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Beliefs about Language Learning: A Comparison between Novice and Intermediate Level Students Learning Russian at a Malaysian University

Nikitina, Larisa, and Furuoka, Fumitaka, (2007) Beliefs about Language Learning: A Comparison between Novice and Intermediate Level Students Learning Russian at a Malaysian University. Linguistics Journal, 2 (1). pp. 7-27. ISSN 1738-1460

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Official URL: http://www.linguisticsjournal. com

Affiliations

Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Abstract

Elaine Horwitz’s influential research on the nature of students’ and teachers’ beliefs about language learning in the 1980s initiated a multitude of inquiries into the subject. Malaysia as a multicultural and multilingual country provides an interesting sociolinguistic setting to explore the nature of beliefs about language learning. However, research on this topic in the Malaysian context is lacking. This study aimed to address this gap and examined beliefs about learning a foreign language held by 107 Russian language students at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). The present inquiry juxtaposed beliefs held by the beginners and intermediate learners in order to assess which areas of beliefs were commonly shared by the two groups of learners and which areas contained considerable differences in beliefs. This study employed a self-reported questionnaire based on Horwitz’s (1988) Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) as a research instrument, with some modifications done to suit the Malaysian context. Statistical analysis detected five items where opinions of two groups of students were significantly different. Although participants in this study were the Russian language students, there are no obstacles to viewing the findings of this research in a broader perspective of foreign language learning and teaching.

Item Type:Journal
Keywords:foreign language learning, foreign language teaching, language learning beliefs, Malaysia, Russian language, Study and teaching
Subjects:P Language and Literature
L Education
ID Code:8016

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