System 29 (2001) 177195

www.elsevier.com/locate/system

Pre-service ESL teachers' beliefs about second

language learning: a longitudinal study
Matthew Peacock *
Department of English, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Received 28 August 2000; received in revised form 23 November 2000; accepted 17 January 2001

Abstract
This article reports on a longitudinal study that investigated changes in the beliefs about
second language learning of 146 trainee ESL teachers over their 3-year programme at the City
University of Hong Kong. It was hoped that while trainees might have some mistaken ideas
about language learning at the beginning of the programme, these beliefs would change as
they studied TESL methodology. I propose that it is important to work on any mistaken
trainee beliefs because they could inuence their teaching and their future students' language
learning for decades. First-year trainee beliefs about language learning were collected using
Horwitz's Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) and compared with teacher
beliefs. Dierences were found in three key areas. Developmental changes were subsequently
tracked in groups of trainees as they went through their second and third years of study.
Disturbingly, no signicant changes were found (an association was also found between two
of the mismatched beliefs and ESL prociency). An instruction package for working on
trainee beliefs was then prepared, and implemented with some success. Conclusions are that
considerable eorts should be made to eliminate any detrimental trainee beliefs before they
start teaching. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Beliefs about language learning; Learner beliefs; Teacher beliefs; BALLI; Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory: Teaching English as a Second Language; TESL methodology; Teacher training

1. Introduction
The deeply held beliefs that most learners appear to have about second language
learning have received a lot of attention in recent years. Research on the topic since
* Tel.: +852-2788-9806; fax: +852-2788-8894.
E-mail address: enmatt@cityu.edu.hk (M. Peacock).
0346-251X/01/$ - see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0346-251X(01)00010-0

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M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

Horwitz's pioneering study in 1985 has indicated that some of these beliefs are detrimental to their learning. However, there is still a shortage of research that investigates the beliefs of preservice ESL teachers. This paper argues that ESL teacher
trainers should try to eliminate any detrimental beliefs in their trainees before they
start to teach ESL, to ensure that they do not inform their trainees' teaching. Horwitz (1988) suggests that students who believe that language learning means memorising grammar and vocabulary might spend most of their time on these activities.
This paper contends that ESL teacher trainees who believe this might make their
future students spend most of their time on these activities.
This paper will review the relevant previous research on student and teacher
beliefs about language learning and then describe the 3-year study undertaken. The
genesis of the research was the hope that while trainee ESL teachers might have
some ideas that dier from experienced teachers' beliefs at the beginning of their
programme, these beliefs would change during their study of language learning and
TESL methodology. The beliefs of the trainees were tracked over their programme,
then an intervention programme for working on the detrimental beliefs they had was
designed and implemented.
Richardson's 1996 denition of beliefs is used in this study: ``psychologically held
understandings, premises, or propositions about the world that are felt to be true''. I
will not describe trainee beliefs that dier from experienced ESL teachers' beliefs as
``wrong'' or ``incorrect'' in this study (though Horwitz does), but as ``beliefs that
dier from experienced ESL teachers' beliefs''; and/or as ``beliefs that are detrimental to language learning'' when there are indications that this is the case.
2. Literature review
Horwitz (1985) investigated the beliefs about language learning of trainee foreign
language teachers on a one-semester teaching methodology course. She designed a
34-item self-report questionnaire, Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory1
(BALLI) to do this. She does not report results from the BALLI, because her
intention was to report how the questionnaire was helpful in raising trainee awareness of the beliefs. She says that she noticed that just administering the BALLI
changed her trainees' beliefs. However, this observation is rather subjective in that it
merely appeared to her to be trueshe did not track changes in their beliefs, for
example by asking them to ll out the BALLI again.
Several studies following Horwitz's 1985 paper used the BALLI to research ESL
student (not trainee teacher) beliefs. Horwitz (1988), Kern (1995), Mantle-Bromley
(1995), and Samimy and Lee (1997)2 all conclude that their students had many
incorrect beliefs about how foreign languages are learned and that this was detrimental to their learning. Horwitz also notes that student satisfaction with the course
1

See the Appendix for the full version of the questionnaire.

