Sunday, December 11, 2011

The Natural approach

The Natural Approach-Krashen




Description of Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition
Krashen's theory of second language acquisition consists of five main hypotheses:
the Acquisition-Learning hypothesis,
the Monitor hypothesis,
the Natural Order hypothesis,
the Input hypothesis,
and the Affective Filter hypothesis.






Language Learning vs Language Acquisition


Second language acquisition is different from foreign language learning for different aspects.
Acquiring a language is a process that takes place naturally. The person is not aware of structures and rules. The person repeats and imitates what he/she sees and listens to.
That process also takes place in an immersion context. The learner is currently using the language and is more exposed to it, not only in a school, but in everyday life.
In the process of learning a foreign language the process is more conscious. The learner is aware of the rules. The exposure to the language is less, sometimes it only consists on the time of the lesson.

In addition, the language learnt is more standardized, whereas a student acquiring a second language is able to learn vocabulary and expressions that are currently used.

I think that SLA has advantage on FLL for phonology, semantics and pragmatics. Students are more exposed to native speakers; therefore, they are more able to imitate the pronunciation. As mentioned above, they can learn the meaning of words by using them in a real context so missuses are less frequent and they can learn to interpret the what people really mean when speaking.

In contrast, foreign language instruction, despite communicative language teaching and constructivism, still focuses on grammar teaching; therefore students are more aware of rules and sentence formation. 

Gass, S., & Selinker, L. (2001). Second language acquisition. LEA. Pp. 1-13. 


VS 




Second Language Acquisition in Early Childhood

Some authors consider language acquisition a different from second language learning, based on the premise that the former is a natural process, similar to the first language acquisition process.
The presentation above describes the stages of the process. Second Language Acquisition
View more presentations from Marisol Smith

Student Engagement & Motivation Strategies & Tips




This video will help teachers with classroom management to provide an effective learning environment by creating a culture of engagement and motivation for their students. Administrators can also use this video to provide staff development to their teachers and staff helping them with classroom management and engagement. This video emphasizes engagement, motivation, building relationships, and Checking for Understanding (CFU). This is part two which is more about engagement and motivation to provide opportunity for student and teacher success. Learning cannot happen without a safe, secure, and comfortable learning environment for students that provides engagement and makes students feel valued. All stakeholders; administrators, teachers, and students will benefit from the tips and strategies illustrated in this video. 

Practical Strategies to Overcome Fossilization

Practical Strategies to Overcome Fossilization

There is no real rule determining when certain users may begin to fossilize. It varies widely by the individual and by the environment in which the language is learned. Fossilization often means that certain aspects of the language were learned incompletely or incorrectly, such as grammatical features like conjugating verbs in the wrong fashion or using the wrong vocabulary, in such a manner that they cannot be unlearned and replaced with correct usage. Fossilization may also consist of a sort of subconscious clinging to aspects of the learner's mother tongue, for instance, with syntax and phonology.
What are fossilized errors?

•    A mistake that students know is wrong but keep making.
•    An error from force of habit which students no longer know they are making.
•    Something that students learnt wrong and now need to change.
•    An error that students can correct when focused but still make on their own.
•    A mistake that recurs despite constant correction.
•    An error based in L1 interference that is made by many speakers.
•    Mistakes that teachers may not “hear” after a number of years teaching in a particular      context (and therefore do not correct).
•    A mistake that has been repeated so that it sounds right to the learner.

We tried to come up with ideas about why errors become fossilized. 

What actually causes fossilization?

•    Fossilization is due to L1 interference and is a natural feature of interlanguage      development.
•    Lack of correction.
•    The connection between interlanguage and errors.
•    Method of instruction.
•    Errors that come from previous stages of learning (especially with older students).
•    Linear modes of instruction increase the chance of fossilization.
•    When students realize they can make a mistake and be understood, it can become      fossilized.
•    Lack of learner autonomy – reliance on correction by teacher.


