A Correlation Study On Senior One Students’ Beliefs,Styles And Achievements In English Learning

Since1970s, researchers in the field of psychology, educational psychology as well as second language acquisition gradually realized that learners’individual differences can affect their learning achievement significantly, thus many scholars transformed their research focus on individual differences. There are many variables which included in learners’individual differences, while learning beliefs and learning styles are the two most important. There is no denying that many researchers at home and abroad have made numerous studies to these two variables, however, most of the studies centered on the two variables independently or their relationship with other variables. It’s seldom to find studies which consisted of the two variables together. Besides, the subjects of the previous studies are mostly college students.The present study chooses60senior one students of Shenzhen Song Gang middle school as subjects. As we all know that senior one is a linking phase from junior school to senior high school. Therefore, it can lead to crucial influence on students’future learning.The study expects to find some valuable suggestions for English teachers and future studies through investigating senior one students’preconceived language learning beliefs and preferred English learning styles, the differences between high-proficiency group and low-proficiency group in terms of learning beliefs and learning styles as well as the correlation between learning beliefs, learning styles and English achievement.The main instruments of this study are questionnaires of Horwtiz’s BALLI (Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory) and Oxford’s SAS (Style Analysis Survey), interviews are as complement. After collecting the data, the author analyzed them by descriptive statistics, independent T-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient through SPSS19.0. To sum up, the results are as following:(1) The English learning beliefs of senior one students are various. They also share some similarities:they regard English as a medium difficulty; they think grammar and vocabulary are the two most important parts of English learning; they owe strong English learning motivation. Compared with low-proficiency group, the author found that students with high proficiency are more confident. They are risk-takers. Students with low proficiency think that English is a difficult language, and they worry to make mistakes.(2) As for learning styles, the author found that most of senior one student are visual learners and extroverts. Besides, they are intuitive, closure-oriented and global/analytic learners. Furthermore, There are no significant differences between high-and low proficiency group, except visual learning styles.(3) There exists significant correlation among learning beliefs, learning style and learning, and both learning beliefs and learning styles can affect the learning outcomes. However, the relationship between learning beliefs and learning styles are weak.In light of the above, the results can provide some theoretical suggestions for English education and future studies. Certainly, there also exist some deficiencies in this research, such as the scale of the subjects, the author is readiness to accept comments and guidance.