A study on Turkish engineering students' beliefs about language learning/Turk muhendislik ogrencilerinin dil ogrenme inanclari uzerine bir calisma.

Kahraman, Ayhan

I. Introduction

As indicated rightly by Chastain (1988), students arrive at their language class bearing a number of preconceptions that affect their attitude and performance in the class. These preexisting conceptions have to do with the speakers' previous experience, with the actual language classes, with the teacher, with language learning ability and also with complex set of attitudes and expectations that language learners bring to the classroom. These opinions may facilitate learning or inhibit it In short; a central role is attributed to learner beliefs. For example, Richards and Lockhart (1994) put forward that learner belief can influence their willingness to participate, their expectations about language learning, their perceptions about what is easy or difficult about a language and finally their learning strategies.

Chastain (1988), on the other hand, asserts justifiably that teachers' beliefs need also be investigated since their ideas might not match with those of students'. For instance, if students conceive of a language class as consisting primarily of studying grammar and memorizing vocabulary, the teacher might be more likely to accomplish the course goals if objectives and classroom procedures are clearly explained and justified at the beginning of the course as done in many parts of the world even today. Additionally, Horwitz (1987) correctly points out that it is always possible to find instances of student dissatisfaction whenever instructional activities are inconsistent with students' preconceived ideas about language learning. In such a situation, learners will lose confidence in the instructional approach and their ultimate achievement will be limited.

Considering their influence on many aspects of learning, the beliefs of learners and teachers need to be investigated in depth before the classroom procedures, activities and tasks are chosen. Inspired by Horwitz (1985, 1987, 1988), many researchers such as Brown (1994), Ellis (1994) and Hutchinson (1987) have investigated the roles of teachers and learners in language learning and stated that learners, as well as teachers, have their own attitudes and beliefs which are likely to influence the way they set their roles and within these roles, beliefs and attitudes deeply influence the whole educational process. Thus, on the basis of these claims and findings, the main concern of this study hopes to expand previous understandings by analyzing of 70 freshmen students of the Electric-Electronics Engineering Department and of 28 instructors of English language at Dumlupinar University.

Aim of the Study

The aim of this study is to find out what beliefs about language learning Turkish students at Dumlupinar University (DPU), Engineering Faculty have and whether there are significant differences between their beliefs and those of their teachers'. Further, knowledge of student and teacher beliefs can play a facilitative role for learning through establishing pedagogic parameters.

The following research questions form the basis of this study:

1. What are the students' and their teachers' beliefs about language learning at Engineering Faculty in DPU?

2. Do the student' and teachers' beliefs match? If there is a significant difference between the students' and their teachers' beliefs about language learning, then research hypothesis which is in fact the null-hypothesis will be rejected. Otherwise, the null-hypothesis will be supported to the conclusion that students' and teachers' beliefs concerning language learning match.

II--Review of Literature

Stern (1983:339) regards learner characteristics as one of the determiners of the learning process and learning outcome. Several learner variables such as age, sex, cognitive variables, affective factors, and personality have been previously considered as irrelevant for the attainment of proficiency. However, at the present state of research findings, all these and more of learner characteristics and traits can be regarded as relevant to language learning.

Ellis (1994:479) questions the determiners of learners' beliefs about language learning and finds different factors. For instance, Ellis (1994:479) refers Little's findings and states that "past experience, both of education in general and of language learning in particular" plays a major role in shaping attitudes to language learning. Further, an unsuccessful learning experience can lead a learner to the conclusion that special abilities are required to learn a foreign language and that s/he does not have these mentioned abilities. Additionally, it is also observed that beliefs are influenced by general factors such as personality and cognitive style (Abraham and Vann cited in Ellis; 1994:479). No matter where these beliefs come from, it is clear that they affect the nature of learning and the success of the learner.

Moreover, Wenden and Rubin (1987:103) have reported a study of 25 adults in a part-time advanced level class at an American university. She elicited their views about language learning by a semi-structured interview and summarized them in twelve explicit statements. Then, she grouped these statements in three general categories. The first category "use of the language" includes beliefs about the importance of learning in a natural way-practicing, trying to think in the L2 and living and studying in the target language environment. The second category concerns beliefs related to learning about the language. Learners in this category gave importance to learning grammar and vocabulary, enrolling in a language class, receiving feedback on errors, and being mentally active. The third category "importance of personal factors" includes beliefs about the feelings that facilitate or inhibit learning, self-concept, and aptitude for learning. Wenden and Rubin (1987) found that learners varied greatly in their views, but that each learner seemed to have a set of beliefs that belonged to one of the mentioned categories.

