Beliefs and Concepts Brought by the Learners in Efl Class: an Observation at Undergraduate Level in Bangladesh

Introduction:

Visions brought by the learners usually reflect their expectations from the teacher and the course as well in an EFL class. These beliefs have not only particular bases but also precise controls over the manners, approaches and activities that also comprise learners’ attitude to performance and motivation for cooperating teaching techniques and acclimatizing learning strategies. Beliefs work as implied presumptions to be applied while learning. Moreover, in case of these beliefs being dissimilar from those of the teacher and remaining unadjusted and unnoticed, whole of the teaching and learning effort might go in vain. A shared attempt of the learners and the teacher to have their views and expectations accommodated and assimilated can work for successful classroom learning.

In the context of foreign language learning, beliefs held by students can relate to, inter alia, the nature of the language under study, its relative difficulty, the usefulness of various learning strategies, the length of time it takes to acquire a foreign language, the existence of language aptitude, the effects of age and gender on second/foreign language acquisition, among others. Consequently, they have the potential to either hinder or promote the learners' ultimate success in the acquisition of a new language and reduce the length of time committed to language learning.

Literature review:

Some of the linguists think that in the past two decades extensive research in second and foreign language learning and teaching was devoted to beliefs that language learners – and language teachers – hold. Wenden (2001) argues that while considerable amount of research has so far been conducted in the language acquisition area, that foreign and second language learner beliefs, so far, been a neglected variable.



In the 1980s, Horwitz designed an instrument to assess students’ beliefs about learning a new language, which she called the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI). Horwitz conducted her research among students and instructors at the University of Texas at Austin. Subsequent studies employed Horwitz’s instrument for inquiries abroad. For example, Yang (1992) explored beliefs about language learning among English language students at six Taiwanese universities; Park (1995) investigated beliefs of English language learners at two universities in Korea; Truitt (1995) also conducted her study in Korea among Yonsei University students learning English. Kuntz (1996) included learners of Arabic and Swahili in her studies. Smith (1989) and Tumposky (1991) investigated beliefs of Russian language learners. Kern (1995) used Horwitz’s model to assess beliefs of students learning French. Bacon and Finneman (1990) surveyed beliefs of Spanish language students. Mori (1999) concentrated on learners of Japanese.

To gain a better understanding of learner beliefs and their role in language acquisition, researchers have investigated a number of variables in relation to these beliefs. Recent studies have examined learners' beliefs about language learning for their relationship to factors such as strategy use (Yang, 1999); anxiety (Tsai, 2004; Kunt, 1998; Banya & Chen, 1997); motivation (Kim-Yoon, 2000; Banya & Chen, 1997); learner autonomy (Cotterall, 1995; Wenden, 1991); attitude (Banya & Chen, 1997); achievement (Banya & Chen, 1997); gender (Bacon & Finnemann, 1992; Siebert, 2003; Banya & Chen, 1997), personality traits (Bernat, 2006); and language proficiency (Huang & Tsai, 2003; Peacock, 1998, 1999; Mantle-Bromley, 1995; Tanaka & Ellis, 2003). These studies have produced important insights. For example, they found that learners who held unrealistic beliefs or misconceptions about language learning were more anxious than those who held more positive and realistic beliefs. Moreover, these beliefs have links to proficiency - the more proficient learners were, the more realistic and/or positive were the reported beliefs. Finally, statistically significant differences were found among some beliefs with respect to gender (Siebert, 2003).

It has been recognized that beliefs about language learning are context-specific and learners from different cultures may have different attitudes, approaches to and opinions about learning a new language



What are called the beliefs of learners?

Learners’ beliefs which are the impeller or driving forces facilitating language learning and intellectual performances belong to the domain of affective factors that concern the emotional responses aroused by the attempts to learn an L2. Attitude, motivation, anxiety etc. are integrated in the domain of affective variables.



Beliefs, as Richardson (1996, p.103) labels, ‘are the psychologically held understandings, premises or propositions about the world that are felt to be true’ and ‘act as strong filters of reality’ (Arnold, 1999).Beliefs are a central construct in every discipline that deals with human behavior and learning (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen, 1988).