The rst three are extensively reviewed in Peacock (1999). Also see Cotterall (1999) a non-BALLI
study; and Horwitz (1999) a review of BALLI studies.
2

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179

and condence in the teacher can suer, and that teachers must not ignore those
beliefs ``if they expect their students to be open to particular teaching methods and
to receive the maximum benet from them''. A previous BALLI study with 202
university ESL learners studying science, maths or engineering (Peacock, 1999)
reached the same conclusions. A statistically signicant association between certain
beliefs and prociency was also found important because while previous researchers3
theorised that incorrect learner beliefs negatively aect language learning, little or
no empirical research had tested the idea.
Two studies compared student beliefs with teacher beliefs. Peacock (1999) compared the beliefs of 202 students and 45 university ESL teachers, and found several
broad dierences, notably on Horwitz's two core beliefs about vocabulary and
grammar. Sixty-two percent of students believed that ``Learning a foreign language
is mostly a matter of learning a lot of new vocabulary words'', but only 18% of
teachers agreed. Peacock concluded (following Horwitz, 1988) that students with
this belief may focus on memorising vocabulary lists, to the exclusion of teacherdirected tasks. He suggested that students may also be very dissatised with a
teacher who does not emphasise the learning of vocabulary in classroom tasks,
materials, and homework. Sixty-four percent of students believed that ``Learning a
foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar rules'', while only
7% of teachers agreed. It was concluded (following Horwitz, 1988) that students
with this belief might focus on memorising grammar rules, to the exclusion of other
tasks. Peacock also proposed that students could become very dissatised with a
teacher who does not emphasise grammar in, for example, classroom tasks and
marking essays. Fifty-seven percent of learners believed that ``People who speak more
than one language well are very intelligent'' but only 18% of teachers agreed. It was
concluded (following Mantle-Bromley, 1995) that students may blame diculty, slow
progress, and failure on lack of intelligence, leading to further frustration, dissatisfaction, and disillusionment. Samimy and Lee (1997) report very similar ndings,
though with a much smaller number of subjects only 34 students and 10 teachers.
Few empirical studies appear to have researched in-service teacher beliefs. There
has been theorising on the topic Lortie (1975) refers to teachers' ``apprenticeship of
observation'', i.e. the fact that they spend 13,000 hours watching teachers in primary,
secondary and tertiary education. Bailey et al. (1996) propose that language teachers
internalise this observed behaviour (p. 11), and that this strongly inuences the way
they teach (p. 26). Freeman (1994, pp. 2 and 15) supports these ideas too; he also
notes (pp. 23 and 16) that the teaching method (as well as the content) used on
teacher training courses aects how teachers teach. Two empirical studies did
investigate in-service teacher beliefs, however, and I will next review these. Brown
and McGannon (1998) and Breen (1991). Brown and McGannon explored the
beliefs about second language learning of 35 trainee teachers at Monash University.
They were taking a Graduate Diploma in Education; 30 had some previous language
teaching experience. The main focus of their study was to see how strong the inuence
3

Green and Oxford, 1995; Oxford and Nyikos, 1989; Mantle-Bromley, 1995; Cotterall, 1995; Politzer
and McGroarty, 1985; Cortazzi, 1990; Littlewood, Liu, and Yu, 1996.

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M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

of Lortie's ``apprenticeship of observation'', i.e. their experiences as language learners, was on their beliefs about language learning. Trainees completed a survey
consisting of 12 statements representing common beliefs about language learning
from Lightbown and Spada (1993). The statements covered the eect of imitation,
intelligence, motivation, error correction, early learning, rst language interference,
grammatical sequencing and groupwork on second language acquisition. The survey
was given twice in 3 weeks so the researchers could track changes in beliefs before
and after a teaching practicum. Both rounds of the survey found dierences between
trainer and trainee views; there were a few changes in the second round, notably on
error correction. Brown and McGannon conclude (following Bailey et al. and
Freeman) that it is important for both trainers and trainees to be aware of the strong
inuence of the ``apprenticeship of observation'' on trainee beliefs. Their study is
valuable in that it provides empirical support for this conclusion, and for their suggestion that trainers ``provide trainees with opportunities for guided reection''.
Breen (1991) examined the beliefs about language learning of 63 experienced
teachers of second languages undertaking a Master's degree in the Department of
Linguistics at the University of Lancaster (the teachers were the L2 speakers in a
group of 106 teachers taking the degree). Their average teaching experience was 7
years. He theorised that teaching behaviours are based on a ``personal conceptualisation of the teachinglearning process'' (p. 215). The subjects were asked to
teach their rst language to the L1 speakers on the same Master's course, and keep a
written record giving their reasons for why they did what they did as they taught these
beginner lessons. Much of their teaching focused on ``language as a system'' (p. 230)
including grammar, error correction, vocabulary, and pronunciation, and ``a
remarkably high proportion [of] the justications for teaching behaviour referred to
. . . retention in memory and recall of new material'' (pp. 223224). They also spent
time on communicative skills: two possible reasons for this that Breen indirectly suggests (p. 230) are they were teaching their peers, and that at the time of the experiment
they were enrolled in a Master's programme that focused on the communicative
approach. Breen makes two useful proposals for research on beliefs about language
learning and teaching. First, he suggests that investigators ask teachers to evaluate
their beliefs on the basis of ``actual classroom events''. Second, he proposes that one
route to curriculum change (both in second language teaching and teacher training)
lies through the promotion of teacher reection, particularly by encouraging
teachers to make connections between classroom action and personal theory.
There still appears to be a shortage of empirical studies since Horwitz (1988)
that investigated pre-service teacher beliefs, despite the importance of the topic.
(The general education psychology literature does contain a number of articles
that examine the beliefs about teaching of pre-service teachers, but not the beliefs of
ESL teachers [or changes over time]. Beliefs are generally characterised as well
entrenched, though Joram and Gabriele (1998) propose that targeting specic
incorrect beliefs about teaching during teacher training may be eective4).
4
This literature will not be further reviewed here. See Graber (1996); Nettle (1998); Mahlios and
Maxson (1995); Pajares (1992); Kagan (1992); Fang (1996); McDiarmid (1990).

