Creencias y rendimiento académico en el aprendizaje de las lenguas extranjeras

Abstract

We all have beliefs which determine our willingness, decisions, behaviours, and actions in our lives. This empirical research analyzes Spanish students’ beliefs in their 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) in relation to the foreign language teaching-learning process. The main aim is to establish a correlation between students’ beliefs and their achievement in English as a foreign language. This study concludes affirming that those students who achieve the best outcome believe that English is easy to learn, it is useful for their higher education, and they love learning English. These beliefs are related to a high intrinsic mo- tivation, which contributes to reinforce students’ self-directed learning and allows them to find new learning challenges.