论文总字数：41840字

摘 要

1. Introduction 4

1.1 Need for the study 4

1.2 Research purpose 5

2. Literature Review 6

2.1 Definitions 6

2.1.1 The definition of learning belief 6

2.1.2 The definition of learning strategy 7

2.2 Related empirical studies on learning strategies and learning beliefs 7

2.3 Problems in the previous studies 8

3. Methodology 10

3.1 Research questions 10

3.2 Research subjects 10

3.3 Questionnaires 10

3.4 Data collection 11

4. Results and Discussion 12

4.1 Results 12

4.1.1 Results of learning beliefs 12

4.1.2 Results of learning strategies 14

4.2 Discussion 16

5. Conclusion 18

5.1 Major findings of the study 18

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for future research 18

References 20

Acknowledgements 21

Appendix 22

Abstract

Learning strategies and learning beliefs have always been a hot topic in linguistic circles, which are carried out mainly in the context of second language learning. And few studies have combined them. This paper will study the difference between L3 learning beliefs and learning strategies of English major students.

1. Is there any significant difference in L3 learning beliefs between English majors of different L3;
2. Is there any significant difference in L3 learning strategies between English majors of different L3?

The experimental sample is 50 senior English majors from two intact classes. They are divided into German group and Japanese group according to their L3 (second foreign language). They participate in the experiment by means of online questionnaire about L3 learning beliefs and learning strategies. Independent sample t-test was used to test the data. The experimental results are as follows:

1) There was no significant difference in L3 learning beliefs between English majors of different L3 (p gt; 0.05). The mean point of Japanese group is higher than that of German group, which indicates that Japanese group performs better in learning beliefs.

2) There was no significant difference in L3 learning strategies between English majors of different L3 (p gt; 0.05). The data also showed that the mean points of English students whose L2 are Japanese was higher than that of students whose L2 are German.

This study failed to find that L3 learning beliefs and learning strategies are different from different L3 groups, which may be due to the short learning time of trilingual groups (two years) or the small sample size (50 subjects). In future studies, researchers may expand the sample size and carry out further studies

Keywords: learning beliefs; learning strategies; L3 learning

中文摘要

三语学习的研究近些年渐渐引起关注，并且取得了一些成果；而学习策略和学习观念一直是语言学界在母语和二语学习领域的研究热点，很少有研究将二者结合起来。本文将研究英语学习者三语学习观念和三语学习策略的差异，具体问题如下：

1、不同三语的英语专业学生的学习观念是否有显著差异？

2、不同三语的英语专业学生的学习策略是否有显著差异？

实验样本为50名英语专业大四学生，他们来自同年级两个班，根据三语（二外）被分成德语组和日语组，通过网上问卷调查的方式参与实验。对数据进行独立样本t检验，实验结果如下：

1) 学习观念与不同三语之间没有显著差异（pgt;0.05），说明两组之间学习观念无显著差异。日语组学习观念平均分高于德语组。

2) 学习策略与不同三语之间没有显著差异（pgt;0.05），说明两组之间学习策略无显著差异。同样发现，日语组学习策略平均分高于德语组。

本研究未能发现不同三语组的学习观念和学习策略的显著差异，可能由于受试学习三语时间过短（两年）或受试样本太小（50名）。在未来的研究中，研究者可扩大样本等进一步深入研究。

关键词：学习观念；学习策略；三语学习

1. Introduction

Over the past three decades, researchers have explored the impact of individual differences in learner’s language acquisition, such as age, gender, cognitive style, learning strategy, motivation, and anxiety, on target language from different perspectives. Currently, Scholars have found that second language learning beliefs and strategies have a significant impact on English learning.

1.1 Need for the study

Learner strategies have long been an important topic in the field of second language acquisition. This kind of research can help us deeply understand the individual differences of L2 learners and effectively improve the efficiency of L2 learning. Wen Qiufang (2001) divided the learning system into two subsystems: learner belief and learner strategy[1]. It mainly involved four aspects: “management”, “pattern practice”, “function practice”and “mother-tongue reliance”[1]. Foreign language learner beliefs and strategies refer to the identification and application of these four aspects, respectively, so there are four beliefs (i.e. management beliefs, pattern practice beliefs, function practice beliefs and mother-tongue reliance beliefs) and strategies.