M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

181

I suggest that the consistency of previous ndings on beliefs about language

learning underscores the importance of the area. This importance is also stressed by
Puchta (1999) who asserts that ``beliefs are guiding principles for our students'
behaviour and strong perceptual lters. . .they act as if they were true'' and Stevick
(1980) ``success depends less on materials and techniques. . .[and] more on what
goes on inside [the learner].'' I also suggest that ESL teacher beliefs are slow or very
slow to change (though this has occasioned little research); Kennedy (1996) hypothesises that ``Real and eective change in teachers' practices can only occur through
a change in their beliefs. . .[beliefs shape] the way teachers behave''. There is some
theoretical support for the idea that trainee ESL teacher beliefs are intransigent too.
Richardson (1996) conjectures that ``Students bring beliefs to a teacher education
program that strongly inuence what and how they learn. . .central beliefs are
more dicult to change'', and Tatto (1998) ``Little empirical evidence exists on the
inuence of teacher education on teachers' values and beliefs. Consensus exists that
teacher education has little eect on altering teachers' beliefs''.
It may be particularly important (as Brown and McGannon suggest, 1998) to help
trainees reect on their beliefs. Almarza (1996, pp. 7374) says teacher training
should help trainees reect on the connections between their beliefs and their practices (also see Freeman, 1994, pp. 23). Ellis (1994, pp. 184 and 187) calls this
awareness raising. Almarza adds that a prerequisite for this reection is their trainers knowing what those beliefs are (p. 74). I propose that it is important to investigate trainee teacher beliefs and then work on them if necessary, because detrimental
beliefs may aect their teaching, and therefore, their students' language learning for
decades. This area remains under-researched despite its importance. Findings will
have implications for the design and content of TESL methodology programmes
around the world.
3. Research method
3.1. Subjects, school and programme
One hundred and forty-six trainee teachers (98% Hong Kong Chinese, 2% Westerners; 22% male, 78% female) took part in the present study. They were all full-time
undergraduates in dierent years on the BA TESL (Teaching English as a Second
Language) programme in the Department of English at the City University of Hong
Kong. The BA TESL is a 3-year full-time preservice ESL teacher training programme, primarily for local students who wish to teach English in secondary schools.
It has a yearly intake of 40. The degree acts as a teaching qualication and enjoys a
high degree of international recognition. Trainees complete a large number of courses. Core courses on TESL methodology and language learning include The Practice
of Language Teaching, How Languages Are Learned, Teaching English: Skills and
Strategies, and Curriculum Development and Materials Design. (Elective courses
include Communicative Language Teaching in Hong Kong Classrooms, Teaching Language through Content Areas, and Utilising Drama Techniques for Language Teaching).

