VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐINH THỊ HẢI HÀ STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARD ENGLISH AS A COMPULSORY
INTRODUCTION
Rationale
In foreign language learning context, there are various factors that influence the learning process such as motivation, attitudes, anxiety, learning achievements, aptitudes, intelligence, age, personalities, etc (Shams, M., 2008) The matter of learner’s attitude is acknowledged as one of the most important factors that impact on learning a language (Fakeye, D., 2010)
Attitudes toward learning are believed to influence behaviors such as selecting and reading books, speaking in a foreign language etc Especially in Education, if the students have positive attitude towards any subject, they can achieve many things in that specific area There is an interaction between language learning and the environmental components in which the students were grown up Both negative and positive attitudes have a strong impact on the success of language learning Attitude is determined by the individual’s beliefs about outcomes or attributes of performing the behavior (behavioral beliefs), weighted by evaluations of those outcomes or attributes Thus, a person who holds strong beliefs that positively valued outcomes will result from performing the behavior will have a positive attitude toward the behavior Conversely, a person who holds strong beliefs that negatively valued outcomes will result from the behavior will have a negative attitude
Attitude is considered as an essential factor influencing language performance and received considerable attention from both first and second language researchers There are many reasons why students’ attitude toward language learning is important Weinburgh (1998) believes that attitudes toward learning influence behaviors such as selecting and reading books, speaking in a foreign language Generally, it is believed that learners’ attitudes dictate whether or not they will be able to absorb the details of language In other words, achievement in a target language relies not only on intellectual capacity but also on the learner’s attitudes toward language learning This means that learning language should be approached primarily as a social and psychological phenomenon rather than as a purely academic one
As Brown (1994:168) defines “attitudes, like all aspects of the development of cognition and affect in human beings, develop early in childhood and are the result of parents’ and peers’ attitudes, contact with people who are different in any number of ways, and interacting affective factors in the human experience”, the benefits of this for students have aroused my interest and encouraged me to carry out the thesis “Students’ attitudes’ towards English as a compulsory subject at an upper secondary school”
As a teacher of English at secondary school for over 10 years, I have noticed that learners of English in general and students at secondary schools in particular do not show positive attitudes towards English as well as English learning This leads to demotivation and poor language achievement Most of them learn English just as to complete the curriculum It is assumed that if teachers understand their feelings and emotion or their attitudes towards English and English learning they can design appropriate activities to motivate their students in order to achieve better language proficiency That is the main reason for me to carry out this study.
Research question
In this study, the main objective is to conduct a literature review on the relationship between students’ attitudes and English subject studying outcome at the high school The main questions are:
(1) What are the attitudes of Vietnamese high school students towards English learning?
(2) What are the attitudes of Vietnamese high school students towards English as a compulsory subject at schools?
Research method
The method used in this study is quantitative Thus, an adapted questionnaire was employed as a measuring instrument The participants were required to answer all the items of the questionnaire honestly, giving their own perceptions about their attitudes toward learning English language in terms of the emotional, cognitive as well as their gender.
Scope of the study
The participants in this study consist of 180 high school students, 94 persons (52.2%) male and 86 persons (47.8%) female, randomly chosen from the secondary schools in Quang Ninh province There were 58 students (32.2%) in the grade 10, 68 students (37.8%) in the grade 11, and the grade 12 students were 54 (30%) The students from different grades, different genders were selected to represent varieties of attitudes towards learning English in terms of genders and time of studying English
For the qualitative research, 12 students from the participants are selected for interviews; for each grade, two boys and two girls are selected.
Significance of the study
The findings of this study will be of great interest to a number of researchers focusing on demographic variables of Second Language (L2) learners, English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners, and English education policies and practices By providing insights into attitudes of high schools EFL learners toward the English language, English education policies, and their purposes for learning English, this study contributes to an understanding of English learning and teaching and adds to the growing body of studies on the spread of English Furthermore, this study aims to offer insights for language attitude research and studies in EFL context
In addition, if English language teachers know and recognize their students’ feelings, needs, behaviors, they are able to fit appropriate activities with their needs and would encourage them to positive attitudes toward English learning Furthermore, curriculum designers would review the content and the design of the curriculum to meet the needs and the interests of the students, especially students at high schools in Vietnam.
