Beliefs about language learning of Thai students learning Chinese and Japanese: Relationships with past learning experiences and target language variations

Abstract

The objective of this study was (a) to investigate the nature and structure of the language learning beliefs of Thai students, and (b) to determine whether there was any significant difference in terms of the language learning beliefs among groups of students with different past educational experiences and students learning different foreign languages. Horwitz's Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) was administered to Thai students learning the Japanese or Chinese language (N = 189) at a university. Through a principal component analysis, a six-factor structure was identified for the beliefs. Only in terms of one of the six factors was a significant difference identified between the groups of students who had graduated from different types of secondary schools and had different experiences of the preparatory pre-university English language course. Similarly, the language learning beliefs were significantly different for the groups of students learning two different languages only in terms of one factor. With the wide range of similarities in the participants' past experiences in learning English and other foreign languages, the findings suggest that language learning beliefs are shared if the learners had similar learning experiences. © Centre for Language Studies National University of Singapore.