Folk beliefs about second language learning and teaching

What do students and teachers believe about the second language learning process? What if these beliefs are in conflict with each other or with prevailing applied linguistic theories? These are the types of questions that are investigated within folk linguistic research. Some researchers have taken a quantitative approach that relied on questionnaires (e.g., Horwitz 1985), while others have delved into the cognitive foundations of beliefs (e.g., Woods 2003). Lastly, some have used discoursal approaches which use discourse analytic (e.g., Pasquale & Preston, forthcoming) and culturally contextualized approaches (e.g., Barcelos 1995) suggesting that folk belief is a dynamic process. Therefore, a discoursal approach may provide insights into respondents’ reasoning rather than what might be considered more static domains of belief.