Structure of the thesis
Chapter IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this part, the researcher will summarize the findings of the thesis After that, the limitation of the research as well as the suggestion for further research will also be included.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition
Attitudes towards language learning have been defined differently by differentscholars The Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching (2002: 297) defines language attitudes as follows:
“The attitudes which speakers of different languages or language varieties have towards each other’s languages or to their own language Expressions of positive or negative feelings towards a language may reflect impressions of linguistic difficulty or simplicity, ease or difficulty of learning, degree of importance, elegance, social status, etc Attitudes towards a language may also show what people feel about the speakers of that language Language attitudes may have an effect on second language or foreign language learning The measurement of language attitudes provides information which is useful in language teaching and language learning.”
Attitudes are defined as an “acquired internal state that influences the choice of personal action” (Gagné & Driscoll, 1988) For instant, a person’s attitude toward the environment influences whether or not they choose to recycle A student’s attitude toward information will influence the resources he or she chooses to use Students must understand why it is important to select reliable, authoritative resources (Morgan, 2009)
Attitude is a mental process which is heavily influenced upon the response that the individual shows while performing a task It is how learners react when they are asked to perform the task It is expressed in two ways, the positive manner when they are interested in performing the given task and negative manner, when they are forced or not interested in performing the task This is again influenced by the learner’s culture and background
Attitudes cannot be observed directly but have to be inferred from observed consistency in behavior Thus a person holding a favorable attitude toward an object [for example a language] would be expected to perform favorable behaviors and not unfavorable ones towards the object Therefore, the attitude towards a language “is a construct that explains linguistic behavior in particular” (Mamun, Rahman, Rahman, & Hossain, 2012: 200) since it can be positive or negative and it influences our behavior and the way we perform different activities using the target language
It is obvious that understanding learners’ attitudes towards what they are obligated to study will help teachers, educators develop appropriate guides and changes in the programs to make them better achieved the target language
Psychologically, Eagly and Chaiken, (1993:1) define attitude as “a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour”, it is important to state that for this study operationally, it is defined as the students’ perceptions, understandings, beliefs or experiences of learning English as a second language Attitude is a mental process which is heavily influenced upon the response that the individual show while performing a task In common terms, it is how learners react when they are asked to perform the task It is expressed in two ways, the positive manner when they are interested in performing the given task and negative manner, when they are forced or not interested in performing the task This is again influenced by the learner’s culture and background
From cognitive perspectives, Brown (2000) points out, attitudes are cognitive and affective; that is, they are related to thoughts as well as to feelings and emotions Attitudes govern how one approaches learning, which in the case of language requires exposure to a different culture and also to the difficult task of mastering a second language Attitudes begin developing early and are influenced by many things, including parents, peers, and interactions with people who have social and cultural differences Therefore, attitudes “form a part of one’s perception of self, of others, and of the culture in which one is living” (Brown, 2000: 180) It is well known that negative attitudes towards the foreign language and group, which often comes from stereotypes and superficial contact with the target culture, can impede the learning of that language Conversely, positive attitudes towards the foreign language and group increase language learning success Brown (2000) describes several studies about the effects of attitude on language learning and concludes that “positive attitudes towards the self, the native language group, and the target language group enhanced proficiency” When students with positive attitudes experience success, the attitudes are reinforced, whereas students with negative attitudes may fail to progress and become even more negative in their language learning attitudes Because attitudes can be modified by experience, effective language teaching strategies can encourage students to be more positive towards the language they are learning
Feng and Chen (2009) stated that, “learning process is an emotional process It is affected by different emotional factors The teacher and his students engage in various emotional activities in it and varied fruits of emotions are yield.” Attitude can help the learners to express whether they like or dislike the objects or surrounding situations It is agreed that the inner feelings and emotions of foreign language learners influence their perspectives and their attitudes towards the target language (Choy & Troudi, 2006)
Many studies on language attitudes have revealed that there is a strong relationship between attitude and achievement (Hough & Piper, 1982; Simpson & Oliver, 1990; Visser, 2008) Researchers such as Fakeye (2010), Reid (2003), and Visser (2008) claim that attitude is a vital factor that influence language performance
In addition, Padwick (2010, as cited in Abidin, et al, 2012) states that apart the intellectual perspective, the nature of language learning depends on the learners‟ motivation and attitude to learn the target language For example, Mamun, et al
