The Significance of Language Input in the Production of Output Skills : A Qualitative Content Analysis on the Beliefs of Students of English

Abstract

The topic of the thesis focuses on university students’ beliefs on the significance of language input in the production of L2 English output skills. It aims to investigate participants’ beliefs on how they have received extensive input from formal and informal settings and how their accessed sources of written and spoken input are significant and useful for their L2 English writing and speaking. The total number of participants is 48. The present study utilizes a questionnaire with open-ended questions as a data collection method. Qualitative content analysis is applied as the method for data analysis, which also involves coding of participants’ responses. According to the results of the present study, participants had strong beliefs that receiving extensive input was preferable in informal settings both in terms of L2 writing and speaking. Participants also believe that sources of written (e.g. books, online texts) and spoken input (e.g. TV, music, and YouTube videos) were significant and useful for increasing their intrinsic motivation, improving output skills and raising awareness of how English is used and adapted in different contexts. The study managed to provide sufficient results on the significance of language input from the student belief perspective, however, there is uncertainty whether the findings can reflect the reality on a larger scale, indicating possible future directions to this topic.