خلاصة:
This paper explored the factorial validity of the Beliefs about LanguageLearning Inventory (BALLI) within a foreign language context and itsrelationship with educational level and academic achievement. The BALLIwas administered to 418 undergraduate and graduate university studentswho majored in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, English Languageand Literature and English Translation at seven tertiary education centers inMashhad, Iran. The low correlation coefficients among the 34 beliefsaddressed by the BALLI necessitated dispensing with Principle ComponentAnalysis. The application of the Principle Axis Factoring to the beliefs andtheir rotation revealed 14 factors. One way ANOVA analysis of responsesrevealed that sophomore undergraduate students differ from seniorundergraduate and graduate students in 11 beliefs indicating that formaleducation affects almost one third of learners’ belief. The same analysis ofthe GPAs obtained by 86 sophomore undergraduate participants showedtheir academic achievement is significantly related to five beliefs. Theimplications of these findings are discussed within the Iranian EFL context
ملخص الجهاز:
The Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory: Factorial Validity, Formal Education and the Academic Achievement of Iranian Students Majoring in English Ebrahim Khodadady * Assistant professor of TEFL, English Department, Faculty of Literature & Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Abstract This paper explored the factorial validity of the Beliefs about LanguageLearning Inventory (BALLI) within a foreign language context and itsrelationship with educational level and academic achievement.
Since senior undergraduate and graduate students studied courses on foreign language learning, it was hypothesised that their answers would reveal the effect of formal teaching on their beliefs.
This study is, therefore, designed to find out what belief areas have factorial validity when principle component analysis (PCA) and principle axis factoring (PAF) are utilized and then explore whether beliefs change from one educational level to another as a result of studying English as a foreign language (EFL).
2. The 34 beliefs held by undergraduate and graduate learners will load on five factors corresponding to the five major logical areas of language learning established by the designer of the BALLI.
Figure 1 Figure 2 Scree plot of factors obtained in this Scree plot of components obtained by study Hong (2006) The results presented in Figure 1 above disconfirm the second hypothesis that the 34 beliefs held by undergraduate and graduate learners will load on five factors corresponding to the five major areas of language learning established by the designer of the BALLI.
64 1 3 * Sophomore and senior undergraduate students Table 22 presents the descriptive statistics of belief 32: Iranians are good at learning English.