The Descriptive Analysis of the Findings from the BALLI Questionnaire

investigate their beliefs about language learning. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Analyses of responses were based on the Horwitz’s (1988) original classification of five major areas such as difficulty of language learning, foreign language aptitude, the nature of language learning, learning and communication strategies, and motivation and expectation. BALLI does not provide a total score since it identifies students’ beliefs about language learning. For this reason, students’ responses to each item are handled distinctively. The overall frequency of each item, mean scores, percentages were calculated to determine participants’ beliefs about language learning.

The results were presented in the following pages for each of the five areas of BALLI.

The BALLI items 1, 2, 10, 15, 22, 29, 32, 33, 34 concern the existence of special ability for language learning and beliefs about features of successful and unsuccessful language learners. Table 1 reports the students’ responses concerning foreign language aptitude. As shown in Table 1, it was found out that majority of the students (75. 4%)

believed that it is easier for children than for adults to learn a foreign language while 9.

8% of the students were opposed to the idea (Statement 1). Moreover, 14.9% of the participants had no idea about this statement. As for the item concerning the existence of an ability to learn foreign languages (Statement 2), participants seemed to have different views about this belief. While 24 % of the participants agreed with the belief that people have special ability for learning foreign languages, the percentage of participants who disagreed with the idea was 35. 4%. On the contrary, 40.6% of the students who participated to this current study reported that they were uncertain regarding this belief. As for another item which states that it is easier for someone who already speaks a foreign language to learn another one (Statement 10), the quarter of the participants (25.1%) agreed with this belief while 45.1% of them did not believe in it. In addition, the percentage of the participants who were undecided about the item was found to be 29.7%. Furthermore, the study revealed that most of the participants (40.6%) supported the belief that they have special ability for learning a foreign language (Statement 15). Percentage of the participants who were undecided about this belief was 31.4%. Moreover, 28% percent of the participants believed that they did not have special ability to learn a foreign language. As for another item that women are better than men at learning foreign languages (Statement 22), 21.8% of the participants were found to have the similar beliefs. In other words, percentage of the participants believing that women are more qualified in learning a foreign language was 21. 8%

while the percentage of the participants who disagreed with this belief was 32%. On the other hand, almost half of the participants (46.3%) were undecided about this belief.

Considering another item which is “people who are good at mathematics or science are not good at learning foreign languages” (Statement 29), 52% of the participants seemed to show disagreement while 12% of the participants were found to agree or strongly agree with this belief. Also the percentage of the participants who were undecided about this belief was 36%. In other words more than half of the students (52%) believed that people who are good at mathematics and science can learn foreign languages easily. In addition, nearly half of the students (47. 4%) believed that people who speak more than one language are very intelligent (Statement 32). While 23.4 % of the participants were opposed to the belief, 29.1 % of the participants had no idea about the statement. Next, regarding the belief that “Turkish people are good at learning foreign languages”

(Statement33), 52.6 % of the participants were found to be undecided about it. What is more, 30.3 % of the students supported the belief whereas 17.2% of the participants

reported that they disagreed with the statement. As for the last item of the foreign language aptitude, the item that “everyone can learn to speak a foreign language”

(Statement 34) provides great inspiration for people starting to learn a new language.

Despite the fact that only a small percent (8.6%) of the participants responded that they disagreed and 9.7% of the participants were found to be uncertain considering this belief, great majority of the participants (81.7%) supported the belief that everyone can learn to speak a foreign language.

Table 1

Percentages and Frequencies of Beliefs about Foreign Language Aptitude Strongly quarter of the participants were found to be undecided about it. Likewise, Table 2 shows participants’ answers when they were asked whether they would learn to speak English very well or not (Statement 6). It was found that almost half of the students (49. 2%) believed that they will learn to speak English very well, whereas 16% of the participants were found to be hopeless about the belief. Additionally, the percentage of the participants who were undecided about this belief was 34. 9%. As for another item, that

“it is easier to speak than understand a foreign language” (Statement 24), it was clearly seen that 47.9 % of the students believed in this belief. While 33.1 % of the participants were undecided about it, 23.4% of the participants were found to be opposed to the idea that it is easier to speak than understand a foreign language. Lastly, it was found that the majority of the students (41.2%) believed that it is easier to read and write English than speak and understand it (Statement 28). The percentage of the participants who agreed or strongly agreed with this belief was 41. 2% while almost quarter of the students participating to the study (23.4%) showed disagreement. Also, 34.4 % of the participants did not have any idea about this belief.

