English is an easy language to learn because 72% of students thought that English is a difficult language to learn. Instead, it can be explained by the characteristics of the sample that the first-year students enrolled in General English would exhibit a tendency to study English hard with positive attitudes towards English learning in the beginning of the semester. The optimism about L2 learning and the estimates of needed time were very similar to those reported by many other L2 beliefs researchers (Banya & Cheng, 1997; Kyungsim Hong-Nam, 2006; Kern, 1995; Gi-Pyo Park, 1995; Peacock, 1999; Truitt, 1995b; Yang, 1999).

With regard to the learning a specific aspect of English, over half the students thought that reading and writing English are easier than speaking (Item 34). However, results from Item 25 indicated that 49% believed that speaking is easier than writing in English. These contradictory responses to the two items were also dissonant with certain current trends in


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L2 pedagogy that reading and writing should be regarded as two integrated learning activities. Instead, the students considered reading and writing as separate ones. At this point, it must be acknowledged that administering the translated version of the BALLI to EFL students may cause a problem. Since the participants in General English classes were never given writing activities, those who agreed with Item 34 might misunderstand and interpret the word “to read and write English” to mean a reading activity only based on their own English learning situation, thereupon they just compared difficulties between reading and speaking and believed reading English is easier than speaking it. Furthermore, the ambiguities of interpretation of the two items were doubled by using Likert scale data. Consequently, the findings of this study are limited to the groups studied; generalizations to other learning contexts must remain cautious.

In terms of student beliefs about the nature of learning English, Korean students including their teachers supported children’s superiority, consistent with the previous research findings across culture (Banya & Cheng, 1997; Horwitz, 1988; Kern, 1995; Truitt, 1995a, 1995b; Yang, 1999). As shown in the summary report of the participants about the effectiveness of travel abroad experiences, the majority of students (88%) believed that English would be best learned in English-speaking countries being in contact with the target language culture. This recognition of the importance of exposure to the target language and cultural learning endorses the issue that exposure to cultural situations reduce the social and psychological barriers to achieving competence in L2 (Stagigh, 1998). Furthermore, the present study also provides empirical evidence of EFL student beliefs about L2 learning that vocabulary learning (65%) is more important than grammar study (36%) or translation (26%) (Horwitz, 1988; Truitt, 1995b; Yang, 1999).

Not surprisingly, the students overwhelmingly expressed the desire to learn English (95%) in order to get better job opportunities (97%). The students with this instrumental motivation, accordingly, did not want to learn English for the purpose of getting to know English-speakers better (62%). This finding of motivation patterns confirms the previous one reported in the studies with Korean EFL learners (Kyungsim Hong-Nam, 2006; Gi-Pyo Park, 1995; Truitt, 1995a). Furthermore, the students tended not to enjoy practicing English with English-speakers (70%) and only 2% of students thought that they possessed English aptitude while 33% believed in the existence of L2 learning aptitude in general (Item2). The students with this belief might attribute their failure in L2 learning to a lack of L2 aptitude. This was an indication of a lack of student confidence and it further reflected the English learning context in Korea. The Korean students do not enjoy or continue English study long enough to achieve minimal communication skills after one or two years of required enrollment for their degree. The students in the study were also enrolled in General English classes to complete their English requirement. This is at the heart of the lack of integrative motivation toward and confidence in speaking English with its speakers

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(Ramage, 1990; Truitt, 1995b). In the meantime, mismatches between students’ and teachers’ beliefs appeared,

especially on aptitude, immediate error correction, pronunciation, and the importance of vocabulary, grammar rules, translation, and cultural knowledge for English learning. The students gave more credence to the importance of excellent pronunciation, vocabulary learning, translation, cultural knowledge, and error correction than did teachers. This finding appears to have been contrasted with the previous ones (Horwitz, 1988; Kern, 1995; Gi-Pyo Park, 1995; Truitt, 1995a, 1995b), however, it extents the issues to the Korean EFL context. It is interesting that Korean students (36%) did not reject the primacy of grammar learning, although they have studied English for so long using grammar translation and do not feel that it has been effective. Furthermore, the students strongly endorsed the idea by McCargar (1993) that one of important roles of L2 teachers is to correct every student error. With respect to the L2 learning aptitude, more unvarying agreement to the language learning aptitude was elicited from teachers (83%). Supposedly, teachers’ experience and professional status in the field of L2 teaching seemed to help them better understand that aptitude is a characteristic of successful L2 learners. Given many differences in beliefs between EFL students and their native English-speaking teachers, it is possible, as Horwitz (1999) suggested, that these mismatches may reflect some amounts of cultural differences. For example, Korean EFL students (Item 7, 79%) considered that excellent pronunciation of English is one of the most important learning components, while 55% of teachers produced disagreement. It can be explained that conflicts in beliefs have to do with the linguistic differences and stage of learning rather than cultural differences. As both groups of participants reported that English is not structured in the same way as Korean language (Item 32), the different structure between Korean and English such as alphabet, word order, and pronunciation, may require low level of students to focus their attention on mainly learning new vocabulary words and practicing unfamiliar pronunciation. Clear-cut interpretation does not seem possible due to the lack of research on the issue, thus, more research on the beliefs is needed to gain a better understanding of what learner and teacher beliefs are and how they are operated in L2 learning and teaching.

