Learners’ Belief Changes about Language Learning

Abstract

The present study examines university students’ beliefs about language learning. Beliefs have been considered as an important factor affecting the process of language learning. In fact, this paper investigates changes in the learners’ beliefs during the course of one semester. Data were gathered through the administration of Horwitz’s (1988) BALLI questionnaire. Descriptive statics were applied to precisely analyze the quantitative data. The results of students’ responses to the questionnaire items revealed that Iranian university students had a positive attitude regarding learning English in that it can provide an appropriate job conditions for them. One highlighting point in terms of their beliefs change included their attitude toward the difficulty of learning English that, at the end of the term, over half of them held this belief that English is a difficult language in comparison with the beginning of the term, which nearly less than one third of the learners had this sort of belief considering English as a difficult language. The findings seem to alert our teachers to adopt an appropriate approach regarding their students’ initial realistic beliefs about language learning to help the learners remove their simplistic beliefs and finally may reach to better results at the end of the term.