Table 2

Percentages and Frequencies of Beliefs about Difficulty of Language Learning Strongly

disagree Disagree

Neither agree nor

disagree Agree

Strongly agree

N % n % N % n % n %

Statement3 10 5,7 9 5,1 56 32,0 70 40,0 30 17,1

Statement6 6 3,4 22 12,6 61 34,9 54 30,9 32 18,3 Statement24 15 8,6 19 10,9 58 33,1 60 34,3 23 13,1 Statement28 16 9,1 25 14,3 62 35,4 50 28,6 22 12,6

The instrument exploring the participants’ beliefs about language learning has two items having different response scales (Item 4 and Item 14). Table 3 shows the participants’ responses to the item 4 which is about the perceived difficulty of English.

Accordingly, English is: 1) a very difficult language, 2) a difficult language, 3) a language of medium difficulty, 4) an easy language, 5) a very easy language (Statement 4). According to results, nearly half of the students who participated to this study (48%) thought that English is a medium of difficulty language while 5. 1 % of the participants thought English to be very difficult language and 9.1% of the participants considered English as a very easy language to learn. Concurrently, participants constituting 24.6 % of the total saw English as an easy language while 13. 1% of the students perceived English as a difficult language.

Table 3 years, 5) you cannot learn a language in one hour a day (Statement 14), many students (21. 1 %) were found to state that it would take less than a year to learn a foreign language, and 24% of the students believed 1-2 years were enough to learn it with one hour of daily study. Moreover, 23.4% students were of the opinion that 3-5 years were needed to learn a foreign language and 12. 6% believed that 5-10 years would take to learn the language very well. Furthermore, 8.9% students considered that everyone cannot learn the language well in one hour of study per day.

Table 4 results showed that more than half of the participants (50. 3%) were found to disagree with this belief. On the contrary, 32% of the students reported that they were shy while speaking English with other people. Besides, 17.7 % of the participants were found to be undecided about this belief. As for the item that knowing about English speaking

cultures is important to speaking English (Statement 8), the percentage of the participants who had no idea about this belief was found to be 30.9%. Moreover, 42.9%

of the participants had parallel opinions to this belief and 26.3 % of the participants were found to disagree with the item. When taken into consideration the next item that

“English is best learnt in a country where is spoken as a first language” (Statement11), the majority of the participants preferred to learn English in a country where English is spoken as a first language. The results revealed that the percentage of the students agreeing with the idea was 73.7%. On the contrary, study found that 12% of the participants disagreed with this belief while 14. 3 % of the participants were uncertain about it. Similarly, most of the participants (76%) were aware of the importance of vocabulary in language learning (Statement 16). In other words, 76% of the students believed that learning a foreign language is achieved through learning new vocabulary.

However, only a small percent (7.4%) did not believe in this belief. At the same time, 16.6 % of the participants were found to be undecided about it. As for another item that

“a foreign language can be learnt through knowing its grammar rules” (Statement 20), participants believed that grammar is important in language learning. According to results, 60% of the participants thought that a foreign language can be learnt through knowing its grammar rules and surprisingly only small percent of the participants (10.8%) showed disagreement to the belief. Also, it was found that 29.1 % of the participants had no idea regarding this belief. In addition to these, the study found that 59.4% of the participants were of the opinion that learning English is different from learning other academic subjects (Statement 25). The percentage of the participants who disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement was 15. 5%. However, 25.1% of the students did not give any idea considering this belief. As for the last item that “learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of translating from English” (Statement 26), it was clearly seen that translation from native language into target one plays crucial role in learning the foreign language. According to analysis, study revealed that most of the participants (66. 2%) saw translation as crucial in learning a language and they believed that a foreign language can be learnt through translation. Only a tiny percent of the participants (10. 9%) was found to disagree with this belief and 22. 9 % of the participants were found to be undecided regarding this belief.

Table 5

Percentages and Frequencies of Beliefs about the Nature of Language Learning Strongly and communication strategies. Item 7 regards importance of excellent pronunciation.