In the past few decades, a lot of researches have been done on learning beliefs and learning strategies at home and abroad, but there are few studies on the relationship between learning beliefs and learning strategies in trilingual acquisition. More researches have focused on the impact of positive and negative migration of second language on L3 and the use of learning beliefs and learning strategies. But there are fewer findings yielded in analysis of L3 learning, which leads to the lack of pointed measures to different groups. As a result, research needs to be carried out at different language background and pointed measures put forward so that L3 learners could improve their learning beliefs and learning strategies accordingly.

Additionally, this study should be undertaken because the corollary of it will have significant practical implications for improvement of L3 learning of English majors and instruction of L3 teaching.

1.2 Research purpose

English majors learn different third languages. This study focuses on the differences in learning beliefs and learning strategies among students with different third languages.

Specifically speaking, the purpose of this study is two-folded: firstly, whether there is any significant difference in learning beliefs between English learners of different L3; secondly, are learning strategies significant different from English learners of different L3.

2. Literature Review

Nowadays improving students’ ability of learning more languages has been another primary goal in university language teaching since second foreign language is a compulsory course for language majors. As the main criteria to measure the learning ability, learning beliefs and learning strategies have drawn quite a lot of attentions from the academic circles.

2.1 Definitions

2.1.1 The definition of learning belief

Horwitz (1988) primarily used the term “religion” to describe how people think about foreign languages[2]. The study of learning belief involves three types of beliefs: (1) the belief of formal drills; (2) the belief of functional drills; and (3) the belief of mother tongue）. Those who have the first belief believe that the traditional activities of learning words, pronunciation and grammar with the focus on intensive reading and listening are very important for learning a foreign language. It is considered that the accuracy of foreign language learning is more important than fluency[2]; People with the second belief believe that conducting a large number of communication activities in listening, speaking, reading and writing is an important guarantee for learning a foreign language.

Wen Qiufang (2001) believes that belief refers to a system of perception formed by students through their own experience or the influence of others in learning English[1]. The belief of English learners is roughly divided into two categories: one is management belief and the other is language learning belief[1]. Management belief refers to students’ comprehension of the significant of a series of management activities such as setting goals, designing plans, choosing strategies, and regulating strategies. The belief of language learning includes: the belief of formal training (that is, the mastery of language knowledge is good for learning); functional practice belief; mother-tongue reliance belief.

2.1.2 The definition of learning strategy

As early as the 1970s, the study of foreign language teaching in the world shifted to the study of language learning. However, these studies describe the frequency of students’ use of learning strategies from a static perspective, or explore the impact of strategies on English learning outcomes.

Wen Qiufang (2001) believes that learning strategy refers to a series of actions of students to use English well[1]. The first type is the “formal drill strategy”, which refers to various learning activities that learners perform in the process of learning foreign languages. Students who use this strategy usually consciously learn the words, grammar and phonetics of foreign languages, pay more attention to traditional intensive reading and listening, and pay attention to the accuracy of language. The second type is “functional training strategy” refers to the learning activities that students conduct to obtain information, such as listening to foreign language broadcasts, watching foreign language TV, reading foreign language newspapers, and communicating with foreign friends. The third is called the “native language strategy”. Students who love this strategy often use translation ways to learn the skills of foreign languages[3].

2.2 Related empirical studies on learning strategies and learning beliefs

Generally speaking, more scholars chose to study learning strategies than to study learning beliefs. Anderson’ s (2005:759) research on learning strategies mainly focuses on the following four aspects: (1) the correlation between language using strategies and language learning strategies; (2) the relationship between strategies and second language level; (3) the transfer of mother tongue strategies to second language learning; (4) the training of language strategies, which have achieved many results[4].

Learning beliefs are often studied together with learning strategies. There is a relation between beliefs and strategies (Ellis 1999: 479; Wen Qiufang, Wang Haixiao 1996; Wen Qiufang 2001), and this correlation is not only one-way, ideas and strategies interact and interact (Wen Qiufang, 2004)[1][5][6][7]. The discussion of the relevance of ideas and strategies has certain practical significance for promoting the further study of individual differences among learners in the field of second language acquisition. More empirical studies with different research subjects conducted on the relevance of beliefs and strategies （Wen Qiufang ,2001) are not comprehensive and systematic[1]. And the conclusions are not consistent.

