INVESTIGATING GENDER INFLUENCE ON LANGUAGE LEARNING BELIEFS

This paper reports part of a study that examines undergraduate English as second language (ESL) students’ English learning beliefs, language anxiety and learning outcome in a university of Pakistan. As a pilot of the study, this paper uses Horwitz’s Belief about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) to collect data from 404 undergraduate ESL students, and explores the effects of gender on Pakistani undergraduate ESL students’ English language learning beliefs. The results indicate that males and females held similar beliefs in the factor of “motivations and expectations”, but significantly differed in the factor of “nature of language learning”. There were gender differences in the other three factors as well, but those were statistically insignificant. Possible explanations are provided for the differences. Based upon the findings, pedagogical implications are provided for improvement of teaching and learning of English in Pakistan. Article visualizations