English Learners’ Belief and Investment in English Pronunciation Learning

Apprehensive pronunciation is crucial for learners' language competence and is an integral aspect of language instruction. Although English major students in China demonstrate improvement in their overall English proficiency when they enter university, many still struggle with their English pronunciation. Scholars have identified several internal and external factors that influence English pronunciation learning. However, little attention is given to the role of learners’ beliefs and investment as possible factors that influence English pronunciation learning, which in turn affect the learning approach and learning strategy used. To fill the gap, the current study adopts a qualitative design with multiple case studies to explore students’ beliefs, investments, and the relationship between these two concepts within the normative, meta-cognitive and contextual approach as well as investment theory. A semi-structured interview was conducted on three university students with different language abilities. The data obtained was analysed using NVivo 12 software. The findings of the study indicate that middle and high-level participants held positive perceptions, while low-level participants held negative perceptions in terms of English pronunciation learning. The study also reveals two forms of investment; diverse investment and incidental learning. In addition, the relationship between students’ beliefs and investments exhibited complex phenomena such as positive and negative congruence as well as incongruence. Based on these findings, some pedagogical implications and areas for ongoing research were proposed.