A Study Of English Learning Beliefs And Their Over-time Changes:A Perspective Of Sociocultural Theory

The importance of foreign language learning beliefs in foreign language learning has been widely acknowledged. However, most of the studies in this area have been focused on the investigation of the types of beliefs and the relationship among language learning beliefs, learning strategies, motivation as well as learning achievement. Very few of them were empirical studies on the dynamic nature of language learning beliefs, let alone theoretical interpretations. To overcome the limitations of previous studies, this study intends to examine the over-time changes of Chinese students’beliefs in English learning from senior high school to university and provide a theoretical interpretation by referring to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed in this study. Data were collected through students’weekly journals, semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire on learner beliefs. Thirty-four English major freshmen from Shandong University participated into this study as respondents of a one-year longitudinal questionnaire survey and sixteen of them were chosen as the writers of weekly journals and some of them as semi-structured interviewees. The qualitative data were coded by means of Atlas.ti software and quantitative data were analyzed with the software of SPSS (Version17.0).The findings of the study indicate that the students’beliefs about English learning have changed compared with those when they were in senior high school, though to different extents. Among all the beliefs emerged from the data, beliefs about learners’ autonomy, learning strategies and motivation show the most significant changes, followed by beliefs about the nature and the difficulty of English learning; with the least changed beliefs as those about attribution to English learning, self-efficacy and the long term of English learning. As for the causes, the change in learning environment, particularly the learning goal being no longer college entrance examination, is the main reason leading to changes in English learning beliefs. In addition, environmental changes together with other external factors such as changes in learning modes, teachers’influence and peer influence constantly affect and change students’English learning beliefs through their internal adjustment and internalization. Although students’beliefs were found to have become more positive after they entered university, some of them are still in a confused mode and even detrimental that needs the attention of English teachers and school administrators.In light of the findings above, the study discussed its implications to the school administrators, English teachers and English learners. It concluded that individuals interact with external influences through mediation and internalization and gradually change their learning beliefs and learning behaviors. Therefore, school administrators and English teachers should participate more in freshmen’s mediation process with the new college environment so as to facilitate students to adapt to college English learning as soon as possible. Finally, the limitations of the study are pointed out and suggestions for further studies in this field are presented.