The Differences and Similarities Among Students’ Beliefs About Language Learning.

The present study addresses the differences and similarities among students’ beliefs about language learning. The participant students (n = 70) completed Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI)and a demographic information questionnaire. Learning a second language upgrades the procurement methods that can be connected later to learn extra dialect also and it turns into a thousand times less demanding to acquire another language. Learning a second language increases the innovativeness of a youngster. It develops self-assurance and is viewed as great and adroit in Pakistani society. As indicated by the consequences of our study a dominant part of the average citizens believes that figuring out how to speak English in an excellent accent is more vital than to take in its scripted frame. It is dominatingly believed by the surveyed students that one should begin taking in the second language from his/her early youth, that is, critical period. A common perception is that in the early day's ones picking and retaining capacity is significantly higher as compared to adulthood. Many individuals surmise that it is a smart approach to build up a sizable vocabulary in the language to be learned. Bilingualism activities your cerebrum moves you to think and lifts your critical thinking abilities. Bilingual understudies tend to score higher on state-sanctioned tests than monolingual understudies particularly in the zones of vocabulary, perusing and science. There are many advantages to learning a second language. Studies have demonstrated that individuals who are bilingual are better at assignments that require multi-entrusting and consideration centering than monolinguals. It encourages the child to assemble culturally diverse companionships, more extensive profession openings, energizing travel experiences and a profound insight into how others see the world.

Richardson (1996) defined beliefs as psychologically held understandings, premises, or propositions about the world that are held to be true. Beliefs are central constructs in every discipline which deals with human behavior and learning. Beliefs help individuals to define and understand the world and themselves, and they are instrumental in defining behavior. The larger part of the general population feels that knowing more than a solitary dialect builds the likelihood of landing great positions. The competition for employment can be exceptional and it is extremely vital to discover methods for separating yourself from different candidates. Monolingual created nations like the United States and the UK consider the expertise of knowing various dialect exceptionally amazing and that is a noteworthy motivation behind why numerous Asians are offered occupations there. A nearby case study from the region of PC is that each child there learns no less than 3 dialects and at most 5dialects including the primary language. Consider the case of a Pukhtoon child whose primary language is Pashto. His procedure of taking in various dialect begins from taking in Urdu and Hindko from the impact of the general public. English must be learned as a piece of the school educational programs. Thirdly, due to the Afghans who have sought refuge in the KPK, children in Peshawar are also exposed to Persian.

theoretical framework

This study uses a mixture of combining quantitative and qualitative methods which refers to the mixed method. Using the combination of the qualitative and quantitative method allows for a more complete analysis of the research problem (Greene et al., 1989). Many studies have found the strengths and limitations of mixed research. Migiro and Magangi (2011)evaluated that mixed method research could answer broader and more complex research questions. It can also allow more insight that might be missed when only a single method is employed. However, mixed methods also have limitations e.g. the researcher has to learn how to combine qualitative and quantitative method appropriately hence it is more time-consuming.

A survey method has been used in this study in order to collect data. Considering the research questions, we used a standardized survey (BALLI) to 70 high school students from Super Nova School.

Questionnaires are a commonly used tool to investigate beliefs and language-learning strategies. However, this method offers several advantages and disadvantages. Tabulating a large number of responses is possible with the use of a questionnaire. It can be seen that using a questionnaire is an easier way to collect data and is less invasive of the respondents’ privacy. However, questionnaires also have limitations. Wenden(1987) mentioned that questionnaire cannot articulate participants’ cognitive thoughts as they don't allow them to express their beliefs in their own words.

Thus, in this study, we decided to obtain data from a survey method. Data will be collected from the most widely used questionnaire to investigate beliefs and learning strategies: Horwitz’s (1987) beliefs about language learning inventory.

Methodology

The Horwitz (1987) Beliefs about Language LearningInventory (BALLI), a 34-item survey instrument, was used to collect data from high school students studying in a private educational institute in Islamabad. Data analysis using frequency statistics showed that generally, students recognized the existence of foreign language aptitude and placed heavy emphasis on impeccable pronunciation, vocabulary acquisition, the benefits of practice, and an immersion approach to language learning. The majority was found to be highly motivated to acquire English as a second language. It was pleasing to note that a large number of Pakistani students were confident about their ability to learn the language.