Some researchers also recognize the importance of learning strategies and beliefs in L3 learning, but many of them focus on minority students. Wu (2016) studied Mongolian L3 learners of English majors at the Foreign Languages School[8]. Through questionnaire survey, he mainly studied the role of mother tongue and second language in the process of L3 acquisition of Mongolian students of Grade I to Grade 4[8]. The role of the wave, explore the relevance of language beliefs, learning strategies and achievements, analyze the formation of language beliefs and the influencing factors of learning strategies. At present, most of the research is based on the quantitative research of questionnaire data, and there are some shortcomings in terms of research methods and sample selection. In the future, we can combine interviews and other methods to further examine the process of L3 learning (for example, language output such as translation and writing), English major students' dependence on mother tongue and second language, and the use of strategies. In-depth study of cross-language influence in the process of L3 acquisition reveals the role played by the mother tongue and the second language, aiming to effectively improve the level of target language learning of L3 learners.

2.3 Problems in the previous studies

At present, the main trend of trilingual research is the positive and negative effects of trilingual on mother tongue transfer, but most of them focus on vocabulary and grammar, which are relatively single. Our country’s third language acquisition groups are mainly English majors and non-general language majors in Colleges and universities, as well as students of English majors and non-general language majors. The study of Qin (2015) provides a sense and method of trilingual acquisition for trilingual learners, recognizing the relationship and influence between languages and promoting efficient language learning[9]. She explores the cross-linguistic influence of Chinese and English on Japanese vocabulary learning of Japanese majors in Yunnan Normal University, mainly focusing on two cross-linguistic factors: second language proficiency and language distance[9]

As we all know, third language acquisition and second language acquisition have many similarities as well as many differences in learners' cognitive, psychological and learning process. Compared with second language acquisition, the process of Chinese English majors’ third language acquisition is more complicated, and their learning strategies have their own characteristics. The process of learning target language is not only affected by the level and belief of mother tongue, but also by the level and belief of second language. However, what relationship they have with learning performance, whether there are differences in the dependence of learners of different English level on mother tongue and second language? Therefore, this study briefly outlines the relevant research on language learning strategies, referring to the previous measurement tools of strategy research, and according to the specific language learning and actual teaching situation of ethnic minority college students majoring in English, the author designs a questionnaire to study the differences between strategies and beliefs of L3 learners.

3. Methodology

3.1 Research questions

The present study intends to investigate the difference of L3 learning beliefs and learning strategies of English students. The specific research questions are as follows:

Firstly, Is there any significant difference in learning beliefs between English majors of different L3;

Secondly, Is there any significant difference in learning strategies between English majors of different L3.

3.2 Research subjects

The sample is 50 students from Nanjing University of Technology. They are senior English majors who have studied L3 three years. Twenty five of them study Japanese as their third language, while the other half study German as theirs.

3.3 Questionnaires

This paper uses Wen Qiufang’ s classification of this strategy system as the theoretical basis for the research. But he questionnaire is a revised version of the Wen’ s questionnaire because some options need to be changed from English to Japanese or German. Wen Qiufang designed the English learning belief and strategy questionnaire to prove that it has strong internal validity and is more practical. The questionnaire consists of four parts: (1) personal profile; (2) motivation of English learning; (3) management/language learning beliefs; (4) management/language learning strategies. There are six topics related to learning motivation, three of which belong to deep motivation and three belong to table. For stratified motivation, students will choose an answer from five options (i.e., from “the reason is not important to me” to “the reason is extremely important to me”). There are also five alternative answers for students, including from “I strongly disagree with this view” to “I strongly agree with this view”.

In the learning belief section, the meanings of the three options after each question represent: A = disagree, B = no, C = agree. The requirements determined must be true to represent the respondent's own views. In the Learning Strategies section, the respondent is asked to make a choice based on his or her actual practice rather than his/her thoughts or other people’ s practices. The meaning of the three options represents: A = this sentence is usually not suitable for my situation, B = this sentence is sometimes suitable for my situation, C = this sentence is usually suitable for my situation. After the internal consistency method between the questionnaires, the alpha values of the reliability coefficients of various beliefs and strategic items were more than 0.50 after the individual tops were deleted due to low reliability coefficient, which met the statistical requirements.

