VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ¬—-#a2œEltooa--- TRAN THI PHUONG HOA Ethnic minority students’ belicfs about English language learning — A survey at Sam Son pre-university school (Khao sat niềm tin trong việc học Tiếng Anh của học sinh dân tộc thiểu số tại Trường Dự bị Dại học Dân tộc Sầm Sơn) M. MIXOR THESIS Field: Methodology Cede: 60.10 Hanoi, 2011 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Types of leamer beliefs (based an Benson and Lor, 1999) Table 2.1: Beliefs about the difficulty of language leaming, Table 2.2: Beliefs on foreign language aptitude ‘Table 2.3: Belisfs on the nature of language learning Table 3.4: Learning and communication stralegios Table 2.5: Motivations and expectations for language leaming TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF TABLES TABLE OF CONTENTS PART [- INTROBUCTION 1. Aims and objectives NN 3. Scope of the study 4.
Methods of the study ww 5. Overview of the study 7. Summary eww PART Il- DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW be 1. Students’ beliefs and language learning LLL What is belief? 1.
Reliefs about lanyuuge learning wena ok 1.13, Nature and origin of beliefs 1.14, Types of learner beliefs LLS, The saurces of learners’ beliefs 1. The situated and dynumic nature of learner beliefs LL?. The relationship between beliefs and learning 1. Previous studies on learner’s beltefs 1.
The relationship between learner beliefs und language learning strategies 1.4, Summary CHAPTER 0: DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ANALYSIS 2.1, Context of the sturly 241, The school context wi 2.2, Data collection of survey questionnaire 19 2. Data analysis of survey questionnaire 20 25.1, Beliefs about the difficutty of language learning 20 2. Reliefs on foreign language uplituie 22 2.3, Beliefs on the nature of language learning 23 2.4, Learning and communication strategies 24 2. Motivations and expectations for language learning 26 2.
Summary 7 CHAPTER III: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29 3. Research Question I: What ure the beliefs about languaye learning held by ethnic students at Sam Son pre-university school? 3.2, Research Question 2: How da these beliefs affect their language learning? 3.2, Limitations of the study PART II. Summary of the findings 2. Suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDIX: PART L—INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the rationale, aims and objectives, scope, research methods and research questions of the study.
Also, the structure of the thesis is outlined 1. Rationale ‘Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with fifty-four distinct groups, each with its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage. In some parts of the country where these ethnic minorities are having the standard of living is still below the wanted level. Helping them to improve their living conditions, especially investments in education and economy are needed.
Sam Son ethnic pre-university is the place that has a duty of training the ethnic students lo propars for them to enter the university level. The studeuts come from 7 provinces in the north of the middle area in Vietnam: Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha ‘Tinh, Quang Bình Quang Trí and Llue. As for ethnic English leamers in our school, especially im this period, English has just become the major subjccl in uaining elmic students but the poor conditions for teaching and Ivaming together with the extreme weakness of basic common knowledge of the leamers, difficulties seem to multiply. ‘Thus, understanding the thought of ellmic students is necessary lo all the teachers in these special schools.
We can sce that there is an importanil change in rescarch about language iustruction. The focus gradually shitted from teacher centered to student centered with special attention for the students” perspective and individual differences among learners. As a result, learners’ belic&s have attracted much attention among linguists in recent decades. As indicatod by Chastain (1988), students arrive al their language class hearing a number of preconceptions that affvet their attitude and pertormance in the class, These pre- existing conceptions have to do with the speakers’ previons experience, with ths actual language classes, with the teacher, with langunge teaming ability and also with complex set of attitudes and expectations that Janguage leamers bring to the classroom.
These opinions may facilitate leaming or inhibit it. In short, a central role is attributed to learner belicfs. For cxample, Richards and Lockhart (1994) put forward that leamers’ belicf can PART L—INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the rationale, aims and objectives, scope, research methods and research questions of the study. Also, the structure of the thesis is outlined 1.
Rationale ‘Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with fifty-four distinct groups, each with its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage. In some parts of the country where these ethnic minorities are having the standard of living is still below the wanted level. Helping them to improve their living conditions, especially investments in education and economy are needed. Sam Son ethnic pre-university is the place that has a duty of training the ethnic students lo propars for them to enter the university level.
The studeuts come from 7 provinces in the north of the middle area in Vietnam: Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha ‘Tinh, Quang Bình Quang Trí and Llue. As for ethnic English leamers in our school, especially im this period, English has just become the major subjccl in uaining elmic students but the poor conditions for teaching and Ivaming together with the extreme weakness of basic common knowledge of the leamers, difficulties seem to multiply. ‘Thus, understanding the thought of ellmic students is necessary lo all the teachers in these special schools. We can sce that there is an importanil change in rescarch about language iustruction.