Furthermore, Ariogul (2009), Oz (2007), Abraham and Vann (in Ellis 1994:478) found some evidence that beliefs might affect learning outcomes. Abraham and Vann (in Ellis; 1994:478) conducted a case study of two learners. Both learners believed that creating situations for using English outside the classroom, practicing as much as possible, having their errors corrected and participating actively in class were important. Another study worth mentioning is Wenden and Rubin's (1987) study. They investigated beliefs of university students and found that these American students had explicit beliefs about how to learn a second language and that these affect the way they approach language learning; that is, their beliefs are consistent with their approaches to learning. Final one comes by Rifkin (2000) who has also investigated learner beliefs. The results revealed that learner beliefs might change according to their levels, language studied and as well as the institutions that learners are studying at.

As Horwitz in her pioneering study in 1985 points out, teachers are likely to find instances of student dissatisfaction whenever instructional activities are inconsistent with students' preconceived ideas about language learning. In such a learning situation, students can lose confidence in the instructional approach and their ultimate achievement can be limited. This is inevitable as different teachers may have different views about teaching. Tillema (1995) studied the professional knowledge and beliefs of teachers. He tried to identify the extent to which their professional knowledge and teaching beliefs correspond/match and ultimately affect teaching. The results revealed that knowledge acquisition needs to be preceded or accompanied by changes in beliefs. Teacher beliefs were found to filter the knowledge acquisition process which meant if the correspondence between teacher beliefs and the presentation in training was great, then, more learning would take place. It is clear that training is often effective, although it has drawbacks in determining and changing beliefs.

Kagan and Tippins (1991) conducted a study to develop and evaluate a system of analyzing teachers' underlying beliefs. Twentyfour in-service teachers wrote four case narratives. The differences appearing in their study were: a feeling for the internal conflicts that a problem provokes in a teacher, the longterm nature of problems and their ethical undertones. It was found that when the teachers wrote their own cases they reflected their own beliefs in the writing.

In addition, Tsui (1995) pointed out that there are practical theories underlying teachers' classroom practices which seemed to be dominated by the differences in cultural and educational background of teachers.

All in all, learners, as well as teachers, bring their own beliefs, goals, attitudes, and decisions, which in turn affect how they approach their learning. That is, teachers and learners bring with them different and various expectations concerning not only the general learning process, but also concerning what will be learned in a particular course and how it will be learned. Moreover, learners' motivation, their perceptions about what is easy or difficult about a language, their expectations about learning and their learning strategies can be influenced by these beliefs. Consequently, the main aim of this study is to expand these understandings mentioned in the literature by analyzing the beliefs of freshman students and instructors in Turkish context with the hope to shed light on language teachers, teacher trainers and language planners.

III--Methodology

Participants

The participants of this research are formed by freshman students and language teachers. A total of 70 undergraduate freshman students of the Electric-Electronics Engineering Department and 28 teachers of English language at Dumlupinar University volunteered to participate in this study. All 70 students aged from 18 to 21 are enrolled in an intact group. This intact group consists of 66 males and 4 females. Although all students have a three year foreign language experience in secondary school and another three year experience in high school, their proficiency level is assessed as false beginners.

Instrument

The main instrument used to assess beliefs about language learning of the E-E Engineering students at Dumlupinar University is a questionnaire. The major advantage of the questionnaire is that data can be collected from large number of respondents in a cost-effective way within short period of time (Kormos et al., 2002:21). If the respondents are chosen appropriately, the results obtained with the help of the questionnaires can be generalized to the target population. A pre-condition for this is that the questionnaire used must be both valid and reliable. For that reason, "Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory ESL Student Version" (BALLI) will be used to find out the participants' beliefs about language learning. This inventory was developed by Horwitz in 1988 to assess student ideas on various issues and controversies related to language learning in five major areas as illustrated in Table 1.

The inventory consists of 32 Likert scale items and two multiple-choice items. Li-kert scale items are written in declarative form, which requires the subjects to indicate their response (i.e. strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree) to a belief description.

