Evaluating TESL Students’ Beliefs about Foreign Language Learning

Abstract

Learning a foreign language is a monumental undertaking for many adult learners. This study was conducted to mainly explore university students' beliefs about foreign language learning. It was also to investigate whether differences in their beliefs were present among different foreign languages. Students, pursuing diploma in TESL in a public university in Malaysia, were chosen as respondents. An instrument, BALLI, which is a measure of students' beliefs about language learning was the primary instrument for data collection. Since this is a quantitative study, statistical techniques namely descriptive and a one-way ANOVA were employed. Findings indicate that generally, the beliefs held by the student teachers are positive. Nonetheless, significant differences in the beliefs were noted among the foreign languages. The findings have a number of pedagogical implications. One of which is the importance of instilling realistic beliefs among students in learning foreign languages.

English Language Learning Beliefs of Jordanian Students: The Effect of Gender

“…It seems that the students hold positive beliefs concerning how to master English language. This finding is consistent with many studies such as those by Jusoh (2017) and Hismanoglu (2016), who pinpointed that the students show positive beliefs on most items regarding the nature of language learning.…”

“…The present finding concurs with Daif-Allah (2012), whose participants agreed that some languages are easier than others and that they were confident that they would learn English very well. However, these results conflict with other findings (e.g., Al-Roomy, 2015;Hismanoglu, 2016;Jusoh, 2017). For instance, Jusoh (2017) conducted a study of mostly female students who were learning different languages.…”

“…Because the study of language learning beliefs is still a point of contention for many researchers, many studies have investigated what students believe about learning FLs in general and how gender affects their beliefs (Al- Mekhlafi, 2017;Al-Roomy, 2015;Alsmaani, 2012;Ariogul, 2009;Daif-Allah, 2012;Javid & Al Malki, 2017;Horwitz, 1987;Jusoh, 2017;Oz, 2007;Peacock, 2001;Tahaineh, 2013;Tercanlioglu, 2004;Zhou, 2018).…”