Motivation and Beliefs of English Under-achievers in the Remedial Program—A Case Study

• Main Authors: Chia-Wei Fan, 樊家瑋
• Other Authors: Hsiu-Hui Su
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/38767182847608758456

碩士 === 朝陽科技大學 === 應用外語研究所 === 99 === This study aims to explore the changes of those under-achieved students’ learning beliefs and motivation in English remedial course as well as the correlation between motivation and beliefs. The researcher designed a case study to obtain deep exploration and understanding of students’ journey of mind in English learning. The participants were 37 freshmen, placed in the Starters through the placement test administrated by Foreign Language Center, Chaoyang University of Technology. The placement test levels students in Starters, Basic, Intermediate, and High-intermediate. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted. The research involved a survey, comprised of two sets of questionnaires concerning learning beliefs and motivation. In qualitative method, the researcher utilized triangulation to collect data from at least three sources, including observation, interview, class teacher’s teaching log, and students’ reflection diary. The results of this study revealed that majority of under-achievers have significantly enhanced motivation toward English learning. However, positive changes were not carried over to participants’ learning beliefs in this semester. On the other hand, the participants’ learning motivation was significantly associated with their learning beliefs. From the additional findings, some of students mentioned they not only applied phonics rules to pronounce and memorize new vocabularies, but also kept them in mind for long time. To conclude, this study may be of importance in utilizing English remedial course to enhance under-achievers’ learning motivation and beliefs, as well as in providing English teachers with a better understanding of under-achievers’ learning difficulties and journey of mind in English learning.