Practical Ideas to Overcome Fossilization

•    Recording students – you could play the recording, ask for general impression, give them   the typescript, have them correct their own or peer’s errors.
•    Have students self correct and peer correct, which is more effective than teacher      correction.
•    Playing games with individual mistakes or common errors.
•    Focus on one error at a time, stopping students and having them correct it before moving   on.
•    Give students a funny look when they make a fossilized error – they will realize something is wrong and correct them (not to be tried with new or very shy students!)
•    Discover and clarify why and how errors occur.
•    Personalized “fossil” diaries where students record their particular errors.
•    Focus on fossilized errors at the end of an activity.
•    Keep a “fossil” dictionary.
•    Dictations using common errors.
•    Write answers/problems on the board to discuss as a class.
•    Error diaries – students observe themselves out of class and report back on their usage.
•    Have a wiki – each student has their own page for errors.
•    Don’t correct individual students on the spot, but save errors for class correction at the      end.
•    Students must be invested in correcting the error.
•    Motivate students to experiment with language.
•    Ask some students to be monitors and write down what they hear during speaking      activities.
•    Recording students can make students more careful – karaoke effect.
•    Explain the consequences of mistakes, especially embarrassing ones.
•    Students as teachers – note down errors for constructive feedback in groups.
•    Have students mimic different accents (this cuts down on inhibitions that cause mistakes).
•    Mixing correct and incorrect sentences on the board and asking students to spot those      with errors.

Second Language Acquisition

Krashen´s Second Language Acquisition Theory






"Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill." Stephen Krashen



According to Schütz (2007) "The Input hypothesis is Krashen's attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second language... The Input hypothesis is only concerned with 'acquisition', not 'learning'. According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along the 'natural order' when he/she receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence. For example, if a learner is at a stage 'i', then acquisition takes place when he/she is exposed to 'Comprehensible Input' that belongs to level 'i + 1'. Since not all of the learners can be at the same level of linguistic competence at the same time, Krashen suggests that natural communicative input is the key to designing a syllabus, ensuring in this way that each learner will receive some 'i + 1' input that is appropriate for his/her current stage of linguistic competence."



Reference:



http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html

Language Learning Strategies

In the following presentation, learning strategy definitions, taxonomies and approaches for instruction are presented.



Cognitive Development - Stage 4 - Formal Operational

During the Formal Operational stage children develop their capacity of deductive logic. This means that problem solving is not limited to concrete thinking (present objects). This video shows how children at this stage are able to engage in abstract thinking.


Piaget, J., Inhelder, B. (1969). The Psychology of the Child. Morata. París.

Teaching Strategies

This educational video on Individual learner differences explains that students not only differ in age, level of education and socioeconomical background but also in others issues such as personality traits, learning styles and cognitive development. Definitely, this video presents useful strategies that we can implement day by day in the classroom and show the great importance of the teachers’ role.


 



Individual Differences



In this presentation you will find all learners' individual differences and their characteristics.

Pragmatics in ELT

Teaching pragmatics is important in language teaching. Learners should know what language is appropriate in certain situations, in order to avoid misunderstandings. 

The following presentation defines the concept of pragmatics and give a series of Do's and Don'ts when teaching pragmatics.




The following sties provide further explanation about pragmatics in ELT:




A lesson for teaching pragmatics:




Language Learning Strategies

When teaching a second language, we as teachers should take into account individual differences and how those differences might influence the way our students learn and influence on their profiency achievement and success in second language learning. Individual differences such as the language strategies that students use in order to learn the target language as well as their learning style should be considered by the teacher.


Here we have a set of videos by Dianna Murphy, Associate Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Language Institute where she presents someinformation related to these issues.




video 1. Learning Strategies





video 2. Learning Styles





video 3. Learning Styles and Language Learning Strategies

Cognitive Development - Stage 1 - Sensorimotor

This video shows how children are in their way of developing object permanence, which refers to the ability to understand that things exist even when you are not looking at them. The development of object permanence occurs during the Sensorimotor stage.


