English Learning Beliefs of EFL Vocational High School Learners

ABSTRACT 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. The paper is to explore the English learning beliefs of 390 vocational high school students from southern Taiwan in terms of gender, length of time spent on 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 to include two questionnaires (BALLI and SBIQ) and one interview guide. The 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 on 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 EFL vocational high school learners.