This study was conducted among the students of SuperNova School, Islamabad. The duration of the study was 2 weeks, that is, from1st January 2018 to 15th January 2018. It is a descriptive, cross-sectional study for which the subjects were chosen by convenient sampling technique. HighSchool students studying in a private educational institution were recruited to be in the study. All students had an opportunity to be selected in the study in accordance with the random sampling technique used. It is important to note that no exclusion criteria were employed.

A standardized questionnaire, “Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory” was used to analyze the views about second language acquisition amongst students. At present, the prime data-collection instrument used for researching learner beliefs about language learning is the 34-item Likert-scale BALLI, prepared by Horwitz in 1985 to use on her foreign language teacher training course. This standardized questionnaire, the BALLI, has been widely used in different contexts and cultures to evaluate students' beliefs. For example, in Iran (Ghobadi & Godaddy, 2011), China (Zhang & Cui, 2010), Hong Kong(Peaccok, 2001), Hungary (Rieger, 2009), Malaysia (Nikitina & Furuoka, 2006), Thailand (Fujiwara, 2011), Vietnam (Bernat, 2004).

DataAnalysis

This research analyzes different opinions from a variety of students from SuperNova School Islamabad. The data is gathered mostly from questionnaires, that is themed to test the willingness, or otherwise, the motivation of students to learn any foreign language such as English, as well as their general perception of their varied ability to do so, some themes that were observed as follows

• Environmental advantages, that is, the importance of exposure while learning new languages such as learning at a young age (and thus greater ability to learn and remember), company of native speakers (and thus greater exposure to more subtle language nuances of words and sounds), were readily apparent to these students.

• The ability to learn a foreign language was seen as an ability ingrained in some people, as students answered positively to questions that implied “Is the ability to learn a foreign language a measure of intelligence”, and “some people have the ability to learn a lot of foreign languages quickly”.

• The perception that learning foreign languages is a skill, (with some people naturally having more of it than others), persists in the sense that the students think it gets successively easier to learn more and more foreign languages. This idea persists in the responses to the question “Language learning is different from other school subjects”.

• The other factors, such as practice and effort were also given more importance, without any particular correlation to the aforementioned ability factors, which shows that ability does not necessarily counterbalance the importance of effort.

• Even though students reported being self-conscious while speaking the foreign language, they also gave the clarity of accent some priority. And they expressed their desire to go talk to a person speaking the foreign language, in order to practice. This highlights the repressed nature of the students in relation to their foreign language speaking skills.

• Pakistanis were thought to give extra importance to the ability to speak a foreign language, but they didn’t think they had any special ability to learn them, (most of the answers were“undecided”).

• The respondents were rather harsh on new speakers, saying that mistakes should not be allowed, for fear that they will be difficult to deal with later on. Though they allowed guessing unknown words.

• Speaking and understanding the language was seen as easier than reading and writing it, but the students saw no large difficulty gap between understanding a language and speaking a language.

• The students disagreed with learning methodology using grammar rules, giving more importance to learning translation, and learning new vocabulary.

After a lot of contemplation and study of the data collected, we finally concluded that people in Pakistan have a very contrasting approach when it comes to earning a second language may it be English or any other for that matter. According to the statistics a majority of the people are willing to learn English because it would supposedly open a window of life-changing opportunities. This trend is usually associated with Pakistanis.

However, when asked about whether or not bilingualism should start at an early age, most people were in favor of teaching a second language from a young age before their critical period ends as at that time the child has an impressive capability to take in a lot of information and process it. It was agreed by an astonishing margin that learning to speak a foreign language adeptly is far different from learning grammar and format. In order to catch up with the modern standards of English-speaking in the world, we would have to take drastic measures to ensure that we keep pace with the ever-changing world. For that to come about, we would have to change our language teaching standards in our primary schools with the chief focus towards public and remotely located schools.

This would have to happen as quickly as possible otherwise the fast-paced world would leave us behind and it might become too hard for us to catch up with them again.