University students' beliefs about foreign language learning, with a focus on Arabic and Swahili at United States HEA Title VI African studies centers.

摘要

This study investigated the beliefs about foreign language learning by first-month university students enrolled in one of eight beginning language classes. Based in part upon the research design and instrument of Elaine Horwitz (University of Texas), this study repeats her survey and descriptive analysis for students of French, German, and Spanish. In addition, it expands the model to include five less commonly taught languages, a more complex instrument, and the use of inferential statistics to test the hypothesis that students of less commonly taught languages differ in their beliefs about foreign language learning from students of commonly taught languages.;Since the passage of the National Defense Education Act in 1958, federal funds have financed Arabic and Swahili instruction at universities in order to increase the number of U.S. citizens proficient in these languages. Since the 1980s, research has focused on language learners at various points of instruction; however, few studies have examined the views of students of African languages.;This study sampled 424 students of whom 81 were studying Arabic and 53, Swahili. The instrument consisted of Horwitz's self-reporting measure--Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory, 13 additional statements on the same topics as in the original instrument, and a demographic section. English was the language medium of the survey. This research identified seven beliefs that were commonly held by students regardless of language, enrollment group, and language difficulty. It identified beliefs that were significantly different from the commonly taught languages. Then it contrasted the current results with those obtained by other scholars using versions of the BALLI. Finally, the design tested the "goodness of fit" of the statements associated with five themes used by Horwitz to describe beliefs.;Findings of this study provide strong evidence that, in the case of this sample, the language studied does influence the beliefs of students concerning foreign language learning. Students of Arabic and Swahili showed a preference for statements associated with communication strategies and people of the target language countries. The eight languages in this study as well as culture and social environment may have shaped beliefs of students.