摘要
自20世纪70年代起,二语习得的研究逐渐从有效教学法转向学习者自身。学习者个体差异性得到广泛关注。而学习观念是学习者个体差异的主要因素之一,它影响着其它各因素的形成。然而我国对学习观念的研究起步较晚,形式也仅限于学生间或教师间学习观念的单纬度比较,而将两者结合且对于高分组和低分组学生与教师学习观念比较的研究较少。
针对这一情况,笔者对河北师范大学140名英语专业大学三年级学生及其37位教师进行考察。考察工具以霍尔兹的外语学习信念调查问卷为模版,针对学生教师具体情况进行修改。旨在探寻英语专业学生及教师在英语学能、语言本质、语言难度、动机、策略及归因六方面所持的观念,以及学生与教师学习观念的异同对外语学习水平的影响。本文用描述性统计、皮尔森相关性分析以及独立样本T值检验对调查结果进行分析。
数据统计结果显示英语专业学生与教师学习信念在不同领域中有明显共性。在语言学能上,学生与教师都承认语言天赋,但更加注重后天努力。在英语学习难度方面,对于英语专业的学生来说,英语是一门难度一般的语言。他们认为英语学习是一个长期的过程。在语言本质方面,文化的重要性被学生与教师认同。而大学中的英语教学已由传统的语法教学转向实用教学。在学习策略上,学生和教师达到高度一致。这个结果为教与学的同步进行提供了良好的前提。值得注意的是,在动机方面,一些学生有为找到一份好工作而学英语的倾向,充分证实了加德纳的工具性动机理论。虽然教师与学生在大多数观念上都是一致的,但仍存在一些差异。教师并不认为女性比男性更善于学习英语。对于英语和其它学科不同这一问题上,教师的反应也并不如学生那样肯定。
在高分组学生和低分组学生在学习观念的异同上,研究表明高分组学生在学习、交际策略及学习动机观念上,两组学生的差异是他们外语水平差异的主要原因。在其他各方面的差异并不显著。但高分组学生对自己有更高的自信心,而低分组学生明显自信心不足。高分组学生与教师有明显的观念一致性,特别是在学习交际策略范畴上尤为显著。其观念一致性促使学生持有正确的学习态度和动机,从而帮助他们迅速获取知识。而低分组学生因为与教师观念的差异性,导致不能顺利跟上教学进度,适应教学方式,从而导致学习失去信心和兴趣。这是影响学习结果的重要因素之一。
因此,正确的学习观念在学习与教学过程中尤为重要。教学中要帮助学生树立正确的学习观念,培养自主学习的习惯,使其反思并寻求适合自己的学习交际策略,做出相应的学习计划。教师在教的过程中,提高自身专业化修养,反思中求发展,以日记,听课、与师生交流的形式,将正确的学习观念融入课堂,引导学生端正学习态度与动机,探求有效学习交际策略,从而形成和谐的教学氛围。
Linguistic researchers have shifted their focus from investigating effective teaching methods to exploring learners" individual difference since 1970s. Being an important clement in impacting on language learning and teaching, beliefs have become one of the key focuses for linguistics researchers. However, it was ignored in China till 1980s.
Growing evidence and researches on beliefs have shown the importance of them. Learners' and teachers' beliefs about language learning influence their behavior. Therefore this study aims to answer three questions to explore the general beliefs that English majors with high and low proficiencies and their teachers hold. Furthermore, if more similarities on beliefs with teachers lead to students" high proficiencies has been tried to clarify.
This study takes 140 English majors and 37 teachers as subjects. Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory and the achievement scores of TEM4 are used as instruments to collect quantitative data. The questionnaires are designed to elicit responses in six categories: foreign language aptitude, the difficulty of language learning, the nature of language learning, learning and communication strategies, motivations and attributions. The students are divided into two high and low proficient groups based on their TEM4 scores. The collected data according to the BALLI for students and teachers separately are analyzed with SPSSI3.0 using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlational analysis and independent-samples t-tests. Results indicate that students and teachers hold common beliefs and also differences exist in each category: they admit the existence of the gifted person, but pay more attention to effort; they consider English as a language of medium difficulty which needs long time to lcam. For college students and teachers, grammar is no longer the emphasis in learning and teaching, they focus on the culture aspects and influence.
As to the difference between students with high and low proficiencies and the similarity with the teachers in beliefs about language learning, students with high proficiencies hold more accordance in beliefs with their teachers, especially in the category of learning communication strategies. According to the results of Pearson correlational analysis, different beliefs in motivation and communication strategies are the main factors for their different proficiencies. The accordance in beliefs facilitate the students with high proficiencies to be more confident and active in learning, while the mismatch in beliefs becomes the obstacle for students with low proficiencies.
Further discussions are also processed followed by some significant implication both on students and teachers. Suggestions are proposed to develop facilitative beliefs and to prevent inhibitive beliefs. Students should be autonomous in learning and try to find their appropriate strategies. Teachers need to reflect themselves frequently and pay much attention to their professionalism. All the findings pave the way for the further researches in language learning and teaching.
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