Beliefs about language learning consist of “general assumptions that students hold about themselves as learners, about factors influence language learning and about the nature of language learning and teaching” (Victori & Lockhart1995:224 and Flavell 1979).From the perspective of cognitive psychology, beliefs about language learning include all that individuals understand about themselves as learners and thinkers, including their goals and needs. Flavell (1979, 1981) calls this as ‘metacognitive knowledge’ or ‘personal knowledge’. Wenden (1999) views beliefs as separate from metacognitive knowledge, because beliefs are the information about learning that the learners acquire and these are ‘value related and tend to be held more tenaciously’.



Besides, depending on one’s theoretical perspective learners’ beliefs have been defined in many other ways which includes ‘mini-theories’(Hosenfield,1978), ‘insights’(Omaggio,1978), ‘culture of learning’ (Contazzi&Jin,1996), ‘learner assumptions’(Riley,1980), ‘implicit theories’ (Clark,1988), ‘self constructed-representational systems’ (Rust, 1994), and ‘conceptions of learning’(Benson & Lore, 1999).



What are the sources of learners’ beliefs?

Along with the prior and current experiences, language learners grip a set of beliefs derived from a variety of issues. According to Wenden (1991b:12-13), learners form self schemata relating their capabilities, limitations, degree of personal control over academic achievement, reasons for success and failure, expectations for the success etc. and ‘schemata’ originates from mother culture(Alexander & Dochy, 1995), family and home background (Dias, 2000; Schommer, 1990, 1994), classroom and social peers(Arnold, 1999), repetitive experiences(Little, Singleton & Slivius, 1984; Gaoyin & Alvermann, 1995; Kern, 1995; Roberts, 1992), individual differences such as gender (Siebert, 2003) and personality (Furnham, Johnston & Rawles, 1985; Langston & Sykes, 1997) and self fulfilling prophecies.



Learners’ previous and ongoing experiences in education are the greatest source of their beliefs (Little, Singleton, and Silvious, 1984). Methodologies and strategies used for teaching and learning practice is a universal variable that influence their beliefs. For example, if a learner is not introduced with listening practice, he will never be able to think of the necessity of listening in their language learning though they have to face difficulty in reproducing because of that.



Learners’ own personality is also a root of their beliefs. For example, an extrovert learner looks at the necessity of a second language from the view of a social correspondent and prefers communicative strategies for learning. On the other hand, an introvert one might consider the necessity from a view with purposes like jobs or higher studies and prefers grammar studies and problem solving exercises and enjoy tracking down ideas and developing principles on their own. Gender is also a crucial variable for determining beliefs about language and learning because there are some certain differences between the purposes and usage of language of a male learner and that of a female learner. Types of motivation may also vary for that as female learners are frequently found to have integrative motivation while male learners are often instrumentally motivated.



Social context is another source of learners’ beliefs because the culture of a society has a large impact on the perception of the value of a target language. For example, if a learner attempts to learn an L2 in a country where it is still a foreign language and the exposure at home and community is limited; he might neither be highly encouraged nor have integrative motivation to learn it. On the other hand, if the learning takes place in the target culture, his perceptions and purposes will definitely be focused (Spolsky, 1988, p.51 & Tumposky, 1991).



Previous schooling is an important condition of generating particular beliefs. For example, some learners may come from a remote area where English teaching in the schools is not in a proper or approximate line and the teachers often fail to deal with the learners’ affective factors accurately and to utilize proper methodology. In this case, learners must have some wearisome views about English learning. On the other hand, a learner coming from an institution using advanced teaching method of English views it as an agreeable process.



ESP students at Undergraduate level in our country are often diverse in their economic backgrounds which have an undeviating power over the learning and teaching facilities available to the learners. Some highly motivated and meritorious learners can overcome the drawbacks rooted from poor economic background. But the common scenario is that the second language competence and performance of the learners from such background are not always up to the mark because of having less exposure.



Although the learners come from diverse backgrounds sometimes with some inconsistent beliefs, they have several common needs in this level. Ellis (1994) believes that ‘the study of learners' beliefs constitutes an important area of inquiry’ because these actually work as ‘a sort of logic, determining--consciously or unconsciously--what they do to help themselves to learn English' (Wenden, 1986, p. 4).



Why are the beliefs of the learners important?

The beliefs of the learners at this stage are rather conceived as they have already stridden an extended way of learning English (at secondary and higher secondary level) and are to reach almost an advanced level of proficiency. Their observations might also reveal the difficulties in teaching and learning at their preceding levels.

