Relation between high school students' beliefs and learning strategies, and their academic achievement in learning English

Abstract

The present research examined relationships between high school students' beliefs, learning strategies, and academic achievement in learning English. The participants were 723 students from all grades at a high school in western Japan. Factor analysis of beliefs about learning revealed that quantity orientation and strategy orientation were subject-general beliefs, whereas traditional orientation and application orientation were subject-specific beliefs. Factor analysis of learning strategies also revealed 2 indirect strategies: metacognitive strategy and social strategy, and 4 direct strategies: organization strategy, imaging strategy, repetition strategy, and vocalization strategy. A path analysis revealed that subject-general beliefs contribute to subject-specific beliefs and indirect strategies contribute to direct strategies. Also it revealed 2 causal relations: the subject-general learning process, in which subject-general beliefs affect indirect strategies, and the subject-specific learning process, in which subject-specific beliefs influence direct strategies and academic achievement. These results suggest the importance of scrutinizing English learning from both viewpoints: subject-general and subject-specific, and that there should be a focus on the subject-general learning process when attempting to improve the whole learning behavior, and on the subject-specific learning process when attempting to improve academic achievements in English learning.