3.4 Data collection

The 50 subjects were grouped as German and Japanese. In March, the author sent out questionnaires in class, and collected the questionnaires. After the questionnaire is collected, the questionnaires that do not meet the statistical requirements are checked out, and then the data are transformed by machine-readable marking. The data are processed and analyzed by SPSS 12.0. The process is as follows: 1) The selection codes A, B and C on the questionnaire are converted into scores 1, 2 and 3 respectively; 2) descriptive statistics of the frequency of beliefs and strategies are carried out, and the average number of individual questions that students have not answered is replaced by the average number of the questions; 3) independent samples t-test is used.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1 Results

This part consists of two sub-sections. Section 4.1.2 answered the first general question raised in the methodology part and section 4.1.3 answered the second general question.

4.1.1 Results of learning beliefs

Table 4.1 Descriptive statistics of learning beliefs

Notes: MB stands for management belief, PPB stands for pattern practice belief, FPB stands for function practice belief, and MRB stands for mother-tongue reliance belief.

As indicated in Table 4.1, for the German group, the means of four aspects of learning beliefs are 66.44，46.08，27.80 and 30.88; the total is 171.20. As to the Japanese group, the average of management, pattern practice, function pattern and mother-tongue reliance beliefs are 69.72，47.60，29.4800 and 33.84, and the total is 180.64.

Table 4.2 Independent samples t-test of learning beliefs

As indicated in Table 4.2, we look at the statistics in the row with “Equal variance assumed”. According to the t-test for Equality of Means, learning beliefs are not significantly different from two groups with different L3.

4.1.2 Results of learning strategies

Table 4.3 Descriptive statistics of learning strategies

Notes: MS stands for management strategy, PPS stands for pattern practice strategy, FPS stands for function practice strategy, and MRS stands for mother-tongue reliance strategy.

As demonstrated in Table 4.3, the mean score of learning strategy is 51.24， 55.6400，49.80 and 76.76 for the German group and the total is 177.52. For the Japanese group, the average of language strategy is 55.28， 59.00， 52.93， 80.81 and the total is 191.96. It proves that the mean learning strategy of Japanese group is larger than that of German group.

Table 4.4 Independent samples t-test of learning strategies

As indicated in Table 4.4, Levene’ s Test for Equality of Variance indicates that the variances between the German and Japanese groups are equal (Pgt;0.05). So we look at the statistics in the row with “Equal variance assumed”. According to the t-test for Equality of Means, there is a insignificant difference in four language strategies between Japanese and German groups (p＞0.05).

4.2 Discussion

This study mainly concerns about the comparison of language beliefs and language strategy between EFL learners of different L3 and the followings are what are drawn from the previous chapters.

For learning belief, firstly, according to research statistics, learning belief are not significantly different from Japanese and German groups. Secondly, on average, the Japanese group performs better than the German group in learning beliefs. From the four categories of learning beliefs, the data shows that the two groups scored the highest in terms of management belief and the lowest in terms of function practice belief. This shows that students set plan for learning, but lack of methods in specific operation.

As to learning strategy, Japanese and German groups are not significant different with each other. Students scored the highest in mother-tongue reliance strategy, indicating that they had a dependence on their mother tongue during L3 learning, and Japanese group was more serious than German group. The function practice strategy score of the two groups was the lowest, indicating that students' learning strategy implementation ability was insufficient.

In other words, there is no significant difference of both L3 learning beliefs and learning strategies of English students with different L3. However, some studies have different findings, which indicate that there are significant differences in beliefs and strategies of L3 learning and second language learning. Jin (2009) concluded that the differences between Chinese and English learning beliefs of German college students are widespread[10]. Similarly, we have reason to believe that there is significant difference of both L3 learning beliefs and learning strategies of English majors with different L3. Here are possible reasons for no significant difference.

This experimental study has few samples, and students have learnt L3 as short as two years, which also leads to the low level of L3. Students have not yet developed their L3 learning beliefs and strategies. So most of them use English learning beliefs and strategies in L3 learning. When they encounter difficulties in learning L3, they will first resort to second language vocabulary or grammatical structure, or even borrow directly from English. However, due to the deep-rooted status of Chinese as the mother tongue, students have not yet developed a real English thinking. Due to the different language families of Chinese, English, Japanese and German, the experimental results of Japanese and German groups are slightly different.

What’s more, Japanese students and German students are able to be grouped in future research. Because they have passed four years of professional study, they have invested more time and energy, and their German and Japanese level is higher than that of English majors. Their understanding of German and Japanese learning beliefs and learning strategies is deeper. In addition, during the questionnaire filling process, the degree of concentration of the students cannot be determined, which will also affect the experimental results.