Data Collection and Data Analysis

Data is collected in the spring term of 20062007 academic year at Electric-Electronics Engineering Department from 70 freshmen and 28 instructors with the permission of the administration. The participants are given the translated version of BALLI, an inventory which was developed by Horwitz (1988). The questionnaire was given in Turkish in order not to cause lack of understanding or misinterpretation. The instrument used in this study was translated into Turkish by Aydin (2001).

The present study investigated the beliefs of both freshman students and teachers on language learning at Dumlupinar University, Engineering Faculty, Electric-Electronics Engineering Department. The BALLI questionnaire by Horwitz (1985) asked learner respondents to rate their agreement to 34 items and teacher respondents to 27 items regarding their beliefs on a Likert-Scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The BALLI questionnaire determined the participants' beliefs concerning five areas of language learning: the difficulty of language, foreign language aptitude, the nature of language learning and communication strategies, motivations and expectations. Moreover, statistical result displayed the probability or significance as p = .000. Since the probability is less than .05 (p < .05), we reject the null hypothesis of no difference in favor of the alternative hypothesis that the difference is real.

Horwitz (1985) grouped the items according to the following categories:

1. The Difficulty of Learning a Foreign Language: Items 3, 4, 6, 14, 24, 28.

2. Aptitude for Language Learning: Items 1, 2, 10, 15, 22, 29, 32, 33, 34.

3. The Nature of the Language Learning Process: Items 5, 8, 11, 16, 20, 25, 26.

4. Learning and Communication Strategies: Items 7, 9, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 21.

5. Motivations and Expectations for Language Learning: Items 23, 27, 30, 31.

1. Beliefs about the Difficulty of Language Learning

Table 2 lists participants' beliefs about the difficulty of language learning with their frequencies (f) and percentages (%) for each parameter.

Related to the difficulty of language learning, item 3, some languages are easier to learn than others, as seen clearly in Table 2, 80% of Ss and the great majority of Ts (92,9%) agree that some languages are easier to learn than others. When 'Not Sure" responses are considered, it is observed that 11, 4% of Ss and 3,6% of Ts are not sure about the truthfulness of this belief. A lower percent of Ss (8,5%) disagree with the belief that some languages are easier to learn than others.

50% of the students believe that the language they are trying to learn is a language of medium difficulty (item 4), while 30% find it a difficult language, and 20% find it as an easy one. Similarly 50% of the teachers share the belief that the language they are trying to learn is a language of medium difficulty and 46,5 % find it a difficult one but only 3,6 find it as an easy one. Most of the learners in the study (85,7%) expressed a belief that they would ultimately learn to speak this language very well (item 6), while only 5,7% did not have the same motivation.

As responses to the 14th item, 54,3% of the students believed that by studying for one hour a day, it would take 1-2 years to become fluent. While 30% of them thought less than a year would be sufficient. 1,4% believed that it would 5-10 years and 5,7% believed that it would 3-5 years to achieve fluency and 8,6% of the learners believed that a language cannot be learned by studying one hour a day. Similarly, 42,9% of the teachers believed that by studying for one hour a day, it would take 1-2 years to become fluent. While 7,1% of them thought less than a year would be sufficient. % believed that it would 510 years to achieve fluency and 8,6% of the learners believed that a language cannot be learned by studying one hour a day.

Additionally, 51,4% of the respondents disagreed with item 24, and believed that speaking a foreign language is not easier than understanding it, while 15,7% agreed and 32,9% had no opinion. Finally, in response to item 28, "it is easier to read and write a language than to speak and understand it," 48,6% of them agreed, 21,4% had no opinion and 30% disagreed. Most of the teacher participants (85,7%) believed that speaking English was easier than understanding it, while only 7,1% of them thought just the opposite. As an answer to item 28, half of the teachers found reading and writing easier than speaking and understanding it. 32% of them disagreed with this idea.

2. Beliefs on Foreign Language Aptitude

The answers of the language learners related to the second category--foreign language aptitude--were presented in Table 3 below.

As seen from the Table 3 above, a great majority of the students (88,5%) agreed that it was easier for children than adults to learn a foreign language (item 1), while only 4,3% disagreed for the same item. For item 2 "some people are born with a special ability which helps them learn a foreign language" 42,9% of the students agreed while 41,4% disagreed. 70% of the students stated a belief that previous foreign language learning experience was the indicative of success in future foreign language learning (item 10), while 8,6% of them disagreed, but 21,4% had no idea.

