Beliefs about learning English as a foreign language – experience of deaf and hard-of-hearing Polish adolescents

Abstract

Students’ individual characteristics, beliefs about language learning among them, are nowadays perceived as important factors influencing both the increase of knowledge and student’s personal engagement in the learning process. This is especially important when we consider teaching students with special educational needs, deaf and hard of hearing students (D/HH) among them. The better foreign language teachers know their students, the more effective the process of learning is. The aim of this paper is to provide empirical data on D/HH secondary school (liceum) students’ beliefs on foreign language learning. The empirical study was conducted among 90 D/HH students of several Polish special secondary schools. The data was collected using the “Beliefs About Language Inventory” (Horwitz 1999). The results show both the potential of the students and areas for teachers’ intervention, thus providing important input for surdo-glottodidactics.