| Students’ reluctance to do instructional activities in the classroom often causes frustration in both the students themselves and their teachers. This reluctance might be related to their beliefs about language learning/teaching as students usually come to class with ‘preoccupied ideas about language learning (Horwitz, 1987). In second language learning, ‘beliefs’ is one of the individual differences which has been recognized as ‘a significant contributory factor in the learning process and ultimate success’ (Breen, 2001). Teachers also have their own beliefs about how to learn English which surely influence their teaching. This thesis aims at portraying both students’ and teachers’ beliefs about language learning at Diploma III secretary Program TARAKANITA School of Communication and Secretary using Horwitz’s instrument, Belief About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), which was administered to 217 students and 10 English teachers. Percentages of agreement /disagreement to the stated beliefs in the inventory show that there was a similar strong consensus in both the teacher group and the student group regarding the beliefs about young age for foreign language learning, everyone’s potential for foreign language learning, excellent pronunciation, correctness over spontaneity, repeat and practice as best learning strategies, and the existence of instrumental and integrative motivation in the students. The majority of students and teachers held different beliefs about difficulty of oral production and aural receptive skills, difficulty of the four skills of English, the role of vocabulary, grammar and translation in English learning, how to handle incorrectly-acquired form of English, the effect of gender and IQ on language learning, the necessity of cultural contact with and immersion-type of learning English, and meaning guessing. There were also students-teachers differences regarding the difficulty of English and the length of time to achieve fluency in English. Pedagogical implications of these similarities and, especially, the differences, include among others the importance of explaining to students the goal of English learning, i.e. to enable the students to use it in communication and therefore the importance of mastery of the four language skills, vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatic use, which should not be learned in isolation. Teachers should teach vocabulary and grammar in context and encourage the students to guess the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary words and to stop translating when reading or listening to other people. Devising lessons based on need analysis, paying attention to slow learners, and encouraging the students to repeat & practice are some ways to bridge differences in the students’ and teachers’ beliefs. Horwitz’s BALLI is useful in portraying students’ and teachers’ beliefs which help explain the reasons of students’ reluctance to do instructional activities. Further research could shed more light on, for example, the link between students’ stated beliefs about certain learning strategies and their reluctance to really adopt those strategies. Another interesting area to explore is the relation between beliefs and proficiency levels as there were indications that students’ beliefs may have changed over time as they become more proficient in the foreign language. |