65,7% of the students believed that they had a foreign language aptitude (item 15) while 18,6% thought the opposite. Learners were neutral about the role of the gender in learning a foreign language. 50% of the responses revealed that learner participants did not believe that men were more successful at learning foreign languages (item 22). Also participants did not agree with the item 29 "if people are good at math and science, they are also successful language learners". 58,6% that is half of the engineering students did not agree and 28,6% of them did not have definite ideas about this issue. 62,8% did not believe that people who spoke more than one language well were very intelligent while 17,2% agreed with the item no 32. Over half (58,6%) were neutral about Turkish people being good at learning foreign languages (item 33) but 30% agreed.

Lastly, a great majority (81,4%) agreed that everyone could learn to speak a foreign language, while only 8,5% disagreed. As seen in Table 3, almost all of the teacher respondents (96,4%) believed that children learn a foreign language easier than adults do (item 1). Similarly the vast majority (78,6%) believed that some people had a special ability to learn a foreign language (item2) while 17,9% of the respondents disagreed with the item. In addition, 92,9% believed that learning a foreign language was easier if one already speaks one. Related to the gender and foreign language learning relationship (item22), teacher population is undecided. 39,2% of the teachers believed that women are better language learners. On the other hand, 42,9% of them did not. Teachers mostly disagreed (82,2%) with the item 23 that if people were good at science and math, they wouldn't be good at learning a foreign language. Only 21,4% of the respondents agreed that if one spoke more than one language he/she was very intelligent, while this percentage was 28,6% for neutral and 50% for disagreement. The outcome for item 26 "Turkish people are good at learning foreign languages" was absolutely confusing, because the population also here had no clear idea. No respondents strongly agreed or disagreed; 39,3% was neutral while 32,1% showed agreement and 28,6% disagreement. Finally, 75% believed that everybody could learn a language, while 21,4% were not sure.

3. Beliefs on the Nature of Language Learning

In Table 4, the frequency distribution of the learner responses regarding the nature of language learning is presented.

As seen above, learner responded to item 5 as 31,5% that the structure of English is more difficult than the structure of Turkish, but 61,5% thought the opposite. 30% of the students believed that knowledge of the foreign culture was important in order to speak the foreign language (item 8), while 51,4% thought the opposite and 18,6 had no idea. Not surprisingly, all of the student participants (100%) agreed that it was better to learn a language where it is spoken (item11). While 35,7% of the students believed the importance of learning vocabulary in learning a foreign language, nearly the rest of the students (61,4%) disagreed with item 16. Similarly, more than the half of the students (65,7%) disagreed with the item stating that learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar rules, 21,5% of them agreed with the opinion (item20). Most of the students with 74,3% believed the difference of learning English from learning other school subjects. Only 13% of them disagreed with item 25. Finally (item 26), 74,3% did not think that learning a foreign language was mostly a matter of translating from English, while 15,8% thought the opposite.

Most of the teachers, 89,3% for item 8, agreed with the statement, 'it is necessary to know the foreign culture in order to speak the foreign language", while 10,7% of them disagreed. Additionally, almost all (92,7%, item 11) of the teachers agreed that it was better to learn the language where it was spoken, while 7,1% thought the opposite. 46,4% disagreed that learning English was learning its vocabulary (item 16), 50% did not have any idea about it. Learning English is merely learning its grammar rules (item 20) is agreed by 89,3% of the teachers and only 10,7% disagreed. That learning a language was different from learning other school subjects (item 25) disagreed by 67,9% and agreed by 25%. 92,8% disagreed with item 26 stating that learning a foreign language was mostly a matter of translating from Turkish, however, only 3,6% agreed with the same item.

