Re-examining Horwitz’s Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) in the Malaysian Context

In the past two decades the topic of beliefs about language learning has been attracting considerable research interest. The first to conduct a systematic research into the nature of language learning beliefs was Elaine Horwitz of the University of Texas at Austin, who developed the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI). This instrument has since been used to assess learners’ beliefs by many researchers. However, there have been criticisms regarding the validity of the instrument, especially the delineation of its themes into foreign language aptitude, the difficulty of language learning, the nature of language learning, learning and communication strategies, and motivation and expectations. This study aims to ascertain whether Horwitz’s choice of themes could be backed by inferential statistical analysis and employed factor analysis for this purpose. This study is different from others as it looks at the nature of the language learners’ beliefs in a multilingual setting, such as Malaysia. Participants were 107 students learning the Russian language at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). As a result of statistical tests, the following four factors were extracted: (1) motivation, (2) aptitude, (3) strategy, and (4) ease of learning. Overall, these results allow us to conclude that Horwitz’s instrument is a suitable tool for research on language learning beliefs in various sociolinguistic settings regardless of the language being learned.