Effects Of English Learning Beliefs On Senior High School Students' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition:An Empirical Study

Language learning beliefs is one of the important individual factors that influence learners' learning behavior and outcomes.So far,many researchers have studied English learning beliefs from different aspects.However,most of these research focused on beliefs about English learning in general.Studies of effects of language learning beliefs on learning behavior and outcomes are fewer.Incidental vocabulary acquisition is an important way to learn new words.However,few studies explored the effects of English learning beliefs---one learner factor---on incidental English vocabulary acquisition---one learning process.Based on the previous studies,the present research adopts Input Hypothesis,Noticing Hypothesis and Social Cognitive Theory,and specifies the following two questions:1)What are the effects of English learning beliefs on incidental vocabulary acquisition of different genders for senior high school students?2)What are the effects of English learning beliefs on incidental vocabulary acquisition of different proficiency levels for senior high school students?121 Grade 11 participants from a senior high school took part in this research.According to their gender and language proficiency,they were divided into four groups.They took part in the incidental vocabulary acquisition test and the questionnaire about English learning beliefs.Eight participants took part in the semi-structured interview.The data generated the following findings:1)In general,females possess more positive and realistic English learning beliefs.They are more confident about their ability of learning English vocabulary,in the meanwhile,and more willing to communicate with others.Therefore,females can acquire more words incidentally through using English.Male students are more motivated by instrumental motivation to learn English and tend to learn English vocabulary by rote.Therefore,they do worse than female students with respect to incidental vocabulary acquisition.2)High proficiency level students are more tolerant of mistakes,and good at guessing meanings of the new words.Therefore,they do better in acquiring vocabulary.Low proficiency level students tend to believe that English vocabulary is difficult to learn.The lack of efficient vocabulary learning strategies causes more difficulty of using the known information to acquire new words.The findings indicated that different groups of senior high school students hold different English learning beliefs,but incidental vocabulary acquisition is an effective way.Students' English learning beliefs can be improved to achieve better vocabulary learning effect.The study still has limitations in investigating English learning beliefs.Future studies may attempt diachronic and dynamic research to reveal the role that changing language learning beliefs may play in incidental vocabulary acquisition.