In Table 5 above, the frequency distribution of the students' responses regarding their learning and communication strategies is presented. In item 7, 80% believed the importance of speaking a foreign language with an excellent accent while only 11,5% disagreed with this item. The majority (76,1%) believed mistakes are natural parts of the process and disagreed with the item 9 that "you shouldn't say anything in the foreign language until you can say it correctly", while 12,9% agreed. Less than half (45,7%) believed the importance of practicing speaking with native speakers (item 12), while 31,4% disagreed with this statement. 58,6% of the students believed that guessing is a useful strategy and you can guess if you don't know the meaning of a word in English (item 13), but 22,9% had no idea and 14,3% believed just the opposite. Not surprisingly, almost all (97,1%) agreed that practice and repetition are important in the language learning process (item 17). The rate of agreement and disagreement is nearly equal for anxiety in speaking the foreign language in front of other people 47,5% for disagreement and 38,5 for agreement (item 18). For item 19, 37,1% of the students believed that allowing students to make mistakes in the beginning would lead to fossilization later on, while 50% thought the opposite. And finally, for item 21, 74,3% of the students viewed the language laboratory as an important element in language learning while 22,9 had no clear idea about it. As seen in Table 5, a majority (60,8%) of teacher respondents agreed that speaking the language with an excellent accent was important whereas only 7,1% thought that it was not important. In addition, 92,9% of the teacher respondents believed that mistakes are a natural part of the language learning process and they disagreed that one shouldn't say anything in the target language until one could say it correctly. An overwhelming majority, 96,5%, agreed that guessing was a useful strategy if the meaning was unknown. Much more interesting result is that all teachers (100%) agreed with the importance of practicing and repeating. Teacher population is confused with item 19. 53,6% of the respondents believed that mistakes should be corrected while 42,8% thought the opposite. Finally, 67,8% of the respondents agreed with the importance of language laboratories in language learning but 32,1 had no idea and 28,6 refused it.

5. Beliefs on Motivation

The vast majority for item 23, 95,7% of the students thought that they would have many opportunities to use their new language after they learn it. Almost all learners were very optimistic about finding a job with the help of this language (94,6% for item 27). It is very important for our students to speak a foreign language (78,5 for item 30). If they were asked whether they learn this language to know its speakers (item 31), more than the half disagreed (54,3%), but 32,8% did. On the other hand, teachers also think that it is very important to speak a foreign language (85,7%).

IV--Results and Discussion

This section will clarify the highlights of the data regarding the research questions through BALLI items in depth considering the beliefs of participants on the difficulty of language learning, on foreign language aptitude, on the nature of language learning, on learning and communication strategies and on motivation.

1. Beliefs on the Difficulty of Language Learning

Considering the participants' beliefs about the difficulty of language learning, it can be concluded that two groups support the concept that some languages are easier to learn than others. Thus, the large majority of the participants believe that the difficulty of language learning is dependent on the target language to an extent. Really half of the participants in each group believe English to be a language of medium difficulty. However, within each group, participants have very different assessments of the difficulty of English and of the time required to learn English in one hour a day. In contrast, students are generally optimistic about their achievement as language learners. Most of them believe that they will 1earn to speak English very well. This indicates that they do not have beliefs that inhibit their learning or underestimate the difficulty of language learning.

Participants have different assessments of the difficulty of language skills but the large majority of the students believe that it is easier to read and write English than to speak and understand it. When they compare the difficulty of speaking and understanding a language, they think that speaking a foreign language is more difficult than understanding it. On the other side teacher population could not decide whether reading and writing is easier than to speak and understand it. It could be that they as teachers have to give equal importance to the main four skills. Therefore, it is possible conclude that Turkish language learners have optimistic and motivating beliefs related to the difficulty of the language they are learning.

2. Beliefs on Foreign Language Aptitude

When the participants' beliefs about foreign language aptitude are considered, it can be seen that the student population is undecided on that some people are born with the concept of special abilities for language learning but teachers mostly believe in that. Participants mostly believe that everyone can learn to speak a foreign language and they agree with the statement "It is easier for someone who already speaks a foreign language to learn another one". Consistent with common wisdom, nearly the whole population feels that it is easier for children than adults to learn a foreign language. In contrast, two common beliefs about language learning ability were not supported by the participants. Almost none of them endorsed the statement that people who are good at mathematics or science are not good at learning languages or women are better than men at learning language.

3. Beliefs on the Nature of Language Learning

When the responses to the items about the nature of language learning are analysed, we can conclude that students could not decide whether it is necessary to learn its culture in order to speak the foreign language. It can be suggest that it is very important to enlighten students that culture and language are not separable from each other and helps us to understand both of them. On the other side, participants agree that it is best to learn English in an English-speaking country. For the majority of the respondents, the most important part of learning a foreign language was not learning only vocabulary and they also did not believe that learning a foreign language was entirely learning the grammar or only translating from one to the other language. That is, participants are aware of that the skills could not be separated. They know that all four skills should be handled equally. In addition, many of the participants agreed that learning a foreign language is different from learning other school subjects.

