Students’ beliefs about language learning and their relationship to learning achievement in a CALL environment were investigated. Unlike previous studies whose purpose was to describe learners’ beliefs on each questionnaire item, this study aimed to deal with beliefs comprehensively.
Research on learner beliefs is gaining increasing attention. Behind this trend is the recognition that learners’ behaviors cannot be changed unless their preconceptions are changed. Inspired by early studies such as Horwitz (1987), a number of researchers have conducted studies which would supposedly explain the relationship between beliefs and behaviors and, further, provide useful information for learner training. However, most of the studies to date do not take such approaches as to achieve the goals of the beliefs study. The approach of the analysis has been rather descriptive: distribution and frequencies of responses were simply shown. Even though some studies compared the beliefs of different populations, which indicated some significant differences, what we can get from such studies is, again, the description of the populations. To forward the beliefs study, we need to incorporate into the analysis both the beliefs and the behaviors (e.g., motivations, strategies, achievement).
This study set out to investigate the intra-relationship between students’ beliefs about language learning and their effects on learning achievements. Particular features of this study are; 1) profiling learners by simultaneously analyzing multiple questionnaire items for a comprehensive view of learners, and 2) analyzing the relationship between beliefs and learning achievements. Participants were 77 high school students who were taking EFL courses in a CALL environment. In the class, they mainly worked on a designated CD-ROM material individually. A questionnaire adapted from BALLI (Horwitz, 1987) was used to elicit the participants’ beliefs. The items for the questionnaire were chosen by three EFL instructors as related to the learners’ CALL experiences. The participants were asked to indicate to what extent they agreed or disagreed to the statement on the questionnaire on a five point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
The analyses had two phases. The first analysis was carried out to profile the learners based on their responses to the questionnaire using cluster analysis (Ward method, squared Euclidean distance technique). This statistical technique is used for finding relatively homogeneous subgroups in the population. This analysis yielded four distinct clusters (numbered cluster 1 to 4), but cluster 4 was not included in the later analysis because it had only two participants in this cluster. The remaining three subgroups are differentially characterized by, in particular, different levels of confidence to learn English and attitudes toward individualized learning. Cluster 1 was a group of students who are less confident about their learning. Cluster2 showed a high language anxiety and low confidence in learning, but it also showed a favor for individualized learning. Cluster 3 was found active in learning and was differentiated from the other two by the high level of confidence to learn English. Next, the three subgroups were compared on the learning achievements measured by the term-end examinations. One-way ANOVA indicated that there was a statistically significant difference among the three groups’ achievements (p= .04). Post hoc multiple comparison was conducted with Tukey’s Method. The results showed that there was a significant difference between cluster 1 and 3 (p= .03).
The above results indicate that the CALL environment may have a compensative effect on students whose characteristics are not necessarily advantageous for the traditional classroom learning environment. This implication was drawn particularly from the result for cluster 2, which is a group of learners whose high anxiety and low confidence to learn English do not seem to favor them. Their characteristics are similar to those of cluster 1, but the achievements of cluster 2 was not as low as cluster 1 despite their disadvantageous characteristics. This indicates that their CALL experiences, which provide a lot of opportunities for working individually, compensated for their disadvantages which would have inhibited them in a traditional classroom setting.
本研究では、学習観がCALL教室における英語学習の成果に及ぼす影響を、クラスター分析を用いた学習者プロファイリングによって検討した。BALLIの中から、特にCALL学習に関係が深いものを13項目選び、学習者をカテゴライズした。その結果、(1)全体的に英語学習に対して消極的な生徒、(2)言語不安が高く英語学習に対する自信が低いが、対人関係のない個別学習に向く生徒、(3)全体的に英語学習に対して積極的な生徒、の3つのタイプの学習者に分けられた。これら3つの学習者のタイプと学習成果との関連を分析した結果、CALL教室における英語学習は、従来型の英語の授業では高い学習成果を期待することが難しい、言語不安が高く英語学習に対する自信が低い、対人関係のない個別学習に向いている生徒に対して補償的に働くことが示唆された。
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