Language Learners' Beliefs: Development and Change

Abstract

This longitudinal study was designed to provide an orderly account of how beliefs about English language learning develop among seven Japanese high school students, identify beliefs that are beneficial and interfering for language learning and the routes by which these beliefs are reached, and identify belief changes and their sources. Beliefs are defined as a cognitive representation about self and the world. They are situated in experiences and social context. Learner beliefs pertain to many aspects of language learning and come from multiple sources, including educational background, experience living overseas, peers, teachers, and persons met in chance encounters. The data for the study were collected from seven students attending a Japanese public high school. Beginning when the students were first-year high school students (10th graders), the data, which were drawn from in-depth interviews, journals, written reports, observations, and school records, form a qualitative multiple-case-study. Data gathering ended when the students chose a university in the third year of high school. There were five major findings. First, learners develop and modify their beliefs based on their life experiences inside and outside the classroom. This finding suggests that providing learning experiences is important, but teachers should be aware that learners with different learning backgrounds and personal traits will likely respond to those experiences differently. Experiences that most influence learners’ beliefs seem to be those that learners choose themselves. Second, beliefs are usually implicit, and thus, learners are not always aware of their beliefs until they are asked to verbalize them. Thus, one role for researchers and teachers is to find effective ways to elicit learner beliefs and make them explicit. Third, beliefs can be placed in three categories: beneficial beliefs, indeterminate beliefs, and interfering beliefs. Beneficial beliefs enhance learners’ motivation to learn, while interfering beliefs concern negative thoughts that hinder them from learning and from engaging in challenging tasks. Indeterminate beliefs can be either beneficial or interfering depending on the context in which they occur. Those beliefs are context-sensitive; thus, they are not necessarily shared by all learners. Individual learners have different beneficial and interfering beliefs depending on their learning context. Fourth, adolescent learners’ beliefs change over time because adolescents are in the process of growing and changing physically and mentally. This suggests that there is great potential for modifying their beliefs in positive ways. Fifth, learners develop personal theories about learning based on their beliefs. Considering that learners behave according to their theories of learning, eliciting learners’ beliefs can bring benefits for researchers and teachers because they can anticipate learners’ behavior by knowing their beliefs.