Piaget, J., Inhelder, B. (1969). The Psychology of the Child. Morata. París.

Learning Strategies. How Does the Learner Deal with the Process of Learning

Learning Strategies
How Does the Learner Deal with the Process of Learning?

In our experience as learners and as teachers we are day by day more aware about the process of learning and all the different aspects we have to take into consideration. Until now, we realize that process of learning is not only a cognitive process but also it is the interaction of different factors such as sociocultural background, gender, age, affective factors, learning styles and strategies, and also teachers’ attitudes and school conditions. It is in other words the use of mental process and feelings together with communicative skills in an active in order to solve difficulties while learning and more importantly while facing real problems in life.
Williams and Burden (1997) point out how learners draw upon their existing skills and knowledge and use their personal learning strategies in the process of learning. It has to do of how students are aware of their own way of learning. To understand this complicated task, these authors explain what they mean by skills and strategies. On one hand, skills are in relationship of cognitive processes. They are all the resources we have to carry out an activity. But the correct use of them in a purposeful way when appropriate is what is involved by learning strategies. There are many different strategies people use in order to succeed while learning and they can be used consciously and unconsciously.   Strategies can be cognitive, that is, they can involve mental processing, or they can be social and effective where awareness is involved. Also, as learning is not a passive activity, learning strategies can change and thus be learned.
According to Williams and Burden (1997) there has been a considerable amount of descriptive research on learning strategies. Since learning a language is a communicative and social task it is seen differently among people. For that reason there are different learning strategies classifications. Rubin (1981) suggests that there are three major types of strategies used by learners which can contribute directly or indirectly to language learning. The first group is called learning strategies and contribute directly to the language. This group includes six main cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies which are used to supervise, regulate, and self-direct learning. The second group contributes indirectly to learning and is formed by the communication strategies which are those used when people come across any difficulty in communication because of the inappropriate use of the knowledge of the language. The last group also contributes indirectly to learning and is form by social strategies which are activities learners do in order to be more exposure to the target language.
Another categorization of learning strategies is the one developed by Rebecca Oxford (1990). She provides twelve features of language learning. Later on she provides a more detailed classification. She divides the strategies in two main groups: direct and indirect. Each one is subdivide into three groups. Direct strategies include memory, cognitive strategies, and compensation strategies. The other one includes metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies.
Teachers and students have to be aware that learning is a dynamic process and that both teacher and students make use of different learning strategies to solve problems. These learning strategies can change through time. One Teachers’ goal has to be that students make use of better strategies and in a better way and then guide them in a way to let them be autonomous. As learning is not a mechanical process, metacognitive, communicative, social, and effective strategies have to be taken into account to get a more holistic learning which is required nowadays. However, creating autonomy on students is a complicated task. It involves both the teachers and students’ roles and the adequate conditions where the strategy training is carried out.
Strategy training involves teaching thinking and learning skills. For that there are specific designed programs. The most known and employed program is the Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichement (IE). Its purpose is to identify aspects of thinking such as making comparisons, categorizing, and organizing our thoughts and creating interferences. Somerset Thinking Skills Programme and Lipman’s Philosophy for children are others programs which are designed to teach thinking skills.
The programs mentioned above and many other published works are aimed at learners and neglect in some way the teachers’ role. For that reason Strategic Teaching Model by Jones (1987) emphasized the role teachers play in learning. Its six assumptions guide teachers in their preparation and presentation of their lessons. Another model is the Process-based Instruction by Ashman and Conway (1989) which with after suffering some variation the final model involves assessment, orientation, strategy development, intra-task transfer, consolidation and generalization. The model help teachers how to deal with each of these phases.
There are a number of models about strategy training that try to cover and reach the goals of making students autonomous and leading their own learning. However, the appropriate use of those strategies training and the awareness that they are affected by context, culture and differences between individuals can be useful to help students to be able to solve problems and go further than just memorizing as the Bill mentioned in the reading.