(2012) conducted a study to investigate attitudes of 79 undergraduate students of Life Science School of Khulna University towards English language By employing a questionnaire to collect the data, they found that the respondents were positive towards English language and this could be attributed to the fact that respondents were instrumentally motivated towards English Similarly, Gửmleksiz (2010) investigated learners‟ attitudes towards language learning in association with gender, grade level, and department variables He employed a questionnaire to collect data from 1275 students studying at Frat University, Turkey The results showed that there were significant differences between the attitudes in terms of gender, grade level, and department variables Specifically, he found that female students had more positive attitudes in interest, usefulness and teacher subscales; sophomores‟ attitudes were more positive than freshmen in terms of interest, self- confidence, usefulness, and teacher subscales; students‟ attitudes vary from one department to another
In 2011, Ghazvini and Khajehpour carried out an investigation on Iranian students’ attitudes and motivations towards learning English There were 123 male and female students from two high schools participating in answering a questionnaire The results showed that female students were more positively motivated and male students were more instrumentally motivated to learning English
According to Gardner (1985: 10) attitudes are a component of motivation, which “refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language.” Deci and Ryan (1985) identify motivation as intrinsic or extrinsic Students are intrinsically motivated when they are interested in learning tasks and outcomes for their own sake, and that results in internal feelings of self-determination and competence On the other hand, students are extrinsically motivated if they carry out some actions to achieve some instrumental end, such as earning a reward or avoiding a punishment Whatever motivates students, it seems clear that a positive attitude towards the target language and group is important
Gardner and Lambert (1972) identify two related types of motivation, which are called instrumental and integrative Students with instrumental motivation acquire a language for such reasons as to get a better job, to read technical material, or to study in the country where the language is spoken Integrative motivation is held by students who want to join with “the culture of the second language group and become involved in social interchange in that group” (Brown, 2000: 162)
Motivation is regarded “as a key component of a model of language learning” (Spolsky,2000: 158) Because of its importance to language learning, there is growing interest in the creation of a motivation model that can help develop methodological applications to improve the teaching and learning of a second language In a recent contribution, Dửrnyei and Csizộr (2002) examine the effect of socioculturalchanges in Hungary in the 1990s on students’ attitudes and motivation towards language learning by collecting data from a population of 8,593 thirteen- and fourteen-year-old students
English as a compulsory subject in other countries and Vietnam
Students at all levels of Vietnam are required to study English starting from grade 3 at primary level throughout the curriculum until university and further study English has been the requirement for graduation of all levels of study English can be said as of great important for all school children However, there are not many studies on the attitudes of the students towards the English when it becomes a compulsory subject at schools in Vietnam
In foreign language learning context, there are various factors that influence the learning process such as motivation, attitudes, anxiety, learning achievements, aptitudes, intelligence, age, personalities, etc Shams, M (2008) The matter of learner’s attitude is acknowledged as one of the most important factors that impact on learning a language(Fakeye, D., 2010)
Attitudes toward learning are believed to influence behaviors such as selecting and reading books, speaking in a foreign language etc Especially in Education, if the students have positive attitude towards any subject, they can achieve many things in that specific area There is an interaction between language learning and the environmental components in which the students were grown up Both negative and positive attitudes have a strong impact on the success of language learning Attitude is determined by the individual’s beliefs about outcomes or attributes of performing the behavior (behavioral beliefs), weighted by evaluations of those outcomes or attributes Thus, a person who holds strong beliefs that positively valued outcomes will result from performing the behavior will have a positive attitude toward the behavior
Conversely, a person who holds strong beliefs that negatively valued outcomes will result from the behavior will have a negative attitude
It addresses English in fundamental ways, such as “for the extent of its diffusion geographically; for the enormous cultural diversity of speakers who use it; and for the infinitely varied domains in which it is found and purpose it serves” (Dewey, 2007: 333) Matsuda (2000) argues that "English as an international language is not one variety of English … but is an umbrella term for different types of English which are used for the purpose of international communication" (p 25) From this point of view, the notion of English as an international language implies that most students study English not to interact with native English speakers, but to access information in English and to interact with other non-native English speakers In other words, this term refers to the global use of English for communication and sharing of information among people of two or more languages, regardless they are native speakers or not
Throughout the years, English has been used as a second language in many countries around the world and widely recognised as the international language of business, science, technology, and entertainment Under this premise, many studies have stressed the importance of English in current times (Fandrych, 2009; Menon & Patel, 2012; Morris & Maxey, 2014) and have given the status of lingua franca (Harmer, 2003) since many people use English as a means of communication between speakers of other languages For that reason, many countries have implemented educational policies to include English as a second or foreign language as part of their national curricula Vietnam has not been the exception The national curriculum includes English as the compulsory foreign language to be taught at school from 3 rd grade (primary education) to 12 th grade (upper secondary education) with an average of three to six classes per week The English programme is part of the Vietnamese national programme which was implemented by the Ministry of Education in 2008 This program has a variety of initiatives for both teachers and students; meanwhile, teachers have access to continuing education courses to enhance their teaching practices, students have extra-curricular activities