4. Beliefs on Learning and Communication Strategies

The responses of the participants to the items that are related to learning and communication strategies indicate that they strongly endorse repetition and practice with cassettes or tapes. Students from the two groups commonly agree that guessing a word in the foreign language is possible and almost all of them disagreed with the statement "You shouldn't say anything in English until you can say it correctly". However, more than half of the respondents in each group feel that if beginning students are permitted to make errors in English, it will be difficult for them to speak correctly later on. With respect to pronunciation, most of the participants are concerned about accents and stress the importance of speaking with an excellent pronunciation.

5. Beliefs on Motivation

Participants' responses to the items about motivations show that most learners have the belief that people in their country feel that it is important to speak English and almost all of them strongly agree with statement "If I learn English very well, I will have better opportunities for a job". We may conclude that nearly all of the learners have instrumental motivation to learn English.

V--Conclusion

The findings suggest the following conclusions that participants tend to:

* believe that the difficulty of language learning depends on the learned target language,

* believe that it is easier to read and write in English than to speak and understand,

* believe that everyone can learn to speak a foreign language,

* share the common belief that it is easier for children than adults to learn a foreign language,

* believe that foreign language learning is not merely learning target language vocabulary,

* however, do not believe that the females are better language learners than the males,

* not able to assert confidently the necessity of culture learning.

All in all, although investigating learners' and teachers' beliefs about foreign language learning is context specific, there are important outcomes which needed to be shared with the rest of the field members. First of all, in our context, participants have facilitative and motivating beliefs considering the language they are learning, here, the English language. Second, they are aware of the integration of the main four skills since they can not be separated and need to be handled equally in language courses. Furthermore, participants distinguish the difference between language subjects and other subjects. However, both learners and teachers do not have concrete ideas about what culture is, or better stated, what foreign language culture is. We face here again with a similar group as in Kahraman's (2008) previous study where the participants also resisted or were reluctant to culture and culture learning. We suggest that the participants in the present and similar contexts across Turkey need to be prepared to receive and take in the cultural knowledge of the target language since culture learning is a necessary and indispensable part of foreign and second language learning. Regardless of the plans and efforts by teachers, syllabus designers, textbook writers and other parties related to education of English language, learners are most likely to bring with themselves certain beliefs, preconceived ideas that could be facilitating and debilitating. This fact should never be lost sight of for any specific group of learners in an effort to see learners as full-fledged individuals. Necessary intervention by teachers, in particular, should be taken to alleviate debilitating beliefs of learners. In the age we live in, learners cannot be regarded as mere consumers of language knowledge presented by the language teacher. Instead, their needs and beliefs need to be taken into consideration in devising what to learn, how to learn and for what to learn.

