The German grammar from its learners' perspective: learner beliefs and strategies

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the results of a survey carried out with students of German as a foreign language, who were inserted in three different learning contexts in the city of São Paulo. The research aimed to investigate the beliefs of these learners concerning their process of learning the German language. The data, collected through questionnaires and interviews, revealed many of these beliefs, some related to, for example, the process of learning the German grammar. The results suggest a relationship between the beliefs and the choice of certain learning strategies. In the analysis stage, we sought to identify possible sources for the detected beliefs, as well as their potential effects on the learning process. In this article, some of the beliefs identified in the survey will be described and analyzed in relation to theoretical and methodological assumptions for teaching grammar in the didactic methods of foreign languages.