References:
Williams, S. & Burden, R. (1997) Psychology for language teachers. Cambridge: CUP



The importance of teaching pronunciation

Teaching pronunciation is sometimes left aside in EFL classes. 


Although teacher cannot oblige students to achieve a native like pronunciation, it is important to make them aware of differences that can also affect meaning of words and therefore semantics. 


The following video exemplifies the importance of teaching pronunciation.







The following sites offer different techniques to teach pronunciation:

How to teach pronunciation

Techniques for teaching pronunciation

Teaching pronunciation lesson plans

Rules for teaching pronunciation

Teaching minimal pairs: 



Strategies for Teaching ESL students in Your Classroom

According to Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008), teachers’ motivational strategies involve in some way the creation of basic motivational conditions when they worry about a good classroom atmosphere. They also worry about generating initial motivation when they try to increase students’ interests of success and bring relevant materials to the class. Giving students’ feedback is a way of encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation. This motivational video will give some simple tools you can use to improve your way of teaching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ub0NJ6UClI


Guilloteaux, M., Dörnyei, Z. (2008). Motivating Language Learners: A Classroom-Oriented Investigation of the Effects of Motivational Strategies on Student Motivation. TESOL QUARTERLY, 42, 1. Pp. 55-77.

Developmental Stages

This is a video that explains the four stages of cognitive development of Piaget.

Engaging and motivating students

The following video discusses the importance of creating a collaborating learning environment to engage and motivate students, the role of the teaching for effectively facilitating students interaction, strategies for motivating students to participate, and how to encourage participation in collaborative online activities.




Subido por en 19/01/2011

English Pronunciation: Some Common Mistakes


This video is very helpful to be aware of the importance to know the appropriate use of the English sounds.


The Vowel Sounds in Received Pronunciation



This video will help you to identify not only sounds but also when the sounds are used in words.


Tips to motivate students in the ESL classroom

Teaching is a complex process, we as teachers have to take many things into account not only the topic of the lesson, the material, the methology to be used, students assessment but also we have to think about the students, their motivation, their learning process, the activities they do to learn, the aptitude they have to learn the language, their attitude towards the language, their emotions and many other individual factors that may affect or influence the way they learn.

Demotivated students might have some problems of participation, low interest, negative attitude towards the lesson and therefore, they usually have problems in the learning language process.

Here we have some videos that give us some tips about how to motivate our students in the ESL classroom.



Subido por en 18/11/2009
Interview with an experienced language teacher about student motivation in the language classroom




Subido por en 18/11/2009
Interview with an experienced language teacher about student motivation in the second language classroom

The Importance of Phonetics in Second Language Learning

Phonetics helps you to pronounce words correctly and improve your writing and reading skills. This video will help you to learn the basics of phonetics which are quite important for getting an integral second language learning.



Sociolinguistics... an Overview

Teaching a language does not imply the simple learning of the language itself but the sharing the knowledge about the culture of that language, be it a single country or more. Many societal aspects influence the development of languages, their policies, their uses, their status, their evolution. 

Teachers of English or of any other languages should take those aspects into account in the language teaching process. 

Sociolingusitics is a part of linguistics that studies the interaction between society and language.


This video presents a brief overview of the filed of study of Sociolinguistics. 



What is Psychology?



Theories of Learning

Psychology is the scientific study of mental functions and behavior including:

Perception, cognition, behavior, emotion, personality, and interpersonal relationships.


