Beliefs about language learning and their relationship with academic achievement.

Abstract

Mexico has gone through several changes in the path to development; its educational system is not an exception; it has had to evolve, as well. Despite those changes, something that has not suffered this transition, from my point of view, is the English language teaching methodology used in the classrooms. This has almost always been what is said to be ‘traditional’, in which the responsible of the learning process is the professor. It still seems as if students participate only a few times or do not participate at all since they are seen as passive actors whose main role is to sit and listen to what the teachers have to say. Historically teachers seem to have the major role in school; they have been in charge of “passing the knowledge they possess to pupils.” Nevertheless, as time goes by and societies progress, new perspectives on many fields arise worldwide, and education is part of this growing trend. This is the reason why the education system in Mexico has had to adapt to these new changes. As stated by Delors (2002: 151), “those changes respond to the needs of the new world system we are living in, a very different and difficult world order,” which features constant fights among people in terms of competences and skills.