Breen (2001) has recognized the insights of learners as ‘a significant contributory factor’ in the teaching process and the ultimate success. ‘Identification of these beliefs and reflections on their potential impact on language learning and teaching in general, as well as in more specific areas such as the learners’ expectations and strategies used, can inform future syllabus design and teacher practice in the course’ (Eva Bernat & Inna Gvozenko , 2005 ).



Assessing beliefs that language learners bring to the language classroom is important for both language instructors and curriculum designers because “beliefs are predispositions to action” (Rokeach, 1968, p. 113). Educational psychology supports the proposition of the importance of beliefs that learners hold as a defining factor of their learning behavior. Pintrich and DeGroot (1990) assume that the students who consider their study interesting and important are more actively engaged in the learning process and more persevering in their academic work. In addition, instructors need to know their audience in order to arrange the classroom procedure in the most effective way for learning.



This means that discovery and indication of learners’ beliefs pave a method with balanced need-based aroma in the language classes. Consequently a language teacher might get appropriate estimate of the necessary teaching strategies and techniques to be utilized there. Besides, he may perhaps have a chance to amend his beliefs and that of the learners which lead to a congenial and anxiety free classroom. Of course, here the responsibility of eradicating and revising their misconceptions and elevate them to the real ones rests upon the teachers.



Methodology used in this study:

The findings presented in this paper carried out at the Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU) with the participation of 25 ESP learners of undergraduate level. English is taught as compulsory minor subject as university requirement. The learners have to complete a course named ‘Foundation English’ that focuses on the real-life use of four skills of the language separately during the first term. The subjects coming from different parts of the country read in the departments of Pharmacy, CSTE, ACCT and FIMS. They are students of 1st year 1st term having educational background with national curriculum in Bengali medium.



Data of the study have been gathered by administering a questionnaire and by conducting an interview. The questionnaire includes two parts: the first part is to collect the information about the learners’ background and the other part incorporates their beliefs about English language learning. Interested students have been given a brief, informative oral overview of the nature and purpose of the study.



The subjects have been chosen randomly. The authors have been ensured about the representation with this number of students. Individual and group interviews have been taken very much carefully. The purpose of the interviews has been explained comprehensively to each of the students in the class room. Then they were motivated also to the fact that all of these steps have been to make the teaching modes more effective, beneficial and satisfactory for them, before they are provided with the questionnaire. They have taken some time to think on the questions set and to write down their opinion. The students have been found wholehearted enough during interviews. All data are analyzed manually.



How and what are the beliefs of the learners?

Beliefs about the status and nature of the target language: These are an important category as directly relate to their curiosity to learning the language and their ease to do so. Students might have explicit views about English. Some of these are like ‘it has created a communicative world’, ‘it is tough to learn but not impossible’, ‘learning English is nothing but a thing to practice’, ‘English is a turning point of one’s career’, ‘speakers of English are smart and conscious parsons’, ‘native speakers are too much fast to be understood’ ‘pronunciation and expressions make English difficult’, ‘speaking and listening is more difficult than reading or writing’ ‘grammar is the most difficult part to learn’, ‘writing is comparatively easier’ etc. These views have importance as they influence their approaches to language learning very directly.



Beliefs about language learning: Wenden (1986, p.4) points out that learners belief system influences their approach to learning in terms of the types of strategies they use, what they like to attend to, the criteria they use to evaluate the effectiveness of learning activities and of the social context where they practice language etc. For example, if learners have different purposes or goals of learning they may show different perceptions of what is easy and difficult in language learning. They may also have different strategies because of their different expectations from the language learning.



Some specific assumptions about learning activities and route to be successful might include: ‘understanding and learning grammar rules regularly are quit important’, ‘listening is more important for the weaker learners’, ‘watching movies, listening to news and CDs are necessary to improve listening skill’, ‘useful vocabulary should be memorized or learn everyday’, ‘I know the importance but feel shy to converse in English’, ‘practicing speaking with friends is a good way of developing speaking’, ‘reading English newspaper, magazine or novel is needed but it’s difficult to understand every words’, ‘I like to guess the meaning only’.



Growing body of researches suggest that learners’ beliefs not only influence the approaches to learning but also affect the way they respond to the teaching and learning activities. They may feel discontented or discouraged if the employed teaching method differs from what they believe to be helpful for successful learning. As Horwitz (1987, p. 119) says, ‘When language classes fail to meet students’ expectations, students can lose confidence in the instructional approach and their ultimate achievement can be limited’.