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M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

3.2. Aims of the project

The aims of this three-year longitudinal project5 were:
(A) To investigate the following three research questions:
1. Do TESL trainees have any beliefs about language learning that dier
from experienced ESL teachers' beliefs?
2. Do these beliefs change over the trainees' 3 years of study of TESL
methodology?
3. Do the trainee beliefs that dier from experienced ESL teacher beliefs
negatively aect their language learning (i.e. is there an association
between these trainee beliefs and ESL prociency)?
(B) To formulate an action plan and instruction package for working on any
trainee beliefs that are detrimental to their own language learning or to their
future students' learning.
(C) To implement the action plan and instruction package in the BA TESL
methodology classroom, and observe the eects of the package on the trainees.
It should be noted that the ``experienced ESL teachers'' in research questions
(1) and (3) were not teacher trainers, but regular ESL teachers.
3.3. Data-collection instruments and procedure
Four data-collection instruments were used. They were a learner self-report questionnaire (the BALLI), ESL prociency scores, an instruction package, and class
observations. Each will now be described in turn.
3.3.1. Learner self-report questionnaire the BALLI
The BALLI (Horwitz, 1985) is a quantitative self-report questionnaire that investigates 34 dierent learner beliefs (Appendix). A couple of BALLI items were modied slightly for use in Hong Kong. It has a Likert-scale format learners are asked
to choose among ``strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree,
strongly disagree'' for questions in ve areas: the nature of language learning, the
diculty of language learning, foreign language aptitude, pronunciation, and language learning strategies.
Trainees completed the BALLI at dierent times and stages. Developmental
changes in beliefs were tracked in two groups, which I shall call Cohort A and
Cohort B. The 36 trainees in Cohort A were in their rst year in autumn 1997 when
they rst lled out the BALLI, and in their third year the second time they lled it
out 3 years later in spring 2000. The 36 trainees in Cohort B were in their rst year in
autumn 1998 when they rst lled out the BALLI, and in their second year when
they lled it out 2 years later in spring 2000. In addition to the 72 trainees in these
two cohorts another 74 (40 second year and 34 third year) completed the BALLI at
5
This project was supported by Research Grant number 9030640 from the City University of Hong
Kong.

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183

dierent times during the study. Thus, 146 trainees were involved, but a total of 218
questionnaires were lled out 72 by rst-year trainees, 76 by second-year, and 70
by third-year. Several teachers assisted by giving the forms to their trainees to ll
out, as I was not teaching all of them. The response rate was 100% because all
questionnaires were completed in class.
3.3.2. ESL prociency scores
ESL prociency was measured by combining scores on four compulsory courses
taken by all 146 trainees in their rst year. These 14-week Year 1 ESL courses teach
and test the four skills listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Scores were
combined to make one comprehensive prociency score, with a maximum possible
score of 100.
3.3.3. Instruction package and class observations
After most data were collected, I prepared an instruction package for correcting
trainee beliefs that were detrimental to their own language learning or to their future
students' learning. During my implementation of the package, trainee reactions to
the input and also possible changes in their beliefs were observed. (It was concluded
that there was little point having trainees ll out the BALLI again after the instruction, because they knew this researcher's opinions about the target beliefs by then.
Student expectancy would therefore have skewed these nal data).
3.4. Analysing the data
Descriptive statistics (mean scores and standard deviations) were computed for
BALLI and prociency data. To answer research questions (1) and (2), trainee
beliefs were rst compared with teacher beliefs (data on teacher beliefs from a previous study (Peacock, 1999) were used6). After this, rst-year trainee beliefs were
compared with second- and third-year beliefs. To answer research question (3), the
associations between dierent trainee beliefs and ESL prociency were checked
using one-way analysis of variance/Schee. Signicance levels were set at P<0.05,
non-directional.
4. Results
All results will be given briey in this section and discussed further below, in
Section 5.
Research question (1):
Research question (2):
6

Do TESL trainees have any beliefs about language

learning that dier from experienced ESL teachers' beliefs?
Do these beliefs change over the trainees' 3 years of study
of TESL methodology?

As noted above, they were all experienced ESL teachers in the City University of Hong Kong.

