An Investigation of English Learning Beliefs of Vocational High School Students in Southern Taiwan

• Main Authors: WU, CHUNG-WEI, 吳重緯
• Other Authors: CHANG, SHAO-HUA
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/21703691800064969415

碩士 === 南臺科技大學 === 應用英語系 === 105 === To enhance international competitiveness in the globalized world, Taiwan has decreed since 2001 that English be taught as a compulsory subject for elementary students, yet with many years of required English education, students in Taiwan, especially vocational high school students, have made little progress and only achieved lower proficiency in English (Wu, 2003). Therefore, the purpose of the study is to explore the English learning beliefs of 390 vocational high school students from southern Taiwan in terms of gender, length of time spent learning English, experiences of acquiring professional certificates, parental educational levels and job occupations as well as regional differences. To achieve a quantitative-qualitative study, the survey instrument used herein included two questionnaires (BALLI and SBIQ) and one interview guide, all of which were translated from English into Chinese. Results of this study showed that these students held divergent English learning beliefs, yet despite English being not an easy subject to learn, most students still exhibited a positive motivation toward it. Moreover, students’ English learning beliefs were found to be significantly related to gender, length of time spent learning English, parental educational levels and job occupations, and regional differences. To conclude, the results help contribute toward understanding Taiwanese vocational high school students’ English learning beliefs and shed light on an effective pedagogy for teaching English to Taiwanese vocational high school students.