In addition to implementing the program across the country, the Ministry of Education has also called for review of the programs of study, and has presented a proposal to introduce English in the early stages This last initiative reinforces the issue that English has a prominent status worldwide
One of the goals of the National project entitled “Teaching and Learning Foreign Language in national education system, period 2008-2020” is that "…by the year 2020 most Vietnamese youth whoever graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities gain the capacity to use a foreign language independently This will enable them to be more confident in communication, further their chance to study and work in an integrated and multi-cultural environment with variety of languages…" (Decision 1400 approved by the Prime Minister)
The decision has put great pressures on both students and teachers, even educational policy makers The initial act is on the teachers' language proficiency i.e., teachers of English must attain the language level of C1 (CEFR) The English language requirement for teachers of other subjects varies from B1 to B2 according to titles Students' English proficiency is expected to reach to A2 or B1 depending on different levels of studies After 10 years under the operation of the decision, the ambition of the government seems to gain little success There are many explanations for the unsuccessfulness of the project, namely, teachers’ qualification, teaching materials, school settings and so on However, one of the key features for successful language learners lies in learners themselves That means they need to know why they are studying and what they are studying for To put it in a simpler way, students need to have good attitudes and motivation towards what they are studying so that they can achieve their goals
However, the extended time from 3 years of studying English to 10 years has put the system under pressures Firstly, there is a disproportionate demand-supply With a population of over 85 million, of whom a sizeable proportion have a strong desire to learn English, the demand for English language teaching far outstrips the supply of native speaker and competent non-native speaker teachers Secondly, textbook writing and teacher retraining are the two important aspects to implement its curriculum As motioned, textbook writing has been completed, but to do massive and long term retraining of teachers in English competence would demand manpower and logistic resources beyond the capacity of the system at present Thirdly, despite the importance of English in the new context of integration and globalization, English language teaching in Vietnam, due to its low quality, has not met the demand for competent English-speaking people The main reasons are that (i) most of the English teachers, particularly those who are teaching at primary and lower secondary levels are disqualified, (ii) most teachers, except some who are teaching at tertiary level, have not had a chance to study in an English-speaking country, and that (iii) many of them do not normally communicate in English and cannot sustain teaching that mainly depends on communicative interactions Fourthly, although the rhetoric of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training stresses the development of practical communication skills, this is rarely reflected at the classroom level, where the emphasis is on the development of reading comprehension, vocabulary and structural patterns for the purposes of passing the end-of-school and university entrance examinations into colleges or universities New teacher training programmes pre-service and in-service alike have been designed and delivered with a focus on training communicative teachers in a bid to address the faults of teaching methodology Unfortunately, not much improvement in terms of teaching methods has been noticed in English classes During the training courses, Vietnamese teachers show great interest in new methodologies, but after they return from those courses, they continue teaching in the old methods Fifthly, there is a mismatch between testing and teaching in English language teaching in Vietnam While teaching follows the communicative approach, testing seems to focus on measuring students’ lexico grammatical knowledge Last but not least, there have been quite few studies on the learners' attitudes towards the learning of English as a compulsory subject.
Students’ attitudes to English as a compulsory in other countries
Today, people come across with English language in every part of their life, making it a necessity to learn Curriculums of many developing or developed countries who feel learning a foreign language is important include foreign language courses One or more foreign languages take part in the curriculum of many schools in many countries and foreign language courses are compulsory from primary school to university It is impossible to say that the results of the effort and time spent to teach English is enough because students cannot learn English sufficiently even if they take foreign language courses from primary school to university Hence, the affective domain of the students makes it important for students to take part in the learning process The students need to have a positive attitude to take part in the learning process
In Sweden, with a language spoken by a rather limited group of people, it seems natural that young people would like to widen their perspectives and expose themselves to input from outside their country borders Over the past few decades the proficiency in English among Swedish pupils has increased noticeably due to young people’s increasing access and exposure to English input Young people have got the impression that the English language constitutes an important part in their daily life and in the context in which they find themselves What’s more, young people seem well aware of the fact that the English language is the key to a future with international elements to it It is not difficult to imagine that to many young people in Sweden today proficiency in the English language is something valuable, and they are therefore likely to be motivated to learn English (although this is not necessarily reflected in their motivation in the English classroom).