Kaplan (1990) describes educational psychology as the application of psychology to education by focusing on the development, evaluation and application of theories and principles of learning and instruction that can enhance lifelong learning.  This means that as teachers we should not only focus on knowledge, on transmitting or sharing it, but in how useful and meaningful it will be for students’ lives and we should be more concerned about educating the whole person. The theories to be mentioned proposed different ways on which we should teach and how students should learn. All of them take into account different characteristics of the learners and the learning processes, however I believe that mixing them together and, taking what is useful for our own students is the best way to create that whole person mentioned.
The major theories of learning have been classified into three groups:

1.Behaviorist theories:

Focuses on stimulus response and reinforcers;
Studies conditioning, modifying, or shaping behavior through reinforcement and rewards

2. Cognitive theories:

Focuses information processing in relation to the total environment
Studies developmental stages, understanding, multiple forms of intelligence, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity.

3. Phenomenological and Humanistic theories:

Focuses on the whole child, their social, psychological, and cognitive development.
Studies focus on human needs, attitudes, feelings and self-awareness.

Characteristics of the Piagetian Stages of Cognitive Development

The Cognitive Developmental Stages of Piaget:


Tiffany Davis, Meghann Hummel, and Kay Sauers (2006)

Characteristics of each stage:

1. The sensorimotor stage (0 - 2 years)
Appearance of self-preservation instincts.
Assimilation of new information.
Development of sensori-motor reactions, reflexes and first schemata.
Perception of object permanence.
Problem solving by sudden mental operations.

2. Preoperational stage (2 - 7 years)
Egocentrism (children are unable to understand other than their own perceptions).
Perception of object conservation (objects change place without alteration of their physical properties of matter).

3. Concrete operational stage (7 - 11 years)
Problem solving involving concrete thinking (present objects).
Full development of perception of object permanence.
Development of inductive logic.

4. Formal operational stage (adolescence - adulthood)
Problem solving involving concrete and abstract thinking.
Development of deductive logic.

Piaget, J., Inhelder, B. (1969). La Psicología del Niño. Morata. París.

Theories of Learning




This is a visual presentation of the main learning theories: Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. In this presentation you will see the main features of these theories.
Behaviorism
Key Players:
1. Thorndike – Connectionism
2. Pavlov (and Watson) – Classical Conditioning
3. Skinner – Operant Conditioning
4. Bandura – Observable Learning and Modeling
5. Gagné – Hierarchical Learning
Cognitivism
Key Players:
1. Maria Montessori- Sensory stimulation from the environment shapes thinking.
2. Jean Piaget- Cognitive Development stages
3. Lev Vygotsky- theory of sociocultural development
Constructivism
Key Players:
1. John Dewey- Functional Psychology
2. Jerome Bruner- Cognitive and developmental psychology
3. Lev Vygotsky- theory of sociocultural development
4. Jean Piaget- Cognitive Development stages
4. Maria Montessori- Sensory stimulation from the environment shapes thinking.

Motivation

Motivation
Motivation has been defined  by Keller (1983) as the magnitude and direction of behavior; whereas Garner (1985) in the Socio-educational model, stated that motivation is  a combination of  the desire to learn the target language along with a positive attitude towards goals and the effort to achieve them. Motivation is an individual difference that influences the process of learning a second language. According to Garder & Lambert (1972) highly motivated students are more likely to perform better and to actively participate in learning tasks than less motivated students. Moreover, Dörnyei and Guilloteaux (2008) stated that “without sufficient motivation, individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long term goals”.
In the English classroom, one of the roles of teachers is to be motivators, we have to constantly motivate our students and nurture that motivation through the learning process. Sometimes, learning a language can be a long and difficult process for some students and in these cases motivation can make the difference between succeeding or failing. In order to generate and maintain students´ motivation teachers need to make use of different motivational strategies which are defined by Dörnyei and Guilloteaux (2008) as: “…instructional interventions applied by the teacher to elicit and stimulate student motivation…” In 2001, Dörnyei produced a taxonomy that proposed a system of four dimensions to categorize the motivational strategies:
  • Creating basic motivational conditions: The teacher has to create a friendly and pleasant atmosphere, so students can feel secure and confident to learn. If students feel comfortable they will be more motivated to use the language and to participate. Besides, it is related to the relationship that teachers create with students during the lesson. At this point rapport has to be established by the teacher.