Approach to teaching and learning strategies: Cotteral (1995) finds that learners’ beliefs are important particularly in planning for autonomy that is ‘the extents to which learners demonstrate the ability to use a set of tactics for taking control of learning’ (p.195) and assumes that all learning behaviors are governed by beliefs and experiences. Learners have a very critical psychological mechanism to outline their proceedings in line with the beliefs.



By the time the students come to a university, they have been exposed to many hours of English teaching from a number of teachers. So they must have already formed some definite concepts about effective or ineffective teaching and learning according to their own experience and efficiency that they gained from those classes. As they express about their expectations: ‘Teachers should explain the grammar rules with examples’, ‘I expect a friendly environment in a language class so that I can tell my problems’, ‘teachers should let us talk to each other’, ‘teachers have to correct our mistakes while speaking’, ‘we should write at least a page everyday day on any topic and get it checked by the teacher’, ‘teachers should cooperate with the students while doing any activities’ , ‘teachers should converse with the learners ’, ‘he/she has to know about the weakness of every individual learner’, ‘ teachers can dictate in the class, etc.

A lucid difference can be drawn in this regard. An extrovert learner likes to use active and direct means of taking in and processing information. He likes variety and a constant change of pace and likes to be physically involved in learning. He demands personal feedback and interaction, and learns well from discussion and group activities. Conversely, introvert learners prefer analytical style and are independent. Such learners prefer a logical, systematic presentation of new leaning material with opportunities for learners to follow up on their own. (Richards, Jack C. & Lockhart Charles (1996).That is learners’ beliefs have a direct part on their cognitive styles.

In addition, a number of writers have examined learners' belief systems in relation to communication strategies. Grotjahn (1991) contends that learners’ beliefs about language learning influence their choice of particular linguistic information, their communication strategies and their second language use.



Approaches to own ability and goal of learning: Each and every learner has specific estimations about his/her own abilities as an English language learner that we find in the comments like: ‘I’m not so good in learning English because I can’t speak correctly’, ‘I am not good and not bad; I can’t understand anybody speaking English fluently’, ‘I am afraid of speaking to others’, ‘grammars are very difficult to be used appropriately’. Each of the 25 students believe that he/she is not very good though can do well if practice properly.



Although most of the beliefs are often related to past experiences, they also contribute to future behavior. Puchta (1999:257) opines that learners are directly influenced by their perception of success in learning and their levels of expectancy. Success is not only possible but also probable (Stern, 1994 p.24) if the expectations are high and the efforts are of high level.



Even though our learners’ beliefs about their goals often adjust with that of the curriculum, some are more specific about it: ‘I want to speak well as I will work in multinational company’, ‘ I want to read and write correctly in order to study abroad’, ‘ I have to do well in all four skills to appear in IELTS exam’, ‘my hobby is to contact with the foreigners, so want to speak fluently’, ‘I want to work in media and talk smartly in English’. It’s noticeable that all of them are goal oriented English language learners and these goals and objectives direct them to prefer some strategies or to avoid some in most cases.



So, we find that being either explicit or implicit, ‘affective attachments’ have ‘a pervasive influence on their academic learning, thinking, reasoning and problem solving’. It has also been noted that successful and even unsuccessful language learners develop insightful beliefs about the nature of language under study, its relative difficulty, language learning processes, their own abilities, use of effective learning strategies and the existence of language aptitude.



Discussions:

It is not to establish that all of the perceptions of the students are to be accredited or taken as standard as some of them may possibly be erroneous or inconsistent with the principles underlying teaching materials and activities. According to Eva Bernatt & Rosemarie Lloyed (2007), along with the beliefs that have a facilitative effect on learning, “students can have ‘mistaken’, uniformed or negative beliefs, which may lead to a reliance on less effective strategies, resulting in a negative attitude towards learning and autonomy (Victory & Lockhart, 1995), classroom anxiety (Hortwitz, et al., 1986), and poor cognitive performance (Reid & Hresko 1982; Anstey 1988)”.



Horwitz (1988) reports that ‘the majority of the students believe that if they make mistakes at the beginning, they will never get rid of this’ or ‘some of them think that it is important to speak with an excellent accent’. We also find that ‘some learners feel shy to talk thinking of their mistakes’ and ‘their mistakes should be corrected while speaking’. The conflict here is that mistakes are often permitted in SLA as corrections may harm their motivation especially if the mistakes are quite frequent.