METHODOLOGY
Context of the study
The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of an accessible population toward English learning and English as a compulsory subject at schools Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data to examine their attitudes Along with exploring and describing the attitudes, part of the study is relational Correlational research involves studying relationships among variables within a single group (Frankel & Wallen, 1990:15) The relational component identified correlations among selected characteristics and attitudes of respondents
In addition, interviews with selected participants provided qualitative data for further understanding of their attitudes Two different instruments were employed in this study because interpretations which are built upon triangulation are certain to be stronger than those which rest on the more constricted framework of a single method (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000) Therefore, this study employed a - concurrent mixed methods design‖ in which the quantitative and qualitative data are collected at the same time and then integrates the information in the interpretation of the overall results (Creswell, 2009: 14) Mixed methods design, similar to mixed model research (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2003) and multimethod design (Morse,
2003), employing the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, has gained popularity in the social and human sciences research in the past twenty years The mixed methods design is more than simply collecting and analyzing both kinds of data; it also involves the use of both approaches in tandem so that the overall strength of a study is greater than either quantitative or qualitative research (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007)
Furthermore, in mixed methods design, the researcher may embed one smaller form of data within another larger data collection in order to analyze different types of questions (Creswell, 2009: 15) This point about a mixed methods design is of crucial value in this study, given the fact that quantitative data with a sufficient sample may present general pictures about attitudes of learners; while qualitative data from interviews with a small number of participants may provide an in-depth understanding of their attitudes Specifically, the study adopted the concurrent embedded strategy of mixed methods design over other types of mixed methods design Creswell (2009:214) explains that “a concurrent embedded approach has a primary method that guides the project and a secondary database that provides a supporting role in the procedure” In this study, the secondary method of qualitative approach is embedded within the predominant method of quantitative.
Instruments
The measuring instrument was an attitude questionnaire which focused on the attitudes towards learning English The items were partly adapted from the attitude questionnaire test employed in a study by Boonrangsri et al (2004) Other items were taken from Attitude and Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) designed by Gardner (1985) Furthermore, there were some items based on the researchers’ experiences in teaching English On the whole, there were 45 items concerning language attitudes in terms of: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional perspectives of attitude Overall, 30 items were positive and 15 items were negative The items were put in a 5-point Likert scale from Level 1: Strongly Disagree to Level 5: Strongly Agree
The second questionnaire which was adapted from Yang Yu (2010) to measure attitudes of high school students towards English as a compulsory subject at school The questionnaire consists of 15 items relate to English language policies in Vietnam The items were put in a 5-point Likert scale from Level 1: Strongly Disagree to Level 5: Strongly Agree
A pilot study was conducted to measure the reliability level of the questionnaire items To do so, 30 students were randomly selected from the target population These students did not take part in the actual study They were required to present their personal information based on the Likert scale of the questionnaire items By using The Statistical Package for the Social Science Program (SPSS) version 17.0, an analysis of item reliability was determined through the reliability coefficient test The acceptable value of Cronbach Alpha was 0.878 which shows acceptable consistency of reliability This shows that the questionnaire items were completely appropriate for research goals Table 1 indicates the reliability of the questionnaire items in terms of the three aspects of attitude separately The value of Cornbach’s Alpha regarding the behavioral aspect is 0.731, the cognitive aspect obtained 0.772, and the Cronbach’s Alpha value of the emotional aspect is 0.677
Table 3.1 Reliability value regarding the language Aspects
Perspectives of attitudes No of items Cronbach’s Alpha value
To investigate the validity of the questionnaire items, the questionnaire was given to two specialists, a psychologist and an expert in TEFL, chosen from the teaching staff of ULIS Their comments were taken into consideration and they advocated that the items of the questionnaire are valid and reliable to investigate the research objectives
Even though the questionnaire was well established with validity and reliability, the instruments may not address all the research questions accurately unexpected issues that arise from the diverse English learning experience of the students Also, the participants may not elaborate as much because of the restricted form of questionnaire These weaknesses are overcome with another data collection method: face-to-face interviews The interviews were exploratory in nature, in order to provide in-depth understanding about Vietnamese attitudes towards English language learning and English as a compulsory subject to provide qualitative data for triangulation with the quantitative survey data Since the purpose for the interview was to obtain additional data to complement, refine, and contextualize the results from the survey data, the interview questions were developed in accordance with the themes in the questionnaire.