  • Generating initial motivation: It refers to the strategies that teachers can use to make student interested to learning the language. This can be done by preparing interesting and attracting lessons for students or by making emphasis on the benefits of learning the language.

  • Maintaining and protecting motivation: It means to stimulate students with enjoyable tasks or to provide students with opportunities for them to use the language with activities according to their level and capacity so they can succeed and have a feeling of achievement. This dimension is very important because sometimes even if students started the course motivated if we don´t nurture this motivation it can decrease; for example when we do not prepare our classes and we use only the activities from the textbook.

  • Encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation: It emphasizes the importance of positive feedback, so students can know what they have achieved. Moreover, teachers need to teach students to be reflective about their own learning and to encourage self-evaluation.
Guilloteaux, M., Dörnyei, Z. (2008). Motivating Language Learners: A Classroom-Oriented Investigation of the Effects of Motivational Strategies on Student Motivation. TESOL QUARTERLY, 42, 1. Pp. 55-77.

More about the Sensorimotor Stage (0 - 2 years)


This is a helpful link if you want to know more about the Sensorimotor Stage of cognitive development. This includes an audio and text description.

http://www.wadsworthmedia.com/psychology/now/developmental-LMs/sensorimotor_stage.html

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Teachers' Beliefs about Language Teaching and Learning



Reyes & Reyes (2010) carried out a research about students' learning beliefs at the University of Quintana Roo. Based on this research, a group of teachers of English as a foreign language and students at the Education Masters degree in the same university shared their beliefs about language learning. 




Teacher Abby's beliefs

This works contributes mainly to the field of beliefs in second language learning in what it is the changing nature of beliefs which has been found in other studies. This research helps in closing a little bit more the circle of second language learning contextual approaches to students’ and teachers’ beliefs by presenting findings of a study done with Mexican participants. As the results corroborate the dynamism of students’ beliefs in a very different context, such as ours, it can help other investigators support their results as well as motivate Mexican researchers to do their own contributions to the matter.


As language teachers, this study can help us in various aspects. First, the category ‘El buen maestro de inglés’ is a highlight for us, it helps us realize the conceptions and expectations students have about their language teachers, which can either help us improve our teaching methods or motivate us trace our way towards becoming a ‘good teacher’. This study, being local, results even more helpful given that what the study is showing reflects students’ needs of our immediate environment.


Moreover, students’ beliefs, conceptions and expectations about what it means to learn English for students, can guide our teaching, not to mention our own perceptions of learning a second language. Additionally, as it points out in the implications of the study, it is important to take into account findings in terms of students’ functional and disfunctional beliefs about language learning in order to direct our teaching towards changing or avoiding the creation of the disfunctional ones.


Moreover, as researchers, this is a study that can work as an example of how we can carry out a study of a similar nature. Personally, it contains some features of my own particular study that can help as a guide. On the other side, carrying out similar studies demands to take into account this research due to its shared context and characteristics.


Teacher Astrid's beliefs

I think this reading made ​​me think a lot about my own experience as a language student and teacher, about the  beliefs  that we can have about how and why to learn a language, and how knowing a language can bring us more and better opportunities.

I find it very interesting that now students are more aware of what they want, of what they need to do to be successful, and how assembling all this we can get better and more prepared students, ready to face the real world. I believe that one of the great contributions of this work is to see how now students are more aware of all the learning strategies that exist and that they can apply according to their needs.

Students are more aware of what it takes to be a better language learner. I found remarkable how the translation of the L2 into the mother tongue has slowly stopped being necessary for the understanding of the L2 and that now students are conscious that this is one of the strategies they need when they start learning a language.

One of the most difficult tasks we have as teachers is to teach our students that they do not have to translate everything into Spanish to understand the meaning or sense of a sentence. I believe that these findings can be very helpful for language students and teachers but not for regular students who only study English as a requirement and who do not give their best during the learning process.






