Lit Review

Since the late 80s, researches about the relationship learner’s beliefs and the acquisition of a second language are going increasingly rise. From the firsts descriptive studies developed by Horwitz (1985, 1987, 1988), more complex research has been performed. While we can the 80s as the beginning time in this field, the 90s could be characterized as a decade of correlation. In that decade, most researchers went beyond descriptions, and establishing correlation between two variables. In that period, some researchers established a correlation between learners’ beliefs and specific dimensions of second language acquisition, like anxiety (Oh, 1996) and autonomy (Cotterall, 1995). Other correlational studies in those years found relationship between learners’ beliefs about language and more general or epistemological beliefs (Mori, 1999), and between teachers’ and students’ beliefs and proficiency (Peacock, 1998). However, in 90s some studies established a deeper relationship, affirming a causal relation between two variables.  These studies affirm that students’ beliefs are influenced for other variables, such as teachers’ beliefs (Kern, 1995), culture (Mori, 1999), or cultural training training (Mantle-Bromley, 1995).  So, if 90s are characterized for a focus in correlational studies and an emerging effort to established causal relations, the 2000s are strong focused in the last purpose. Most of the researchers established that learners’ beliefs are an effect of previous causes, such as learning environment (Amuzie & Winke, 2009; Kim, K-Y, 2001; Tanaka, 2000; Tanaka & Ellis, 2003), gender (Bernat & Lloyd, 2007; Henry & Apelgren, 2008)