Data collection
Researcher in the field used many instruments to collect data for the survey research i.e observations, case studies, test results, previous surveys; however, questionnaires and interviews is more commonly used It is because both of these instruments provide a means of obtaining data by asking people rather than by observing them behave
While the questionnaire consists of a set of questions that the respondent answers on paper by himself, the interview consists of an interviewer asking the questions and recording the responses Guyette (1983: 60-61) has compared the advantages and disadvantages of these two instruments as follows:
May seem cold to community persons or respondent may be suspicious
More personal, friendly/ Greater response likely in community efforts
Time to complete questionnaire minimal/ Respondent may skimp on time or fail to respond to some questions
Interview is time consuming/ Completion rate usually higher than questionnaire
Educational level may affect interpretation of questions
Educational or experience level less of an effect because interviewer explains questions Literacy Literacy required Literacy not required
Characteristics Questionnaire Interview restriction written language for the interview
Bias Questions may contain bias - usually detected during the pretest
Interviewer may influence the responses or cause tension -training may prevent this
Respondent can add comments, but usually does not take the time
Tends to yield more complete data/
Interviewer able to encourage and note comments
Cost Cost primarily involves duplication, postage, and data processing
Besides copies of instrument for noting responses and data processing, additional costs are salary of interviewers and travel
Training Training for persons to code and process data, if needed
In-depth training needed for interviewers in addition to data preparation Data Analysis
Increased chance of non- responses may introduce bias into the study
Data summaries from open-ended questions difficult to summarize
Reciprocation More difficult to give back to the respondent, unless materials are mailed
Services, materials, or payment can be given to the respondent at the time of the interview
Respondent may not identify as closely with the project, due to the less personal nature of the method
Cooperation for future involvement of the respondent may be gained through the personal contact/ Respondent may feel more like a participant and take an interest in the results
In this study English teachers in the chosen classes were required to explain the instructions of the questionnaire form to the participants Respondents were asked to signify the extent to which they agree or disagree with the items of the questionnaires The total administration to complete answering the questionnaire lasted about 30 minutes
The interviews were conducted with 12 students Each interview takes about
10 minutes The researcher made appointments with selected students and carried out the interviews in Vietnamese The answers were recorded, transcribed and translated back into English.
Data analysis
The collected data was analyzed by the SPSS Program aiming to answer the research questions quantitatively To answer the first research question, descriptive statistics was conducted to determine the frequency, the mean, the variance and the standard deviation of the gathered data Besides, the independent sample T- test was conducted to answer the second research question In addition, the One-way ANOVA analysis test was the other type of statistical analysis to examine the research questions The findings are indicated in the next chapter.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Quantitative results and discussions
Research question 1: What are the upper secondary school students’ attitudes towards learning English as a compulsory subject?
The quantitative results are interpreted following this rule: if the score is between 1 to 2.5, it is called a low attitude; if the score is between 2.5 to 3.5, it is called a medium attitude; if the score is between 3.5 to 5.0, it is called a high attitude Furthermore, a low attitude is interpreted as negative attitude; a medium attitude is interpreted as neutral attitude; and a high attitude is interpreted as positive attitude
Concerning the first research question, the result of descriptive analysis shows that the overall mean score of English Language Attitude (ELA) among the participants is 2.6167 (SD= 0.59177) This result reveals that the participants have a negative attitude towards learning English In addition, the mean scores of the three aspects of attitudes towards English among the respondents differ As seen in Table
2, the mean score of Behavioral Aspect of Attitude (BAA) is 2.5711 (SD 0.60468), that of the Cognitive Aspect of Attitude (CAA) is 2.6722 (SD= 0.63402) Yet, the mean score of responses regarding the Emotional Aspect of Attitude (EAA) is 2.6067 (SD= 0.63262)
Similarly, Al-Zahrani (2008) reported that most of the participants in his study showed a negative attitude and it was also proposed that the reason of such a negative attitude might have been a reaction to the instructional and traditional techniques used by some ofthe English language teachers This is overlapping with the current status of English teaching strategies in Vietnamese educational system
Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Attitudes towards English
Min Max Mean Std deviation
As shown in Table 2, the behavioral aspect of attitude towards English language represents the lowest mean score (2.5711) That is, the participants have negative behavioral attitude and feel not relaxed whenever they have to speak in English class The item “studying English helps me to have good relationships with friends” obtained the second rank (M= 2.89, SD= 1.153), while the lowest mean score is (2.22) and demonstrates that the participants do not pay any attention when English teacher is explaining the lesson with standard deviation of 1.231 (Table 3) Shams (2008) study also explored that most of the participants were confused and nervous when they started speaking English in front of other students