 Teacher Irma's beliefs


Students have different beliefs about learning a second language, those beliefs influence their behavior in the classroom and their attitude towards learning the language. According to Abraham y Vann, 1987) students´ beliefs are factors that might influence their own motivation positively or negatively, the learning strategies they use and affect their performance.  These beliefs are based on students’ observation, or previous experiences and they seem to be an important factor in students’ success or failure to learn the target language.

It is important for us as teachers to be aware of our students’ expectations, preconceptions and beliefs about our role as teachers, their own role as students, the materials to be used, the activities, the culture of English spoken countries and the language itself. If teachers were more conscious about the importance of these beliefs, they would be able to modify them or to encourage them. For instance, teachers might discuss these beliefs and expectations with students at the beginning of the course; this might give them an idea of the students´ future behavior and performance. Sometimes students have different ideas about learning the language because they had a bad previous experience and they come to class biased against learning the language, they have then a bad attitude towards the class and are demotivated. In order to change this, students beliefs have to be analyzed and modified  with the teacher help through activities that can refute them or at least to demonstrate students that beliefs change depending on experience and context.



Teacher Lucia's Beliefs



This research about beliefs and expectations of students at the English Language Major allows teachers to know the meaning of English Language learning for them. Therefore, teachers can have a picture about students’ motivation and expectations, the strategies students use.


It is important for teachers to know what students think about English, the way they feel about the language. Students at the English language major like English either it is easy or difficult for them. Students at other majors have to study English because it is  mandatory,  as a result many students who don’t like the language feel intimidated, they find it difficult and fail.


If teachers are aware of the beliefs and expectations of students towards the language, it would be easier for them to find a way to approach students and persuade them to study English, not just because it is a requisite, but because it is a tool that will help them with other subjects and even in their future jobs. In addition, teachers can come up with the techniques that best suit students’ needs, beliefs and above all, techniques that meet their expectations.

This paper has settled bases for researchers who are interested in studying students’ beliefs and it would be very interesting to know how students feel about English language not only at the English language major, but in all majors. 

Certainly all students feel and think differently; however, it is possible that students who are in the same major have similar beliefs and expectations. Hence, findings about those differences and similarities are important because teachers could take them into account to develop ESP programs that are adequate to every major. As a result, students will feel more comfortable and motivated to learn the language.


Beliefs are determined by experience and culture. The more a teacher know her students, the better she would be able to approach them and help them have a successful language learning process.




Teacher Mary's beliefs


Research in second language learning always finds out important information that brings important benefits for education in general. The qualitative research carried out by Reyes & Reyes (2010) shows specifically students beliefs towards learning English as a foreign language.


There are many contributions that this research brings to the foreign language leaning field. First of all, the questions students were asked pointed out their real interests for studying English. Although those interests are merely instrumental and some of them functional, these results can help teachers to improve or change their strategies according to students’ expectations.


Awareness can be another contribution of this research. Undoubtedly, this research results make both teachers and students to have a better idea of their teaching and learning situations respectively.  As the results are based on students’ beliefs that are just entering to the major, it is easier that their functional beliefs can be promoted through the entire major with strategies that teachers can come up with since the beginning.


This research also comes up with the possibility of making changes on the curricula. Students are aware of strategies that are outdate such as translation and prefer to be taught with strategies that make them to be more in contact with the language. For that teachers have to be well prepared for the demands that new students require.


Culture is important to be highlighted. Most of the time textbooks and teachers base their activities on American culture without taking into account other cultures where English is spoken. If students found American culture unattractive, it makes teachers aware and forces them to make an effort to teach them other cultures that are of great importance in this globalized world. 


All in all, this research gives us many benefits such as being persistent in improving our way of teaching and do more research that take into account students beliefs, expectations and feelings.




References: 



Reyes Cruz, M.R & Reyes Cruz. E. (2010).  Aprender inglés, creencias y expectativas.