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M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

There was surprisingly little change over the 3 years on Horwitz's two core beliefs
about vocabulary and grammar, or on another important belief about the role of
intelligence in language learning. Signicantly, trainee beliefs remained at the same
level of mismatch with teacher beliefs throughout the Programme. Table 1 below
shows result for these items, expressed as percentages (full results may be seen in the
Appendix).
The experienced teacher data come from Peacock (1999). As noted, the teachers
were not teacher trainers, but regular ESL teachers. The dierences by year were all
statistically non-signicant (Item 16, P=0.876; Item 20, P=0.428; Item 32,
P=0.620).
We shall now turn to results for Cohort A and Cohort B on these three key items.
Table 2 shows these results, expressed as percentages. Again, it may be seen that
there was not much change over the 3 years; certainly the level of mismatch with
experienced teacher beliefs remained quite large throughout.
A few learner beliefs did improve over the programme. Seventy percent of rstyear trainees agreed with Item 13 ``It's OK to guess if you don't know a word in the
foreign language'', and this rose to 90% by the third year. Seventy-one percent of
rst-year trainees agreed with Item 26 ``Learning a foreign language is mostly a
matter of translating from Chinese'', and this also rose to 90% by the third year.
These changes by year were statistically signicant (Item 13, P=0.003; Item 26,
P=0.008). Some other results are also not controversial. Eighty-ve percent or more
of trainees from all three years agreed with Item 5 ``English is structured in the same
Table 1
First year (n=72), second year (n=76) and third year (n=70) trainee beliefs and experienced ESL teacher
(n=45) beliefs about language learning
No.

Belief

Subjects

Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Disagree or
strongly
disagree

16

Learning a foreign
language is mostly
a matter of learning a
lot of new vocabulary
words

Experienced ESL
teachers
First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

18

22

60

43
47
46

30
29
29

27
24
25

Learning a foreign
language is mostly a
matter of learning
a lot of grammar rules

Experienced ESL
teachers
First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

30

63

52
43
42

27
28
31

21
29
27

People who speak more

than one language well
are very intelligent

Experienced ESL
Teachers
First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

18

53

29

64
56
56

23
33
27

13
11
17

20

32

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185

Table 2
Changes in beliefs about language learning; Cohort A (n=36): changes over 3 years; Cohort B (n=36):
changes over 2 years
No.

Belief

Subjects

Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Disagree or
strongly
disagree

16

Learning a foreign language

is mostly a matter of learning
a lot of new vocabulary words

Cohort A in 1997
Cohort A in 2000
Cohort B in 1998
Cohort B in 2000

42
41
44
34

33
35
27
22

25
24
29
44

20

Learning a foreign language

is mostly a matter of learning
a lot of grammar rules

Cohort A in 1997
Cohort A in 2000
Cohort B in 1998
Cohort B in 2000

53
38
50
36

19
38
35
22

28
24
15
42

32

People who speak more than

one language well are very
intelligent

Cohort A in 1997
Cohort A in 2000
Cohort B in 1998
Cohort B in 2000

56
62
74
53

33
28
12
42

11
10
14
5

way as Chinese'', and 84% or more of trainees from all years with Item 9 ``You
shouldn't say anything in the foreign language until you can say it correctly''. (The
dierences by year were statistically non-signicant (Item 5, P=0.466; Item 9,
P=0.980).
However on two further Items (2 and 15), beliefs about aptitude, trainee answers
also raise concern. Table 3 shows trainee ratings for these items, expressed as percentages.
Table 3 shows that while 81% of trainees agreed that aptitude exists, only 26%
believed they themselves had aptitude. This indicates a lack of condence. (The
changes by year were all statistically non-signicant [Item 2, P=0.298; Item 15,
P=0.783]).
Research Question (3):

Do the trainee beliefs that dier from experienced ESL

teacher beliefs negatively aect their language learning
(i.e. is there an association between these trainee beliefs
and ESL prociency)?

ESL prociency scores (n=146) ranged from 49 to 91; the mean score was 65 and
the standard deviation 6.01. A positive association was found between two trainee
beliefs about language learning and ESL prociency. Signicantly, these were Horwitz's two core beliefs on vocabulary and grammar. Tables 4 and 5 give details of
these associations (all n=146), expressed as percentages.
Table 4 shows that the trainees who agreed that ``Learning a foreign language
is mostly a matter of learning a lot of new vocabulary'' were signicantly less

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M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

Table 3
First year (n=72), second year (n=76) and third year (n=70) trainee beliefs about aptitude
No.

