Seeing English through signing eyes : Finnish sign language user's views on learning English

Abstract

This article discusses learner beliefs of Finnish Sign Language users as learners of English. For Finnish Sign Language users, the language learning situation is a complex one: Finnish Sign Language is a visual language but English has to be learned mostly in a written modality and with the help of Finnish. This qualitative study focuses on Finnish university students' beliefs about themselves as learners of English. The beliefs are elicited from the students' self-portraits as learners and their mind maps about the most important factors in learning English. The self-portraits provide four different points of view on learning English. The findings are compared with the results of a previous study concerning Finnish students' learner beliefs.