This study investigates African-American college students’ beliefs about foreign language learning, foreign language anxiety, motivations for language learning, and the extent to which the racial composition of a campus environment plays a role in those factors. 571 students across four universities completed three survey instruments: modified versions of the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (Horwitz, 1986), the Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand et al., 1992) respectively, the Foreign Language Classroom Academic Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986), and three open-ended questions on being African-American and learning a foreign language. Findings noted that one of three motivation factors for language learning was significantly different for campus environment. Post-hoc analyses indicated that participants at HBCUs were less likely to be the least motivated by short-term extrinsic goals for learning a foreign language than those at a PWI. African-American participants reported higher levels of foreign language anxiety than mixed groups of participants in previous studies and there were no significant differences in foreign language anxiety regarding campus environment and gender; but, there were significant differences for academic classification and the individual universities. Two of three motivation factors correlated with foreign language anxiety. Long Term Intrinsic: Discovery and Satisfaction—had a positive relationship with anxiety only at Predominantly White Institutions (PWI), whereas, Short Term Extrinsic: Minimal Investment had a negative relationship with foreign language anxiety at both PWIs and HBCUs, This factor also had the highest relationship with anxiety. The beliefs analysis indicated that African-American college students across campus environments displayed more similarities in their beliefs about foreign language learning than differences. Findings also noted few differences when compared to prior studies with other language learner groups. The belief category “African-American Expectations,” noted that African-Americans strongly believe that they are capable of learning a foreign language, and that learning a foreign language would benefit them in the future. The open-ended questions provided a wide range of perspectives to several of the beliefs about language learning, as well as motivation and anxiety from African-American college students. One major theme that emerged from the analysis focused on pressures African-American students face in the foreign language classroom. / text

In the field of second and foreign language learning, beliefs, as one of the affective factors, remain relatively unexplored. Failure to address unrealistic student beliefs and expectations may increase student anxiety (Truitt, 1995; Young, 1991), hinder progress, and ultimately lead to a breakdown in learning (Ellis, 1996; Horwitz, 1985, 1987, 1988; Mantle-Bromley, 1995; Peacock, 1999). This study investigates the beliefs about language learning of first year university students in Japan, employing the Japanese language questionnaire developed by Sakui and Gaies (1999). Two student discussion groups were also formed to provide further data. In addition to describing student beliefs, the study explores differences between student beliefs and teacher beliefs, change in student beliefs during a course of study, and relationships between student beliefs and second language proficiency. A total of 661 first year students, and 34 of their class teachers, participated in this study, at a private Japanese university, between April 2002 and January 2003. Data were analysed using Pearson correlation, Cronbach’s alpha, t-tests, and a principal components factor analysis. The students in the study appear to hold a variety of beliefs, to varying degrees. Significant differences were found between student responses and teacher responses for more than half of the questionnaire items, with the four main areas of difference relating to translation, error correction, the difficulty of language learning, and motivation. In terms of belief change, significant differences were found in student responses to almost a quarter of the questionnaire items between two administrations in April and December, 2002. Some differences were also identified between the beliefs of students based on their proficiency scores, but the results here are inconclusive. This study contributes to the growing understanding of the role of beliefs in language learning. Further studies of other student groups, at other institutions in Japan, will enable a comparison of results to help produce a clearer picture of the beliefs and expectations about language learning of students at Japanese universities.

