Bilingualism and English Language Learning: Local Kurdish-Persian Learners' Beliefs in Iran

Following cognitive views towards language pedagogy, this preliminary report illustrates the beliefs of a community of non-English-major university students (N=139)about learning English as-a-foreign-language (EFL) in a dominantly bilingual Kurdish- Persian academic context in Ilam, in western Iran. To recognize the beliefs, BALLI(Horwitz, 1988) as a popular survey instrument was slightly modified and administered to the participants. Adopting a descriptive approach, the findings were generally classified anddiscussed in terms of five components: (a) language aptitude; (b) language learningdifficulty; (c) nature of language learning; (d) learning and communication strategies; and, (e) motivation and expectations. The results also revealed these ethnic learners have a broadbut consistent range of conceptions about EFL similar to and different from studies reportedin the current literature. Finally, there were significant implications for curriculum design and instructor practice in local academic settings especially the bilingual ones

Keywords:

Bilingualism , Language learning , Beliefs , Language learners , Local