Definition of Beliefs Theoretical Review

11 themselves, about the learning situation, and about the target community. For this reason, Horwitz 1988 clarifies beliefs as “student opinions on a variety of issues and controversies related to language learning” as well as Hosenfeld 1978 in Ellis 2008:698 consider belief as ‘mini theories’ of L2 learning, which is formed by language learner, and it shapes the way the students set about the learning tasks. It means beliefs have more complete element than perception since it comes from the student itself and any other component surround the learning process, such the learning atmosphere and about the target community Some researchers proposed that some beliefs are beneficial to learners while others argue that some beliefs can lead to negative effects on language learning. For instance, Mantle-Bromley 1995 suggested that learners who have positive attitudes and realistic language-related beliefs are more likely to behave in a more productive way in learning than those who have negative attitudes and mistaken beliefs. Similarly, M ori 1999 claimed that positive beliefs can compensate for learners’ limited abilities. In contrast, Horwitz 1987 was concerned that some misconceptions or erroneous beliefs may undermine learners’ success in language learning. Those claims strengthen the potency of beliefs for the success of language learning. “Although, learner beliefs may be regarded as a stable body of knowledge, they may change over time ” Wenden, 1999. It means, though, the students beliefs are negative at one time; still, it can be driven into the positive one. So, the classroom atmosphere should facilitate the students to have positive beliefs. With the great potency of learner beliefs in language learning context, many studies on second language acquisition have been conducted for more than two 12 decades in order to understand beliefs bring to class because this information may help to design language classes and curricular that accommodates learners’ beliefs. In investigating learner beliefs, there are several elements that need be considered as the prominent one. This is based on the claim that beliefs consider as “implicit theories” Clarck, 1988, “self-constructed representational systems” Rust, 1994 and general assumptions that learner hold about themselves as learners, about factors influencing language learning and about the nature of language learning and teaching Victori and Lockhart, 1995 in Bernat, 2007:1. Therefore, in conducting a study on students’ beliefs about language learning, it should examine the nature of language learning, i.e. a what learner hold as learner about language, b language skills, c language learning, and d how they see their selves as a learner as well as the factors influencing language learning such as e self-esteem and f learning sources.

a. Beliefs about the nature of language

This part related to how students view a language. Richards and Rodgers 1986 describe three theoretical views of the theory of language into structural, functional and interactional. These three views have each conception of what language is. Richards and Rodgers Richards Rodgers, 2001, p. 20-22 describe those views as follow. The structural view sees language as a system of phonological, grammatical and lexical elements for coding meaning. From the structuralist perspective, language learning is mastering these elements. This early view gave rise to such methods as Audiolingualism ALM and Total Physical Response TPR. The 13 structural view give emphasis on learning language is to knowing its structural rules and vocabulary. Then, the functional or communicative view sees language as a vehicle for expressing functional meaning, emphasizing semantics and communication over the grammatical characteristics of language while not excluding that aspect. From the functionalist perspective, language learning is mastering communicative functions and meaning. The functional view adds the need to know how to use the rules and vocabulary to do whatever it is one wants to do. Meanwhile, the interactional view sees language as the means of creating and maintaining social relations. From this perspective, language learning is achieving competence in initiating and maintaining conversations. This view gave rise to idea of language as a social process characteristic of Community Language Learning CLL. The interactional view says that to know how to do what one wants to do involve also knowing whether it is appropriate to do so, and where, when and how it is appropriate to do it. In order to know this, the learner has to study the patterns and rules of language above the sentence level to learn how language is used in different speech contexts. Also, b eliefs about the nature of English refer to “what aspects of English learners find as difficult or easy, and about the status of English comparison to other language such as English is much more difficult to learn than other languages” and “The most difficult part of learning English is learning grammar” Richard Lockhart, 2005:52.