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Ayhan KAHRAMAN *

* Dr. Ingiliz Dili Egitimi, Egitim Fakultesi, Hacettepe Universitesi, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkiye. ayhank@hacettepe.edu.tr Tel:0312 2978575 Table 1. Major Areas in BALLI Major Areas 1. Foreign Language Aptitude 2. The Difficulty of Language Learning 3. The Nature of Language Learning 4. Learning and Communication Strategies 5. Motivations Table 2. The Difficulty of Learning a Foreign Language 3) Some languages are easier to learn than others 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 5 1 8 1 34 15 Percentage 1,4 7,1 3,6 11,4 3,6 48,6 53,6 5 Ss Ts Frequency 22 11 Percentage 31,4 39,3 4) The language I am trying to learn is: difficult language 2. a difficult language 3. a language of medium difficulty 4. an easy language 5. a very easy language 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 -- 13 1 35 14 17 12 Percentage 1,4 -- 18,6 3,6 50,0 50,0 24,3 42,9 5 Ss Ts Frequency 4 1 Percentage 5,7 3,6 Ss = students Ts = teachers 6) I believe that I will ultimately learn to speak this language very well 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 NA 3 NA 6 NA 32 NA Percentage 1,4 NA 4,3 NA 8,6 NA 45,7 NA 5 Ss Ts Frequency 28 NA Percentage 40,0 NA 14) If someone spent one hour a day learning a language, how long would it take him/her to become fluent: 1. less than a year 2. 1-2 years 3. 3-5 years 4. 5-10 years 5. You can't learn a language in 1 hour a day. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 21 2 38 12 4 8 1 -- Percentage 30,0 7,1 54,3 42,9 5,7 28,6 1,4 -- 5 Ss Ts Frequency 6 6 Percentage 8,6 21,4 24) It is easier to speak than understand a foreign language. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 8 7 28 17 23 2 6 2 Percentage 11,4 25,0 40,0 60,7 32,9 7,1 8,6 7,1 5 Ss Ts Frequency 5 -- Percentage 7,1 -- 28) It is easier to read and write this language than to speak and understand it. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 3 4 18 10 15 1 20 13 Percentage 4,3 14,3 25,7 35,7 21,4 3,6 28,6 46,4 5 Ss Ts Frequency 14 -- Percentage 20,0 -- Note: NA = not asked to the teachers Table 3. Aptitude for Language Learning Process 1) It is easier for children than adults to learn a foreign language. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 1 2 -- 5 -- 29 10 Percentage 1,4 3,6 2,9 -- 7,1 -- 41,4 35,7 5 Ss Ts Frequency 33 17 Percentage 47,1 60,7 2) Some people are born with a special ability which helps them learn a foreign language. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 14 1 15 4 11 1 27 12 Percentage 20,0 3,6 21,4 14,3 15,7 3,6 38,6 42,9 5 Ss Ts Frequency 3 9 Percentage 4,3 32,1 10) It is easier for someone who already speaks a foreign language to learn another one. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency -- -- 6 -- 15 2 41 14 Percentage -- -- 8,6 -- 21,4 7,1 58,6 50,0 5 Ss Ts Frequency 8 12 Percentage 11,4 42,9 15) I have a foreign language aptitude. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 3 NA 10 NA 11 NA 26 NA Percentage 4,3 NA 14,3 NA 15,7 NA 37,1 NA 5 Ss Ts Frequency 20 NA Percentage 28,6 NA 22) Women are better than men at learning foreign languages. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 23 2 12 9 27 5 4 7 Percentage 32,9 7,1 17,1 32,1 38,6 17,9 5,7 25,0 5 Ss Ts Frequency 4 5 Percentage 5,7 17,9 29) People who are good at math and science are not good at learning foreign languages. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 18 8 23 15 20 3 5 2 Percentage 25,7 28,6 32,9 53,6 28,6 10,7 7,1 7,1 5 Ss Ts Frequency 4 -- Percentage 5,7 -- 32) People who speak more than one language well are very intelligent. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 11 -- 33 14 14 8 10 4 Percentage 15,7 -- 47,1 50,0 20,0 28,6 14,3 14,3 5 Ss Ts Frequency 2 2 Percentage 2,9 7,1 33) Turkish people are good at learning foreign languages. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 -- 7 8 41 11 13 7 Percentage 1,4 -- 10,0 28,6 58,6 39,3 18,6 25,0 5 Ss Ts Frequency 8 2 Percentage 11,4 7,1 34) Everyone can learn to speak a foreign language. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 1 5 6 7 -- 28 13 Percentage 1,4 3,6 7,1 21,4 10,0 -- 40,0 46,4 5 Ss Ts Frequency 29 8 Percentage 41,4 28,6 NA = not asked to the teachers Table 4. The Nature of the Language Learning Process 5) The structure of English is more difficult than the structure of Turkish. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 9 9 34 15 5 -- 16 4 Percentage 12,9 32,1 48,6 53,6 7,1 -- 22,9 14,3 5 Ss Ts Frequency 6 -- Percentage 8,6 -- 8) It is necessary to know the foreign culture in order to speak the foreign language. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 8 -- 28 7 13 -- 16 18 Percentage 11,4 -- 40,0 25,0 18,6 -- 22,9 64,3 5 Ss Ts Frequency 5 3 Percentage 7,1 10,7 11) It is better to learn a foreign language in the foreign country. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency -- -- -- 2 -- -- 32 8 Percentage -- -- -- 7,1 -- -- 45,7 28,6 5 Ss Ts Frequency 38 18 Percentage 54,3 64,3 16) Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of new vocabulary words. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 10 13 33 14 2 -- 21 1 Percentage 14,3 46,4 47,1 50,0 2,9 -- 30,0 3,6 5 Ss Ts Frequency 4 -- Percentage 5,7 -- 20) Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar rules. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 13 10 3 15 9 -- 13 2 Percentage 18,6 35,7 47,1 53,6 12,9 -- 18,6 7,1 5 Ss Ts Frequency 2 1 Percentage 2,9 3,6 25) Learning a foreign language is different from learning other school subjects. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 1 10 6 7 2 35 14 Percentage 1,4 3,6 14,3 21,4 10,0 7,1 50,0 50,0 5 Ss Ts Frequency 17 5 Percentage 24,3 17,9 26) Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of translating from English. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 14 16 38 10 7 1 9 1 Percentage 20,0 57,1 54,3 35,7 10,0 3,6 12,9 3,6 5 Ss Ts Frequency 2 -- Percentage 2,9 -- 4. Beliefs on Learning and Communication Strategies Table 5. Learning and Communication Strategies 7) It is important to speak a foreign language with an excellent accent. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts SS Ts Ss Ts Frequency 2 2 6 9 6 -- 29 12 Percentage 2,9 7,1 8,6 32,1 8,6 -- 41,4 42,9 5 Ss Ts Frequency 27 5 Percentage 38,6 17,9 9) You shouldn't say anything in the foreign language until you can say it correctly. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 25 19 29 7 7 -- 7 1 Percentage 35,7 67,9 41,4 25,0 10,0 -- 10,0 3,6 5 Ss Ts Frequency 2 1 Percentage 2,9 3,6 12) If I heard someone speaking the language I am trying to learn, I would go up to them so that I could practice speaking the language. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss TS Frequency 1 NA 21 NA 16 NA 29 NA Percentage 1,4 NA 30,0 NA 22,9 NA 41,4 NA 5 Ss TS Frequency 3 NA Percentage 4,3 NA 13) It's O.K. to guess if you don't know a word in the foreign language. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 -- 9 1 19 -- 34 15 Percentage 1,4 -- 12,9 3,6 27,1 -- 48,6 53,6 5 Ss Ts Frequency 7 12 Percentage 10,0 42,9 17) It is important to repeat and practice a lot. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 1 -- 1 -- -- -- 21 3 Percentage 1,4 -- 1,4 -- -- -- 30,0 10,7 5 5s Ts Frequency 47 25 Percentage 67,1 89,3 18) I feel self-conscious speaking the foreign language in front of other people. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 8 NA 26 NA 9 NA 19 NA Percentage 11,4 NA 37,1 NA 12,9 NA 27,1 NA 5 Ss Ts Frequency 8 NA Percentage 11,4 NA 19) If you are allowed to make mistakes in the beginning it will be hard to get rid of them later on. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 15 2 20 10 9 1 18 12 Percentage 21,4 7,1 28,6 35,7 12,9 3,6 25,7 42,9 5 Ss Ts Frequency 8 3 Percentage 11,4 10,7 21) It is important to practice in the language laboratory. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency -- -- 2 8 16 1 27 9 Percentage -- -- 2,9 28,6 22,9 3,6 38,6 32,1 5 Ss Ts Frequency 25 10 Percentage 35,7 35,7 Note: NA is for "not asked to the teachers" Table 6. Motivations and Expectations for Language Learning 23) If I get to speak this language very well, I will have many opportunities to use it. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency -- NA -- NA 3 NA 20 NA Percentage -- NA -- NA 4,3 NA 28,6 NA 5 Ss Ts Frequency 52 NA Percentage 74,3 NA 27) If I learn to speak this language very well, it will help me get a good job. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency -- NA -- NA 1 NA 17 NA Percentage -- NA -- NA 1,4 NA 24,3 NA 5 Ss Ts Frequency 47 NA Percentage 67,1 NA 30) Turkish people think that it is important to speak a foreign language. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 2 2 4 1 9 1 33 14 Percentage 2,9 7,1 5,7 3,6 12,9 3,6 47,1 50,0 5 Ss Ts Frequency 22 10 Percentage 31,4 35,7 31) I would like to learn this language so that I can get to know its speakers better. 1 2 3 4 Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Frequency 11 NA 27 NA 9 NA 15 NA Percentage 15,7 NA 38,6 NA 12,9 NA 21,4 NA 5 Ss Ts Frequency 8 NA Percentage 11,4 NA