The focus gradually shitted from teacher centered to student centered with special attention for the students” perspective and individual differences among learners. As a result, learners’ belic&s have attracted much attention among linguists in recent decades. As indicatod by Chastain (1988), students arrive al their language class hearing a number of preconceptions that affvet their attitude and pertormance in the class, These pre- existing conceptions have to do with the speakers’ previons experience, with ths actual language classes, with the teacher, with langunge teaming ability and also with complex set of attitudes and expectations that Janguage leamers bring to the classroom. These opinions may facilitate leaming or inhibit it.
In short, a central role is attributed to learner belicfs. For cxample, Richards and Lockhart (1994) put forward that leamers’ belicf can influence their willingness to participate, their expectations about language leaming, their perocplons aboul. what is casy or difficult. about a language and finally their learning strategies.
Considering their influence on many aspects of learning, the beliefš of learners need to be investigated in depth before the classroom procedures, activities and tasks are che Inspired by Horwitz. (1985, 1987, 1988), many archers such as Brown (1994), Ellis (1994) and Hutchinson (1987) have investigated the roles of teachers and leamers m language learning and stated that leamers, 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, bolicf and attitudes decply influcnee the whole educational process, Thus, on the basis of these claims and findings, the main concer of this study hopes to expand previous understandings, Ta be more specific, this study surveyed the beliefs about Fnglish language learning held by Victnamesc students of ctlnic minority groups who were studying at Sam Son pre-university school. Aims and objectives The aim of this study was to find out what belief about language leaming ethnic students at Sam Son ethnic pre-university school have and analyze their beliefs and locate ther wilhin a laxonomy of language learning betiels using the BALLI survey instrament This study is conducted with the hope to find out the effect of their belief on their potential impact on language learning and teaching in general, as well as in more specific arcas such as the learners? oxp onlalions and stratggics used. An additional purposo was lo discover whether the students’ motivation and enthusiasm for language leaming and reported expectations could be linked to their positive beli 3.
Scope of the study The aims of the study confine it to a small-scale questionnaire survey with a small number of 150 students in ethnic pre-university in Sam Son, ‘Thanh Hoa. ‘The study is therefore descriptive rather tum exptoralory and oxplanatory. 4, Methods of the study The study uses a combination of various methods to achieve its objectives such as descriptive and comparative. However, in this study, [ mainly use survey method with the PART II - DEVELOPMENT CIIAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the relevant literature om language leamer beliefs will be reviewed It will begin with the definition of beliefs and beliefs about language learning, the origin and types of language Icamning belicf.
Finally, previous studics on language learners’ beliefs will be reviewed. Students’ beliefs and language learning LLL What is belief? Language learning beliets have been defined differently by different researchers. For example, beliefs are defined as: - mini theories (Ilosenfeld, 1978) - insights (Omaggio, 1978) - culture of leaming (Contazm & Jin, 1996) - learner assumptions (Riley, 1980) - implicit theontes (Clark, 1988) - self-constructed representational systems (Rust, 1994) - conceptions of leaming (Benson & Lor, 1999) In general term Uclicls has been defined as “an altitude, opimion and viewpoint which attends in every discipline of human behavier to say that something is true or right and vice versa” (Ehilich, S. In academic definition it can be stated as “a leamers’ viewpoint, judgment or opinion about the influence of their learning in their future success” (Neda Fatehi, R.
In other words it means that what would be sludents’ feelings about whal. they Jean as a foreign students and how iL helps them to achieve better proficiency in English. For many years researchers have attempt to examine all aspects of English language learning efivets. Finally, they found that each mdividual PART L—INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the rationale, aims and objectives, scope, research methods and research questions of the study.
Also, the structure of the thesis is outlined 1. Rationale ‘Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with fifty-four distinct groups, each with its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage. In some parts of the country where these ethnic minorities are having the standard of living is still below the wanted level. Helping them to improve their living conditions, especially investments in education and economy are needed.
Sam Son ethnic pre-university is the place that has a duty of training the ethnic students lo propars for them to enter the university level. The studeuts come from 7 provinces in the north of the middle area in Vietnam: Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha ‘Tinh, Quang Bình Quang Trí and Llue. As for ethnic English leamers in our school, especially im this period, English has just become the major subjccl in uaining elmic students but the poor conditions for teaching and Ivaming together with the extreme weakness of basic common knowledge of the leamers, difficulties seem to multiply. ‘Thus, understanding the thought of ellmic students is necessary lo all the teachers in these special schools.
We can sce that there is an importanil change in rescarch about language iustruction. The focus gradually shitted from teacher centered to student centered with special attention for the students” perspective and individual differences among learners. As a result, learners’ belic&s have attracted much attention among linguists in recent decades. As indicatod by Chastain (1988), students arrive al their language class hearing a number of preconceptions that affvet their attitude and pertormance in the class, These pre- existing conceptions have to do with the speakers’ previons experience, with ths actual language classes, with the teacher, with langunge teaming ability and also with complex set of attitudes and expectations that Janguage leamers bring to the classroom.
These opinions may facilitate leaming or inhibit it. In short, a central role is attributed to learner belicfs.
