This paper presents the findings of a study to explore pre-service teachers' beliefs about learning English and the stability of these beliefs over time. Participants were 25 pre-service teachers (11 males, 14 females) enrolled in a Bachelor of Education (TESL) programme. The Horwitz (1987) Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), a…

Second language acquisition research has led to a major emphasis on the need for learners to experience the target language (TL) in use if they themselves are to become users of the language. At the same time, there is discussion of the role of the first language (L 1) as a tool in the processing of language/culture experiences. Achieving optimal…

This paper reports on a questionnaire survey carried out in the first and last classes of a single semester English "conversation" class at a national university in Japan. While the time frame is obviously limited, the project focuses on changes in attitude to using the Learners' Mother Tongue displayed by students with regards to use by…