第九章learner's belief

• Learner beliefs can be strong mediating factors in learners’ experience in the classroom.
Students’ beliefs & language learning
Students have incorrect beliefs about how foreign languages are learned, which may be detrimental on their learning (studies based on results from Horwitz’s (1988) Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory, in Peacock 2001: 178).
• Background of the study • Many people and even cultures have strong beliefs about language learning. When you hear someone say that children learn languages easily and naturally or that women are better language learners than men, they are expressing common but not necessarily correct beliefs about language learning. It is naive to think that cultural beliefs about the nature of language learning do not influence our students. Language teachers must recognize that students come to class with preconceived notions about the nature of language learning and that many of these preconceptions can be counterproductive to language learning.
Learner’s beliefs about language learning
. Objectives • aims to sensitise teachers in the English as a foreign language and in second language environments to the types of beliefs learners may hold, and to the possible consequences of these beliefs for second or foreign language learning and instruction.
Possible effects of students’ beliefs on language learning
Examples Belief: “Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar rules” → Students may focus on learning grammar rules to the exclusion of other tasks. Belief: “People who speak more than one language well are very intelligent” → Students may blame slow progress/failure on lack of intelligence, which may lead to more frustration
Factors that influence learner beliefs
• family and home background (Dias, 2000; Schommer, 1990, 1994); • cultural background (Alexander & Dochy, 1995); • classroom/social peers (Arnold, 1999); • interpretations of prior repetitive experiences (Little, Singleton & Slivius, 1984; Gaoyin & Alvermann, 1995; Kern, 1995; Roberts, 1992), and • individual differences such as gender (Siebert, 2003) and personality (Furnham, Johnston & Rawles, 1985; Langston & Sykes, 1997).
Teachers’ beliefs may affect language teaching (& learning)
Example: • Assumed target: development of communicative competence (implies focus on meaning). • BUT: Note teacher feedback
Necessity to research on learner’s beliefs
• While teachers cannot tailor instruction to each belief of each student, and must out of necessity deal with groups of students, the investigation of beliefs which inform different behaviors in the language classroom is useful in making teachers aware of different learner types that need to be accommodated. (Horwitz (1999)
• Virtually all learners, particularly older learners, have strong beliefs about how their language instruction should be delivered.
• Learner beliefs are usually based on previous learning experiences and the assumption that a particular type of instruction is better than others.
beliefs cannot merely be observed or measured, but instead must be inferred by what individuals say, intend and do. Thus investigations into teachers’ beliefs entail inferring beliefs not only form the statements that teachers make about their beliefs, but also by examining teachers’ intentionality to behave in a particular way and ,then of course, what they actually do. (Johnson, 1994:440)
• The learner's previous learning experience is one of the sources. According to Little, Singleton, and Silvius (1984) learners' past experiences either in education, or in language learning in particular, play a major role in shaping the learners' attitudes to language learning. Certain personality traits may also generate learners' beliefs (Ellis, 1994). Tudor (1996, p. 53) states that learners' beliefs and expectations may result from not only their previous learning experiences, and certain personality traits, but also from `the unthinking acceptance of popular wisdom'.
Possible effects of students’ beliefs on language learning
• An unsuccessful learning experience may likely lead students to the conclusion that special abilities are required to learn a foreign language and that they do not possess these necessary abilities (Horwitz, 1987).
(Peacock 2001: 179)
Possible effects of students’ beliefs on language learning
• Students who believe, for example, that learning a language primarily involves learning new vocabulary will spend most of their energy on vocabulary awenku.baidu.comquisition, while older learners who believe in the superiority of younger learners probably begin language learning with fairly negative expectations of their own ultimate success.
The importance of beliefs
• Beliefs are a central construct in every discipline that deals with human behavior and learning (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen, 1988). • Beliefs about language learning influence language learning and language-teaching practices (Borg 1998, 1999, 2003; Peacock 2001).
T: What did you do yesterday? S: I played basketball. T: That’s correct. T: What time is it? S: Half past ten. T: Very good, Maria!