Such conflicts between learners’ beliefs and those of the teachers might result in lack of self-confidence, dissatisfaction, frustration, anxiety and lack of motivation of the learners. Finally that ‘can lead the students to undervaluing learning activities assigned by the teachers’ (Richards, 2000) and this gets on the way to the estimated outcomes of both the teachers and the learners.



A thorough analysis of the findings mentioned above evidences for:

• English, from the aspect of any one of the four skills, is somehow difficult for a learner or another.

• There are wide differences in their preferred strategies, though all of the troubles are related.

• Most of them have a very high estimate about the status of the language and the speakers of this language. They aspire to learn it too and this usually reflects their moderate level of motivation to learn the language but not a high one because of individual drawbacks.

• Their beliefs about language learning depict that they are quite aware of the ways of learning. What is more obvious is that they, in spite of being aware, often avoid attempting to do so because of low motivation which might rise from no feelings of emergency.

• We got more comments for “learning and teaching strategy” than any other. It shows that they like to depend on teaching, teachers, and the class. They want to be taught by the teacher, not to learn.

• They have different goals and objectives which lead them to choose different techniques to learn and define the necessity of learning.

• None of them showed confidence of being sufficient in all four skills and they require a need based teaching.



It’s none but the language teacher who are to restructure the learners’ beliefs towards their needs. No doubt, being a very challenging task, it requires particular expertise and preparations on the part of the teacher. They have to create successful language class by designing and implementing the teaching activities capable of changing flawed viewpoints and attitude. It actually works automatically if the learners find their performance improved.



Bassano (1986; 15) offers the teachers six steps towards dealing with student beliefs:

a. becoming aware of students’ past classroom experiences and their assumptions about language learning;

b. building students’ confidence;

c. beginning where the students are and move slowly;

d. showing them achievement;

e. allowing for free choice as much as possible;

f. becoming aware of the students’ interests and concerns, their goals and objectives.

Furthermore, Dörnyei (2001) believes that in order to rectify students' erroneous assumptions they:

(a) need to develop an informed understanding of the nature of second language acquisition and reasonable criteria for progress;

(b) should be made aware of the fact that the mastery of a second or foreign language can be achieved in a number of different ways, using diverse strategies; and

(c) a key factor leading to success is for learners to discover for themselves the methods and techniques by which they learn best.

Some more ‘aspects of classroom persuasion’ might be recommended for attempts to change unworkable attitude and beliefs of the learners:



a. Understanding the proficiency level and necessity accurately in general as the groups are often heterogeneous and designing teaching materials, strategies and test formats with a view to fitting them best.

b. Prioritizing their practical needs and goals for successful performance and thus turning their efforts to self-assistances.

c. Teaching content and activities must require active participation of the learners.

d. Teaching content and activities might contain more problem solving tasks and the learners own selves will draw the conclusions.

e. Teachers can exchange views with the learners about successful teaching and learning of the language so that learners become motivated to learn and curious about the language and the target culture.

f. Being informed of their beliefs and philosophy and guiding accordingly.

g. Teachers must build a cooperative and goal oriented classroom atmosphere where there will be a lot of interaction and thus the range of spontaneous speaking and listening performances might be promoted.

h. Above all the language teachers must have sufficient professional training to teach effectively being informed of the required activities to develop all four skills of the language.



And once done, it possibly will bring a splendid opportunity to alleviate their confusions and misconceptions by developing a critical awareness of learning options’ (Wenden, p. 1991).According to Tudor(1996, p.52), investigating what learners believe about language learning is ‘a process of self-discovery which involves the learners themselves as the teacher’ ( cited in Erienwati,2002).



Conclusion:

This article neither focuses on the mismatch between the beliefs of the teachers and those of the learners nor the effects of the learners’ beliefs. A further study can be made on that and the relation between learners’ beliefs and their success. Our findings light up on the general beliefs brought by the EFL learners at the undergraduate level who have already had a long exposure to English. It’s really necessary for a teacher to act to consider what learners expect from the language classes and what learning behavior they like to stand by. Mantle-Bromely therefore suggests: ‘if we attend to the affective and cognitive components of students’ attitudes as well as develop defendable pedagogical techniques, we may be able to increase both the length of students commit to language study and their chances of success in it” (1995:383).



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