Belief

Subjects

Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Disagree or
strongly
disagree

Some people are born

with a special ability
which helps them learn
a foreign language

First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

74
83
87

23
16
10

3
1
3

15

I have foreign language

aptitude (a special ability
for learning foreign languages)

First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

23
29
27

57
51
48

20
20
25

procient than those who disagreed. Table 5 shows that the trainees who agreed that
``Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar rules''
were signicantly less procient than those who disagreed.
4.1. Instruction package and class observations
These will be discussed in the next section.
5. Discussion and conclusions
This study was begun with the hope that while trainee beliefs about language
learning might dier from experienced ESL teacher beliefs at the beginning of their
programme, they would change by the end of the programme. However, these 146
TESL trainees had three key beliefs about language learning that diered from
experienced ESL teachers' beliefs and disturbingly, these beliefs changed very little
over their 3 years of study of TESL methodology (Tables 1 and 2). Far too many
third-year trainees still believed that learning a second language means learning a lot
of vocabulary and grammar rules. It may not be surprising that the trainees did
not dier much from other students in this respect, but it is more worrying because
these beliefs may inform their future teaching and therefore their students' language
learning. For example, when preparing classroom tasks, materials, and homework
they might over-emphasise the learning of vocabulary and grammar rules to the
exclusion of other tasks necessary for learning ESL. These two key beliefs on vocabulary and grammar are also particularly important because they are associated with
lower levels of ESL prociency7 (Tables 4 and 5), among the trainees as well as
probably in their future students. Finally, too many third-year trainees believed that
7

The prociency ndings are also important in that they provide further empirical evidence that certain learner beliefs are detrimental to language learning.

M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

187

Table 4
BALLI Item 16 and Prociency (n=146; signicant at <0.001)
Agree or
strongly agree

Neither agree
nor disagree

Disagree or
strongly disagree

``Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of new vocabulary''

Trainee opinions (%)
45
29
26
Prociency
63
67
68

Table 5
BALLI Item 20 and Prociency (n=146; signicant at 0.018)
Agree or
strongly agree

Neither agree
nor disagree

Disagree or
strongly disagree

``Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar rules''

Trainee opinions (%)
46
28
26
Prociency
64
65
67

people who speak more than one language well are very intelligent: they may
therefore wrongly blame their future students' failure or slow progress on lack of
intelligence.
The reader might conclude that the BA TESL programme in this university is
weak or inadequate but I suggest that this is not true. It has gained international
recognition (as noted above) and is regularly assessed by qualied external examiners from the UK.
Horwitz (1985), Roberts (1992), Kern (1995) and others suggest that student
beliefs about language learning originate from their second language learning
experiences, particularly in secondary school8. I believe this was also true of the
trainees in this study; the benets of more communicative activities were apparently
not evident to them then or later. Horwitz (1985) and Kern (1995) also say that
teachers of second languages probably acquire their beliefs (1) on methodology
courses, and (2) while teaching. However, it seems that suggestion (1) is not true of
the trainees in this study, at least regarding their preservice methodology courses.
The third-year trainees' beliefs did not match those of experienced ESL teachers in
this university (Table 1) and this leaves unanswered the interesting and important
questions of when, and how, ESL teachers do acquire their beliefs.
Several researchers (notably Horwitz, 1985, 1988) have wondered how stable
beliefs are over time. This study provides some evidence of stability for the 146
trainees in this study, some detrimental beliefs were very slow to change despite
instruction over 3 years on the nature of language learning. This is noteworthy
because detrimental beliefs held by ESL students are probably even more resistant
to change.
8

This is supported by data from Peacock (1999).

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M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

Tatto (1998) pointed out that evidence was lacking regarding the eect of teacher
education on teacher beliefs. Teacher education had little eect on some of the key
beliefs of the trainees in this study, and towards the end of the research it was concluded that this should be given some attention. I therefore prepared an instruction
package to work on some of their beliefs. I wished, as Brown and McGannon (1998)
suggest for language teacher training, to encourage them to reect on their previous
experiences as language learners and adjust or conrm their beliefs about language
learning.
5.1. Instruction package and class observations
While teaching two separate groups of BA TESL trainees on an elective course, I
prepared and implemented an instruction package that had ve stages:
(1) Trainees were told that some of their beliefs diered from experienced ESL
teacher beliefs.
(2) Trainees were shown their BALLI results compared with results from experienced ESL teachers.
(3) Trainees were referred to ve readings that discussed the benets of more
communicative approaches to teaching ESL.
They were required to read Medgyes (1986). They were advised to read Lightbown
and Spada, Chapter 6 (1993), Storch (1997), and certain sections of Harmer (1991).
As a further optional reading, Thompson (1996) was recommended. (These suggestions followed Ellis (1994), who proposed that teacher trainers use the results of
second language acquisition research to raise trainee awareness).
(4) Classes were divided into small groups and given two discussion topics
``What I learned through the communicative approach'' and ``What are the
pros and cons of the communicative approach?''
(5) Trainees were shown videotapes of two successful ESL lessons in local schools
in which the teachers used more communicative approaches.
For stage (5) ``A Teacher Education Video Package for Hong Kong Student
Teachers'' (British Council, 1995) was used. It would have been better to visit secondary school classes in action, but this was not possible because of the large number of trainees.
Trainee reactions to the whole instruction package were very positive and apparent changes in trainee beliefs were observed. Stages (1) and (2) were successful in
that they raised trainee awareness and interest. Stage (3) was useful because it provided evidence from the professional literature to back up what they were told during this session, evidence of which they kept a hard copy. The group discussions
Stage (4) were very successful in that they improved trainee appreciation of
the benets of the communicative approach, and allowed trainees to relate theory
to their own experiences as second language learners (especially their recent

