Abstract

The research aims to explore minority students’ English learning beliefs, focusing on the present situation of that. Two questions will be researched:  (1) What is the present situation of Uygur students’ English learning beliefs from Grades Four to Nine? (2) What are the factors that affect the Uygur students’ English learning beliefs?

Questionnaire and interview are the research instruments of the research. The study performs a statistical analysis on some Uygur students’ learning beliefs. These students come from a school what consists of primary school and middle school in Xinjiang. The main findings are as follows: 

(1) The underdeveloped educational equipment, conservative concepts and obsolete teaching methods limit the Uygur students’ English learning to a great extent. The isolated learning environment cannot effectively guide the Uygur students to establish positive learning beliefs of English learning. At the same time, English is the Uygur students’ third language, which explains why they have less interest in English learning.

(2) Teachers, together with the educational situation play an important role in building up Uygur students’ English learning beliefs.

 The above findings suggest that we need to lead the Uygur students to build up positive learning beliefs intentionally and lay down efficient strategies on the basis of particularity of Uygur students.

Key words: minority students; English; learning beliefs

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

1.1 Significance of the study-1

1.2 Research objectives and structure of this thesis-2

2 Literature review-2

2.1 Researches of students’ learning beliefs at home and abroad-2

2.2 Definitions of students’ learning beliefs-3

2.3 Components of students’ learning beliefs-4

3 Research methodology-5

3.1 Research questions-5

3.2 Research subjects-5

3.3 Research instruments-5

3.4 Data collection and analysis-6

4 Results and discussion-6

4.1 Views on learning methods-6

4.2 Views on learning skills-9

4.3 Views on influencing -10

5 Conclusion and suggestions-11

5.1 Conclusion-11

5.2 Suggestions-12

References-14

Appendix I: Questionnaire-16

Appendix II: Interview outline-17