Learners’ Beliefs and Communities Around Them: The Social Pressure to Learn Language

• Main Author: Munassir Alhamami
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2020-01-01
• Series: SAGE Open
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019898842

This study used a mixed-methods design to investigate the effects of language learners’ subjective norm (SN) beliefs on learning English as a foreign language (EFL). To examine the perceived social pressure to learn EFL, two experiments were conducted in a Saudi university: a face-to-face language learning (FLL) experiment and an online language learning (OLL) experiment. A total of 674 EFL learners participated in the FLL treatment, and 286 EFL learners participated in the OLL treatment. In addition, several interviews were conducted with participants from both groups. The results show that understanding the SN beliefs of particular groups of people can help predict EFL students’ perceived social pressure to engage or not in learning a foreign language in online and face-to-face settings. Comparing the results of both groups shows that EFL learners hold more positive SN beliefs toward learning language in face-to-face settings than in online settings due to the participants’ SN beliefs. This finding highlights the importance of understanding the social pressure confronting language learners.