M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

189

experiences). I believe that Stage (4) was the most eective part of the package. But
it was not possible to quantify changes in trainee beliefs, as it was not possible to
have them complete the BALLI again (for the reasons given above).
5.2. Recommendations
Trainee beliefs may well diverge from those of experienced ESL teachers to the
same extent elsewhere and I propose that the present ndings have a number of
implications for other teacher training programmes. First, I suggest that if trainees
have any beliefs about language learning that may negatively aect their future
students' learning, it is important for programme instructors to consider changing
them. Second, teachers should try to amend the beliefs at the start of the programme. Third, work on beliefs should be an integral part of TESL core courses.
Trainers should be conscious of the strong inuence of the ``apprenticeship of
observation'' on trainee beliefs (as suggested by Brown and McGannon, Bailey et al.
and Freeman). The suggestion made by Brown and McGannon, Almarza and
Breen that trainers encourage guided reection among trainees is also valuable. Apart from these proposals, I also have two specic proposals for the BA
TESL programme here that may have wider application. It is recommended that the
elective course Communicative Language Teaching in Hong Kong Classrooms be
made a core course. I also suggest that it is important to boost trainee condence
about their language learning ability. While 81% of trainees agreed that aptitude
exists, only 26% believed that they themselves have aptitude (Table 3). This huge
dierence indicates an unwarranted lack of self-condence and probably justies
either teacher intervention or more attention to trainee prociency.
5.3. Further research
The extent of any mismatch between teacher and trainee beliefs on other TESL
programmes (and the stability of trainee beliefs over time) deserve investigation, as
do the beliefs of working ESL teachers. Other questions that warrant further
research are: when, and how, do ESL teachers acquire their beliefs? What is the
association between ESL teacher beliefs and classroom practices9? How stable are
ESL teacher beliefs, and ESL student beliefs, over time? What is the origin of ESL
student beliefs?
Evidence that student beliefs about language learning are important continues to
accumulate. Surely the beliefs of their teachers are equally important.
Appendix A. Full results: beliefs about language learning inventory
All results are expressed as percentages
9

Breen's work in this area was reviewed above.

190

M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

1. It is easier for children than adults to learn a foreign language.

First-year trainees
84
13
Second-year trainees
91
8
Third-year trainees
85
10

Disagree or
strongly
disagree
3
1
5

2. Some people are born with a special ability which helps them learn a foreign language.
First-year trainees
74
23
3
Second-year trainees
83
16
1
Third-year trainees
87
10
3
3. Some languages are easier to learn than
First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

4. English is
1) a very dicult or dicult language
2) a language of medium diculty
3) an easy or very easy language

others.
74
79
74

19
13
21

First-year
trainees

Second-year
trainees

Third-year
trainees

33
58
9

19
69
12

41
51
8

Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Disagree or
strongly
disagree

4
11
9

93
85
88

5. English is structured in the same way as Chinese.

First-year trainees
3
Second-year trainees
4
Third-year trainees
3

7
8
5

6. I believe that I will ultimately learn to speak English very well.

First-year trainees
53
44
Second-year trainees
57
35
Third-year trainees
58
25

3
8
17

7. It is important to speak a foreign language with an excellent accent.

First-year trainees
40
41
Second-year trainees
39
41
Third-year trainees
29
36

19
20
35

8. It is necessary to know the foreign culture in order to speak the foreign language.
First-year trainees
41
40
19
Second-year trainees
54
33
13
Third-year trainees
52
40
8

M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

191

Table (continued)
Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Disagree or
strongly
disagree