Table 4 2 Descriptive Statistics of Behavioral Aspect of Language Attitude Behavioral aspect of attitudes N Min Max Mean SD Varia nce
Speaking English everywhere makes me feel worried 180 1 5 2.63 1.103 1.217
Studying English helps me to have good relationships with friends 180 1 5 2.89 1.153 1.328
I like to give opinions during
I am able to make myself pay attention during studyingEnglish 180 1 5 2.54 0.971 942 When I hear a student in my class speaking English well, I like to practice speaking with him/her 180 1 5 2.31 1.125 1.266 Studying English makes me have 180 1 5 2.87 1.020 1.039 more confidence in expressing myself
Studying English helps me to improve my personality 180 1 5 2.76 1.193 1.423
I put off my English homework as much as possible 180 1 5 2.71 1.141 1.302
I am not relaxed whenever I have to speak in myEnglish class 180 1 5 3.17 1.022 1.045
English in front of otherstudents 180 1 5 2.81 1.204 1.450
I like to practice English the way native speakers do 180 1 5 2.23 1.233 1.521
I wish I could have many English speaking friends 180 1 5 2.36 1.071 1.147
When I miss the class, I never ask my friends orteachers for the homework on what has been taught
I do not feel enthusiastic to come to class when theEnglish is being thought
I do not pay any attention when my English teacher isexplaining the lesson
Besides, the results of the current study disclosed that some of the students agreed that they do not pay any attention when English teacher is explaining the lesson Thus, they show negative behaviors in the English classes This could be due to the belief among the EFL learners that learning English is not needed and important as other results of this study showed that most of the students never ask their friends or teachers for the homework and what has been taught when they miss the English class (M= 2.27) and they put off English homework as much as possible (M= 2.71)
The cognitive aspect represents the highest mean score of attitudes towards English (M= 2.6722, SD= 0.63402) The findings indicate that the majority of the respondents showed negative cognitive attitude and agreed that they could not summarize the important points in the English subject content by themselves This response among the respondents represents the highest mean score 3.02 with (SD=1.153) This result is similar to the findings of a study by Boonrangsri et al (2004); the descriptive statistics revealed that 121 participants out of 219 from eight streams of study showed a moderate attitude in their ability to summarize the important points in English subject
Besides, the respondents showed that they could not apply the knowledge from English in their real lives (M= 2.99, SD= 1.081) However, some of them believed that people who speak more than one language are very knowledgeable This response represented the lowest mean score 2.35 with (SD= 1.179) (Table 4)
Table 4.3 Descriptive Statistics of Cognitive Aspect of Language Attitude
Cognitive aspect of attitudes N Min Max Mean SD Variance
Studying English is important because it will make memore educated
Being good at English will help me study other subjectswell 180 1 5 2.79 1.114 1.240
I have more knowledge and more understanding whenstudying
I like my English class so much;
I look forward to studying more
Studying English helps me getting new information inwhich I can link to my previous knowledge
I cannot summarize the important points in the English subject content by myself
Frankly, I study English just to pass the exams 180 1 5 2.59 1.298 1.685
In my opinion, people who speak morethan one languageare very 180 1 5 2.35 1.179 1.391 knowledgeable
Studying English helps me communicate in English effectively
I cannot apply the knowledge from
English subject in my real life 180 1 5 2.99 1.081 1.168 Studying English makes me able to create new thoughts 180 1 5 2.83 1.170 1.369
I am able to think and analyze the content in Englishlanguage 180 1 5 2.64 0.967 0.934
I am not satisfied with my performance in the English subject
In my opinion, English language is difficult and complicated to learn
English subject has the content that covers many fields of knowledge
The responses regarding the emotional aspect of attitude towards English are quite different from those of cognitive aspect and the mean score is 2.6067 (SD0.63262) As can be seen in Table 5, most of the participants showed that they preferred studying in their mother tongue rather than any other foreign language, representing the highest mean score (3.81) with (SD= 1.157) This result is in line with that in Al-Nofaie’s (2010) that examined the attitudes of Saudi teachers and students towards using Arabic as a facilitating tool in English classes It was revealed that the teachers and the students showed generally positive attitudes about using Arabic rather than English language However, few of the respondents in this study had a positive attitude and wished to speak English fluently This finding highlights the importance of encouraging the students to participate in collaborative dialogues and activities in which they can acquire the language effectively and this can enhance EFL learners to
Table 4.4 Descriptive Statistics of Emotional Aspect of Language Attitude
Emotional aspect of attitudes N Min Max Mean SD Variance
I feel excited when I communicate in English with others
I don’t get anxious when I have to answer a question in my
Studying foreign languages like English is enjoyable 180 1 5 2.32 1.001 1.002
To be inquisitive makes me study English well 180 1 5 2.93 1.293 1.672
Studying English makes me have good emotions(feelings) 180 1 5 2.71 1.038 1.078
I prefer studying in my mother tongue rather than anyother foreign language
I do not like studying English 180 1 5 2.33 1.195 1.428
I wish I could speak English fluently 180 1 5 1.94 1.045 1.092
Studying English subject makes me feel more confident 180 1 5 2.87 1.940 1.3929
To be honest, I really have little interest in my
Knowing English is an important goal in my life 180 1 5 2.31 1.154 1.333
I look forward to the time I spend in English class 180 1 5 2.56 1.037 1.075
Research question 2: What are the attitudes of Vietnamese high school students towards English as a compulsory subject at schools?