To understand learners’ beliefs about language learning and strategy use in an EFL exit test environment, this study investigated Taiwanese university students’ language learning beliefs; EFL exit test beliefs; language learning, test-preparation, and test-taking strategies; the relationships among their beliefs and strategy use; and the differences in students’ beliefs and strategy use according to their major, gender, grade level, entrance exam English score, and EFL exit test experience. A total of 518 Taiwanese university students participated in the questionnaire study. Two major instruments were developed and used to measure students’ beliefs and strategy use in the Taiwanese EFL exit test context: (1) the Belief about Language Learning in an EFL Exit test Context (BALLIEETC), and (2) the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning in an EFL Exit test Context (SILLEETC). Analysis of the questionnaire data involved descriptive statistics, factor analysis, canonical correlation analysis, and multivariate analysis of variance. The questionnaire results suggested the following: (1) students believed in the importance of speaking English well, repeating and practicing, learning vocabulary words, acquiring excellent pronunciation, and correcting errors; (2) students primarily used memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, test-preparation, and test-taking strategies to learn English, prepare for the EFL exit test, and take the test; (3) students’ beliefs were associated with their strategy use; (4) English majors had stronger beliefs and higher levels of strategy use than non-English majors; (5) students with higher entrance exam English scores had stronger beliefs and higher levels of strategy use than those of lower scores; (6) college seniors believed more in foreign language aptitude and use test-taking strategies more often than freshmen; (7) students who had taken and passed an EFL exit test had stronger beliefs and higher levels of strategy use than those who had not taken a test. The results of this study support an association between learners’ beliefs and strategy use. Understanding students’ beliefs about language learning and the EFL exit test, as well as their use of language-learning, test-preparation, and test-taking strategies, may enable EFL teachers to help students develop effective language learning, test-preparation, and test-taking strategies and improve their English abilities and EFL exit test performance. The field of second language acquisition may also benefit from insights into students’ beliefs and their use of strategies in an EFL exit test environment. The EFL exit test may affect students’ beliefs about language learning and strategy use, such as their having stronger beliefs about the importance of vocabulary and higher levels of memory strategy use. / text

This study compared strategy use and beliefs about language learning, and the relationship between beliefs and use reported by 428 monolingual Korean and 420 bilingual Korean-Chinese university students. This study also examined the influence of background variables (e.g., gender, self-rated English proficiency, and academic major) on learners' beliefs and strategy use. Data was collected using three questionnaires, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), and the Individual Background Questionnaire (IBQ). Data were analyzed using descriptive analyses, principal-component analyses, factor analyses, Pearson r correlation analyses, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and the Scheffé post-hoc test. Monolinguals reported using compensation strategies most, followed by cognitive, metacognitive, memory, social/practical practice, and affective strategies. Bilinguals preferred to use cognitive strategies most, followed by metacognitive and affective, compensation, memory, social, and independent practice strategies. Students from both groups reported low use of social and memory strategies. Despite a less favorable formal English education environment in the Korean-Chinese community and fewer English learning experiences, bilingual Korean-Chinese reported higher use of learning strategies, which indicates bilinguals' superior language learning abilities. Students from both groups had strong instrumental motivation for learning English. Bilinguals held stronger beliefs about the importance of formal learning and felt less fear of speaking English with native English speakers. Significant correlations between strategy and belief variables indicated differences in the impact of beliefs on strategy use for both groups. The result of the MANOVA revealed that bilingual humanities or engineering majors used more strategies and held stronger beliefs about formal learning. Proficiency level was positively correlated with strategy use for both groups. No gender effect on strategy use and beliefs was found. The assumption that differences in the learning experiences of the participants from two distinct geographical and socio-educational learning settings would influence the findings of this study was upheld.

Learner beliefs, which contribute to attitude and motivation, may affect language learning. It is therefore valuable to investigate the malleability of learner beliefs, and to determine whether potentially detrimental beliefs can be ameliorated. This study examines how instruction of the principles of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) affects students' beliefs about classroom activities and their beliefs about language learning in general. The 68 first-year German students at Brigham Young University who participated in this study were asked to rate the effectiveness of three activities typical of communicative language teaching: Dialogue activities, Peer Interview activities, and Information-gap activities. They were also asked to respond to 11 statements about language learning, seven of which were taken from the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory(Horwitz, 1988). Students responded to the survey three times: once during the first week of the semester, again during the fourth week, and again during the eighth week. During the four weeks between the second and third surveys, students in the experimental group received seven treatment lessons based on some of the basic principles of SLA. A Repeated Measures ANCOVA and a Logistical Regression were used to determine the effects of the treatment, time, and a number of demographic variables. Results of this study show that the treatment did not have a significant effect on any of the beliefs that were measured. However, one language learning belief was significantly affected by time. A majority of the students who participated in this study agreed with the statement, “The instructor should teach the class in German.” After three weeks of class instruction, however, they agreed with this statement significantly stronger. The results of this study also show that many of the demographic variables, such as gender and previous language learning experience, had a significant effect on a number of the students' beliefs.