Analysing Spanish Learners’ Beliefs about EFL Learning

English Language Learning Beliefs of Iranian High School Students

“…A great majority of the respondents (85%) believed that having a native-like accent is of great importance confirming the strong belief in the literature among EFL learners (i.e. both high school and university students, less amongst the latter) about this formal aspect of language (Agudo, 2014;Ke & Cahyani, 2014;Peacock, 1999;Bernat & Lloyd, 2007). This goes strongly against findings on teacher beliefs on pronunciation showing their very low support for excellent accent (Kern, 1995;Peacock, 1999).…”

“…Since mid 1980s, a large body of research has been published on learners' beliefs about language learning in both ESL and EFL contexts (e.g., Agudo, 2014;Amouzie & Winke, 2009;Bernat & Lloyd, 2007;Chang & Shen, 2010;Daif-Allah, 2011;Fujiwara, 2014;Horwitz, 1999;Moser, 2012;Nahavandi & Mukundan, 2014;Zhang & Cui, 2009). Beliefs are meaning categories employed for thinking "in the activity of understanding the world and oneself "(Negueruela-Azarola, 2011, as cited in Barcelos & Kalaja, 2011, p. 284).…”

“…Thus, understanding learner beliefs helps us better understand learner approaches and strategies to language learning and better plan language instruction (Horwitz, 1999). Unsatisfied learning expectations and erroneous beliefs can have significant negative impact on classroom instruction and learner engagement and ultimate learning outcome (Agudo, 2014).…”

“…Moreover, with the exception of a few, a significant majority of the research studies reported above all focused on learner beliefs across college and tertiary levels. The beliefs EFL learners hold are largely induced by their past classroom learning experiences (Agudo, 2014;Peacock, 1999). Around one third of the 121 EFL university students in Hong Kong interviewed by Peacock said that, among other things (e.g., teachers, family or friends, classroom tasks, mass media, and living abroad), their secondary school experience had a significant impact on the formation of their beliefs about language learning.…”

CLIL realities through the lens of English and content teachers

“…Studies in beliefs, also called perceptions, in educational research have proliferated over the last hundred years (Fives & Gregoire Gill, 2015) as research has become more interdisciplinary and the inclusion of psycho-social factors has become standard-in particular in foreign language learning and teaching where affective and motivational factors are considered (Kalaja et al, 2016;Hüttner et al, 2013;Dörnyei, 2020). Beliefs can be defined as opinions or preconceived ideas, which can be both conditioned by the environment or more trait-like, and can influence the product and process of language learning (Martínez Agudo, 2014). Beliefs are important in shedding light onto motivation (Dörnyei, 2020;Dörnyei & Ushioda 2009), a key area for CLIL research (Banegas, 2012) and also onto teachers' classroom behaviour, since beliefs impact teaching practices (Gierlinger, 2017;Pourhosein & Banou, 2017;Gabillon, 2012).…”