Differences between males and females’ beliefs about English language learning

Authors

  • Juan Fernando Gómez Paniagua Tecnológico de Antioquía - Institución Universitaria

Keywords:

Communicative competence, language beliefs, skills development, gender differences, learning methods

Abstract

The current research aims at describing the differences between males and females’ beliefs about English language learning. Such a purpose was achieved by means of describing the gender differences about language learning at Tecnológico de Antioquia - Institución Universitaria (Colombia) setting. This corresponds to a descriptive research carried out under a non-experimental design, transactional descriptive field. The representative sample of this study was comprised of 266 students. Data were collected through the specialized BALLI instrument (Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory) comprised of five questionnaires that were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics by means of the SPSS software. Findings indicated that, overall, both genders held similar beliefs about language learning in the whole BALLI dimensions. Nevertheless, this study also indicated that females feel less confident to speak, think that children have special abilities, and consider that the language typological system is different in both English and Spanish languages. On the other hand, males are not convinced that they can achieve the communicative competence in their country of origin, feel a higher instrumental motivation, and believe that learning a foreign language deals with certain abilities that some people have.

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Published

2018-07-13

How to Cite

Gómez Paniagua, J. F. (2018). Differences between males and females’ beliefs about English language learning. Revista Signos. Estudios De Lingüística, 51(97). Retrieved from https://revistasignos.cl/index.php/signos/article/view/203

Issue

Vol. 51 No. 97 (2018): August

Section

Articles

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