A Research On English Learning Beliefs Of Undergraduate Students In Application-oriented Universities

The Ministry of Education,the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance put forward the guidance in 2015 that it is of great importance to turn some local general undergraduate colleges and universities into application-oriented universities,aiming to train high-quality talents with practical competence and facilitate regional economic development.College English is an essential part of Chinese higher education system,with the purpose of cultivating students' communicative English to meet the needs of social and economic development.However,undergraduates in application-oriented colleges and universities in Guangxi at present have relatively lower learning efficiency,and fail to use English to express themselves freely.English learning beliefs have great effects on students' learning objectives,learning motivations,learning strategies and even learning results.Therefore,establishing realistic English learning beliefs is especially important for learners to improve their English communicative competence.On the basis of the above English learning problems,the present research focuses on English learning beliefs among undergraduates in application-oriented universities in Guangxi.With Metacognitive Theory and Constructivist View of Learning as the theoretical basis,the research tries to find out what English learning beliefs undergraduates have and the causes of their unrealistic English learning beliefs.Based on the results,the research also puts forward ways to help undergraduates build realistic English learning beliefs from the perspective of foreign language education planning.The research deals with the following three questions:(1)What is the overall situation of English learning beliefs held by undergraduates in application-oriented universities in Guangxi?(2)What are the contributing factors to the targeted learners' unrealistic English learning beliefs?(3)How to help the targeted learners establish realistic English learning beliefs from the perspective of foreign language education planning?A quantitative method is adopted to find answers to the first question.The undergraduates from Nanning University,Guangxi University of Finance andEconomics,as well as Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities are chosen as research targets and tested with “English Learning Beliefs Questionnaire for College Students” adapted from Horwitz's “Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory”,Wen Qiufang's “English Learning Situation Questionnaire” and Liang Yusong's“Academic Self-Efficacy Scale”.SPSS 17.0 is used as data analysis device and the results show that:(1)undergraduates tend to regard English learning as a process of learning vocabulary and grammar,ignoring the importance of learning language culture.Undergraduates believe that memorizing words and doing a great deal of exercises can improve their English,and also prefer to use mother tongue in English learning process.Undergraduates' English learning is mainly motivated by passing exams and finding jobs and they have low self-efficacy.(2)There are significant differences between freshmen and sophomores in the belief of nature of language learning,the belief of learning strategies and the belief of mother tongue.Compared with sophomores,the freshmen have more unrealistic English learning beliefs.(3)Low score groups of freshmen spend plenty of time learning words,grammar and sentence patterns in the textbooks,and use their mother tongue in reading,writing and translating activities.However,they believe that they aren't able to use English to communicate with others about both ethnic culture and knowledge and skills of their majors.A qualitative method is used to answer the second and third questions.First,based on the quantitative results,the research chooses three freshmen as case study objects and explores the contributing factors of their English learning beliefs from the following three aspects: previous learning experiences,social environment and family life,and college English learning experience.Second,semi-structured interview is also used to find contributing factors of undergraduates' English learning beliefs from teachers' perspectives and to provide data support for the third question.Findings reveal that language teaching model,language environment,curriculum setting and evaluation methods are the four contributing factors.Based on the above findings,we believe that it is urgent to help undergraduates establish realistic English learning beliefs from the perspective of foreign language education planning.Foreign language education planning as a field of language planning,emphasizes the role of language education policy made by the government playing in solving problems appearing during foreign language teaching and learning process.As English learning beliefs mirror learning situations and teaching reality,foreign language education planning is effective in helping learners establish realistic English learning beliefs.The research suggests that there are mainly four ways to help undergraduates in application-oriented universities in Guangxi establish realistic English learning beliefs:(1)to set up college English curriculum more connected with that of high school,making college English learning objectives clear and specific;(2)to develop English textbooks with both ethnic culture and foreign culture;(3)to establish a diverse evaluation system mainly based on undergraduates' communicative competence;(4)to provide teachers with professional skill training programs.Based on the findings,the research also designs a model to help undergraduates establish realistic English learning beliefs.These measures are not only effective in helping undergraduates establish realistic English learning beliefs and improving their communicative competence,but also in meeting the demands of regional social and economic development for talents with practical competence.