5. Conclusion

In chapter 4, the results of this study are reported on the basis of different L3 in learning strategy and learning belief, measured by practice, management, function practice and mother-tongue reliance. In this chapter, findings of this study will be concluded.

5.1 Major findings of the study

The prior chapter has reported and discussed the main results of this study, based on which, major findings are as follows:

Firstly, no significant difference in the subjects’ learning beliefs between two groups are found. Secondly, According to independent sample t test, p gt; 0.005, so there is no significant difference in learning strategy.

What`s more, Japanese learners do a better job in English than German. The means of Japanese group’s learning belief and learning strategy are higher than that of German group.

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for future research

Some meaningful and valuable results have been given and proved to be some new insights on the relative researches. However, there are still some limitations in the current study, which call for the attentions of the further researches in this area in order to get more scientific result.

Firstly, due to the limited time, this study failed to include a large enough number of subjects only with each group (N=30) and just picked out subjects from English majors from a university, lacking certain generalization, to some extent, which may have a negative effect on

the validity of the experimental results. Hence it is advisable for the further study to include more subjects from different universities to form a large and generalized enough sample.

Secondly, This research is a quantitative research based on questionnaire data, and there are some shortcomings in research methods and sample selection. In the future, we can combine interviews and think aloud to further investigate the dependence of English learners on their mother tongue and second language and their strategies in the process of learning English (e.g., translation and writing). The purpose of this paper is to reveal the role played by mother tongue and second language in order to effectively improve the target language learning level of third language learners.

References

1. 文秋芳, 王海啸. 大学生英语学习观念与策略的分析[J]. 解放军外国语学院学报, 1996(4):61-66.
2. Horwitz E K. The Beliefs about Language Learning of Beginning University Foreign Language Students[J]. Modern Language Journal, 1988, 72(3):283-294.
3. Stern H H, Stern H H, Tarone E E, et al. Fundamental concepts of language teaching: Historical and interdisciplinary perspectives on applied linguistic research[M]. Oxford university press, 1983.
4. Anderson N J. L2 learning strategies[M]//Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning. Routledge, 2005: 781-796.
5. Ellis R. Learning a second language through interaction[M]. John Benjamins Publishing, 1999.
6. 文秋芳, 王海啸. 大学生英语学习观念与策略的分析[J]. 解放军外国语学院学报, 1996(4):61-66.
7. 文秋芳. 我国英语学习策略理论的构建[J]. 英语学习策略理论研究, 2004: 47-59.
8. 吴白音那. 三语学习者语言观念、学习策略与成绩相关性研究[J]. 内蒙古师范大学学报（教育科学版）, 2016, 29(4):97-98.
9. 秦婉婷. 汉语（L1）和英语（L2）对日语（L3）词汇学习的跨语言影响的实证研究[D]. 云南师范大学, 2015.
10. 金怡. 德国大学生汉, 英语学习观念比较研究[D]. 华东师范大学, 2009.

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to my instructor, Ms. Lu Junhua. Thank her for her kind guidance during this half year. She helped me find my research direction with her professional and erudite knowledge, and also made me feel her patience and friendliness. She is the most responsible teacher I have ever met.

Secondly, I would like to thank my dearest friends, Zhang and Shen, for their company and support during the four years of university. It was they who gave me a happy college life.

Finally, I would like to thank Nanjing Tech University. Here I have spent the happiest four years of my life. It is my eternal Neverland.

Appendix

三语学习情况调查问卷L3 learning questionnaire

同学们,你们好!为了了解你们的二外学习情况,请填写下面的问卷。你的回答只反映你的英语学习观念和策略使用情况,没有好坏对错之分。请记住在填写时,要根据自己的实际想法和做法,而不是其他人或理想中的想法和做法。谢谢合作!

1、请问您的二外是 [单选题] *

2、请问您的性别是 [单选题] *

3、您每周投入到二外学习(包括课内课外)的时间约为 [单选题] *

1. 请问您上学期高英期末考试成绩为 [填空题] *

_________________________________

5、请问您上学期二外期末考试成绩为 [填空题] *

_________________________________

一、学习二外的策略
下面是人们常用的一些学习策略,请根据数字所代表的意思,选择其中一个填在句子的末尾,所选数字一定要能如实描述你的学习情况。请记住填写时,要根据自己的实际做法而不是你的想法或其他人的做法。

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