Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to examine the beliefs of Anatolian and Vocational High School students towards English language learning and to investigate the differences in their beliefs with regard to their gender, school type, grades, their families’economic status, where they live and their parents’ educational levels. The participants of the study were composed of 182 students, half of whom are from Anatolian High School students and the other half is from Vocational High School students at a public school. BALLI, a Likert-type scale was used to collect data. Independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and the cross-tabulation were used in the analysis of data. The findings revealed that there is a meaningful difference among the students’ beliefs in terms of their school type. Anatolian High School students are more conscious and hopeful about language learning than Vocational High School students. Gender was found to be partially responsible for the variation of beliefs among students. However, there is nota significant difference between the students’ beliefs and their grades, where they live, their family’s economic situation and their parents’ educational level. It was also come in sight that the use of language out of the classroom did not show a great distinction between the school types even though Anatolian High School students expressed that they integrated English in their daily lives by a narrow margin.

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