Majority of the students (69. 8%) believed that it is important to speak a foreign language with an excellent pronunciation (Statement 7) while a small percent of participants (9. 2%) was found to disagree with this belief. However, 21.1 % of the students were uncertain about it. Moreover, it was found that half of the participants (51. 4%) were opposed to the belief that they should not say anything in English until they can say it correctly (Statement 9). While 22.9% of the participants were uncertain regarding this belief, quarter of the participants agreed with the item. In other words, participants constituting 51.4 % of the total believed that they do not have to wait to produce grammatically correct sentences. Moreover, study revealed that participants liked speaking English with its native speakers without feeling embarrassment (Statement12). In other words, it can be said that participants liked communicating in English and gave importance to meaningful practice. The percentage of the participants who agreed or strongly agreed with the item was 68% while less than quarter of the participants disagreed with it (12.6%). However, 19.4 % of the participants were double minded with this belief. As for the item that “It is ok to guess if you do not know a word in the foreign language” (Statement 13), most of the participants (61.7%) guessed the meaning of the unknown words in the foreign language while 21.1% of the participants did not believe in the item. What is more, percentage of the participants

who were uncertain regarding this belief was found to be 17. 1%. Results also showed that great majority of the participants (92. 6%) believed that it is crucial to repeat and practice in English (Statement 17). However, tiny percent of the participants objected to the belief while 3. 4% of the participants remained undecided about it. In addition to these, 29.2% of the participants agreed that they feel embarrassed while speaking English in front of other people (Statement 18) while nearly half of the participants (48.6%) disagreed with this belief. Yet, 22.3% of the participants were indecisive regarding this belief. Besides, as for the item that “if you allowed to make mistakes in the beginning, it will be hard to get rid of them later on” (Statement 19), study found that participants were aware of the fact that they will have difficulty in speaking English correctly later on if they are permitted to make errors in English at the beginning. In other words, students wanted their errors not to be fossilized. The percentage of the participants agreeing with this idea was 58.2 % while 17.1% of them showed disagreement. Almost one fourth of the participants (24.6%) were undecided about this belief as well. Last but not least, 62.3 % of the participants believed that it is important for the language learners to practice in language laboratories through cassettes or tapes (Statement 21). On the other hand, the percentage of the participants who disagreed with this idea was 10. 9 % while 26.9% of the students were undecided regarding this belief.

Table 6

Percentages and Frequencies of Learning and Communication Strategies Strongly

In the area of concerning motivation and expectations (see Table 7), 77.7 % of the participants wanted to learn English well (Statement 23) and they believed that they will have opportunities to use it on condition that they learn English well. However, 9.1% of the students did not believe in the item. Yet, 13.1% of the participants were found to be indecisive about it. As for another item, regarding the goal of learning English is just to have better opportunities for a good job (Statement 27), clear consistency could be seen between two items. Like statement 23, the percentage of participants who agreed with the belief was 77.7% as well. Therefore, it could be understood from the results that participants had extrinsic and instrumental motivation to learn the English. In other words, students were motivated to learn English to find a good job believing that knowing a foreign language would create opportunities in terms of their future careers. However, 7.4% of the participants showed disagreement and 14.

9% of the participants were uncertain considering this belief. Additionally, the results showed that the percentage of the participants showing agreement to the belief that Turkish people think that learning English is important (Statement 30) was 60% while small percent (9%) thought that it is unimportant. Also, the percentage of the participants who were undecided about this belief was 30. 9%. As for the last item in the area of communication and expectation that “I would like to learn English so that I can get to know the speakers better” ( Statement 31), almost half of the participants (49.8%) believed that they would like to learn English to know better people speaking English as a native language. However, 30.3% of them remained disagreed with this belief and the percentage of the participants who was uncertain regarding this belief was found to be 20%.

Table 7

Percentages and Frequencies of Beliefs about Motivation and Expectation Strongly

disagree Disagree

Neither agree nor

disagree Agree

Strongly agree

n % n % N % n % n %

Statement23 2 1,1 14 8,0 23 13,1 66 37,7 70 40,0

Statement27 4 2,3 9 5,1 26 14,9 53 30,3 83 47,4

Statement30 6 3,4 10 5,7 54 30,9 69 39,4 36 20,6 Statement31 14 8,0 39 22,3 35 20,0 61 34,9 26 14,9