9. You shouldn't say anything in the foreign language until you can say it correctly.
First-year trainees
3
13
84
Second-year trainees
5
7
88
Third-year trainees
5
7
88
10. It is easier for someone who already speaks a foreign language to learn another one.
First-year trainees
33
48
19
Second-year trainees
44
32
24
Third-year trainees
30
63
7
11. It is better to learn a foreign language in the foreign country.
First-year trainees
95
4
Second-year trainees
90
7
Third-year trainees
97
2

1
3
1

12. If I heard someone speaking English, I would go up to them so that I could practice
speaking the language.
First-year trainees
34
29
37
Second-year trainees
43
39
18
Third-year trainees
24
42
34
13. It's O.K. to guess if you don't know a word in the foreign language.
First-year trainees
70
27
Second-year trainees
93
3
Third-year trainees
90
10

3
4
0

14. If someone spent one hour a day learning a foreign language, how long would
it take him/her to become uent?
First-year
Second-year
Third-year
trainees
trainees
trainees
1) 2 years or less
2) From 3 to 5 years
3) 5 years or more

20
33
47

21
28
51

26
26
48

Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Disagree or
strongly
disagree

15. I have foreign language aptitude (a special ability for learning foreign languages)
First-year trainees
23
57
20
Second-year trainees
29
51
20
Third-year trainees
27
48
25
(Table continued on next page)

192

M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

Table (continued)
Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

16. Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of new

words.
First-year trainees
43
30
Second-year trainees
47
29
Third-year trainees
46
29
17. It is important to repeat and practice a lot.
First-year trainees
93
Second-year trainees
95
Third-year trainees
88
18. I feel self-conscious speaking a foreign
First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

Disagree or
strongly
disagree
vocabulary

7
4
12

27
24
25
0
1
0

language in front of other people.

26
50
24
47
39
14
46
32
22

19. If you are allowed to make mistakes in the beginning it will be hard to get rid of them
later on.
First-year trainees
31
30
39
Second-year trainees
32
21
47
Third-year trainees
14
34
52
20. Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar
rules.
First-year trainees
52
27
21
Second-year trainees
43
28
29
Third-year trainees
42
31
27
21. It is important to practice in the language laboratory.
First-year trainees
51
30
Second-year trainees
41
35
Third-year trainees
26
40

19
24
34

22. Women are better than men at learning foreign languages.

First-year trainees
34
33
Second-year trainees
52
31
Third-year trainees
22
41

33
17
37

23. If I get to speak English very well, I will have many opportunities to use
First-year trainees
80
16
Second-year trainees
76
15
Third-year trainees
57
33

it.
4
9
10

24. It is easier to speak than understand a foreign language.

First-year trainees
22
34
Second-year trainees
29
23

44
48

M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

193

Table (continued)

Third-year trainees

Agree or
strongly
agree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Disagree or
strongly
disagree

19

31

50

25. Learning a foreign language is dierent from learning other school subjects.
First-year trainees
71
19
10
Second-year trainees
81
12
7
Third-year trainees
78
14
8
26. Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of translating from Chinese.
First-year trainees
6
23
71
Second-year trainees
11
24
65
Third-year trainees
3
7
90
27. If I learn to speak English very well, it will help me get a good job.
First-year trainees
90
9
Second-year trainees
90
9
Third-year trainees
90
5

1
1
5

28. It is easier to read and write a foreign language than to speak and understand it.
First-year trainees
36
37
27
Second-year trainees
36
35
29
Third-year trainees
31
32
37
29. People who are good at maths and science are not good at learning foreign languages.
First-year trainees
7
29
64
Second-year trainees
8
34
58
Third-year trainees
5
33
62
30. Hong Kong Chinese think that it is important to speak a foreign language.
First-year trainees
82
17
1
Second-year trainees
87
10
3
Third-year trainees
81
12
7
31. I would like to learn English so that I
First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

can get to know its speakers better.

77
20
3
72
25
3
64
29
7

32. People who speak more than one language well are very intelligent.
First-year trainees
64
23
Second-year trainees
56
33
Third-year trainees
56
27

13
11
17

33. Hong Kong Chinese are good at learning foreign languages.

First-year trainees
27
47
Second-year trainees
20
57
Third-year trainees
15
63

26
23
22

(Table continued on next page)

194

M. Peacock / System 29 (2001) 177195

Table (continued)
Agree or
strongly
agree
34. Everyone can learn to speak a foreign
First-year trainees
Second-year trainees
Third-year trainees

language.
89
88
86

Neither
agree nor
disagree
8
7
7

Disagree or
strongly
disagree
3
5
7

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