The present study supports the hypothesis that certain student beliefs negatively affect L2 learning (Horwitz, 1988; Mantle-Bromley, 1995) and further provides empirical evidence of a link between beliefs and L2 proficiency (Hinenoya & Gatbonton, 2000; Huang & Tsai, 2003; Mori, 1999; Peacock, 1999, 2001; Rifkin, 2000); however it contradicts the finding reported by Hyun Jin Kim (2001) with Korean college students. The findings in the present study indicated that stronger endorsement of the optimism, the guessing strategy use, and motivation towards English learning associated with higher English proficiency, while stronger disagreement to the importance of translation, error correction, and grammar learning related to higher proficiency. These findings provide


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some indication of a link between self-efficacy and L2 proficiency. Bandura (1994) claimed that self-efficacy is concerned with people’s beliefs in their capabilities and the beliefs in personal efficacy affect task choices, levels of motivation and effort, persistence, and quality of functioning. In other words, students’ positive sense of self-efficacy such as greater degree of beliefs about their ability in English, about the use of appropriate strategies, and about learning motivation, may lead to L2 success (Pajares & Johnson, 1994). Furthermore, promoting students’ sense of self-efficacy reinforces learner autonomy by employing a range of L2 learning strategies (Cotterall, 1995, 1999). Autonomous learners take responsibility for their learning and pursue independent study outside the classroom (Peacock, 1999). Learner autonomy, therefore, is important among the students in the present study, whose study time in the EFL classroom is strictly limited to develop certain levels of L2 proficiency. In contrast, the study showed that the students who believed in teacher-directed classroom learning tasks such as grammar learning, translation, and error correction, associated with lower English proficiency than those who thought otherwise. Needless to say, those students could mistrust their teacher who does not emphasize grammar rules and immediate error correction in classroom tasks, and they tend to encounter lack of L2 success and consequently quit the L2 learning. In such a case, teacher intervention is needed in order to correct students’ misconceptions about L2 learning (Horwitz, 1988; Kern, 1995; Mantle-Bromley, 1995).

In sum, students had a unique set of beliefs about English learning, and some of which may be profitable for their L2 proficiency, others lead to frustration and slow progress with L2 learning. Besides, the students and teachers shared in common beliefs, while there were some student-teacher mismatches existing in their views of L2 learning. In relation to the report that some students (28.3%) identified their English teacher as the most influential factor in their English learning experience, the findings of the present study may lead to a number of pedagogical implications for L2 teachers. By identifying student and teacher beliefs about L2 learning, classroom instructors can design effective instructional planning and carry out productive lessons; simultaneously, L2 learners can gain self-knowledge and autonomy that lead them to more effective in- and out-of-classroom learning behaviors and positive attitudes toward L2 learning (Cotterall, 1995, 1999; Horwitz, 1988; Mantle-Bromley, 1995; Rifkin, 2000; Sakui & Gaies, 1999). However, teachers should be prepared to compromise their beliefs to accommodate students’ needs (Graden, 1996), and intervene in students to develop realistic expectations for their L2 learning (Johnson, 1992; Kern, 1995; McCargar, 1993; Peacock, 1999). Furthermore, it is proposed that teachers explain specific course objectives and the theoretical underpinnings behind their instructional methods in order to reduce student misunderstanding, difficulties, and any conflicts between student and teacher beliefs.

Lastly, despite the evidence of a link between learner beliefs and L2 proficiency and that

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of mismatches between learner and teacher beliefs, clear-cut conclusions of the present study remain wary because composite scores for the comparison were not produced from the BALLI items. It is also unclear whether the mismatches in beliefs between Korean EFL students and their native English-speaking teachers can be interpreted as cultural differences. One should be, therefore, cautioned that many other factors such as self-efficacy, motivation, teaching experience, contextual factors, and cultural norms, might play in shaping the participants’ beliefs of both groups. In relation to the limitation, additional studies with a large number of factors will need to address more complex interrelationships between learners’ and teachers’ beliefs. The extent to which student beliefs are changeable over time by instructor intervention or contextual factors such as institution type, level of instruction, and curriculum, should be considered in future investigations. In addition, a combined research design of quantitative and qualitative methodologies such as in-depth interviews and classroom observation in further studies, as suggested by Kern (1995) and Sakui and Gaies (1999), will not only allow opportunities to cross-validate measures but also assist the identification and interpretation of more reliable belief systems.

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Applicable levels: college students Key words: beliefs about language learning, proficiency, differences in student and teacher beliefs Kyung Ja Kim Dept. of English Language Communication Woosong University 17-2, Jayang-dong, Dong-gu Daejeon 300-718, Korea Email: [email protected] Received in August, 2006 Reviewed in September, 2006 Revised version received in October, 2006

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