Concerning the second research question, the result of descriptive analysis shows that the overall mean score of English as a compulsory subject The overall mean score of the items is M=3.28; SD = 1.025 (table 6), this means that Vietnamese high school students have medium attitude towards English as a compulsory subject They all agreed that "All Vietnamese students should learn English (M=4.25) However, most of them said that "if English was not compulsory subject in school, I would not learn English" (M= 4.54) Most of them have high attitude towards "English education should start from elementary school in Vietnam" (M= 4.32) The other items such as English should be used as language of instruction or to teach other subject received negative attitudes (M= 2.11; 1.52) respectively
Table 4.5 Descriptive Statistics of Attitudes towards English as a compulsory subject
Attitudes towards English as a compulsory subject N Min Max Mean SD Variance
All Vietnamese students should learn English 180 1 5 4.25 1.124 1.012
Vietnamese high school students should use English in either spoken or written communications among each other
English education should start from elementary school in
English should not be a compulsory subject in the
I would not take English if it were not a compulsory subject 180 1 5 4.54 1.234 1.726 in school
If English were not taught at school, I would study it on my own
Oral language skills are more important than literacy skills in
High school English classes should be entirely conducted in
High school English classes should be conducted in both
Besides English classes, other classes, such as Math, should be also conducted in English
Proficiency band 3) should not be a requirement for obtaining the university degree in
I am satisfied with the English education policy in Vietnam 180 1 5 3.24 1.532 1.432
I am satisfied with the high school English education curriculum in Vietnam
I am satisfied with the English learning textbooks and other materials used in our school
I am satisfied with the English teaching methods used in our school
Qualitative results and discussions
Res 1 is a grade 10, girl student She said that she did not like English so much However, she thought English is important because it is an international language Her mean score for the first questionnaire was M=3.8 Her mean score for the second questionnaire was M= 2.2 That means her attitude towards English as a compulsory subject was negative
Res 2 is a grade 10, boy student He said that he liked studying very much and he wanted to learn other subjects in English He would like teacher of English used English all the time in the class (M=4.74) He said he tried to learn English not because of the exam but for real life communication He showed a very high attitude towards English as a compulsory subject (M=4.9) Also, he said he attended many courses where English is taught by native speakers
Res 3 is a grade 11, boy student His English is not so good but he has tried to make it better because his parents want to sent him to a university oversea He was really satisfied with textbook and teaching method of teacher at school He said that the VSTEP band 3 is not easy for him at present but he would make it when he finishes high school His mean score for attitude towards English learning was M=3.25; his attitude towards English as a compulsory subject was M= 2.75, that is medium
Res 4 is a grade 11, girl student She is trying to pass the national exam into a foreign language university so she learns English quite well She loves to learn with native speaker and listen to English all the time She felt comfortable in English lessons Besides, she assumed that English language helps her learn better other subject Her mean score for attitude towards English learning was M=3.2 She said that English is very important for her future because it is an International language Her attitude towards English as a compulsory subject was M= 3.87
Res 5 is a grade 12, boy student He said he did not like English at all but he did not want to lose face in class so he tried to learn English His attitude towards
English learning was M= 2.02 He said that if English is not a compulsory subject and he has to take an exam for graduation he would never study English His mean score towards English as a compulsory subject was M=1.97
Res 6 is a grade 12, girl student Her mean score for attitude towards English learning was M=4.3 She said she find it so enjoyable in English class She gained other knowledge through English movies and English songs She has been in many English competitions Her mean score towards English as a compulsory subject was M=4.46 That means she had a vey positive attitude towards English
The results from the interviews show that many students have positive attitude towards English learning as well as English as a compulsory subject However, there are many others who find English as a burden that leads to bad achievement in English Those who hold positive attitude towards English language learning and English as a compulsory subject might have better achievements
Overall, the results of the study reveal that high school students at the high school, Quang Ninh province have neural attitude towards English language learning (M=2.67) In terms of English is a compulsory subject at school, these students hold a positive attitude to it (M= 3.8) The result reveals that the English language policies in Vietnam are good in terms of time of studying, textbooks and teaching methods
This study has argued that attitude is factored in learning a target language, investigating high school students’ attitudes towards learning English and the differences in attitudes made by these students at a high school The qualitative information helped us to understand that both the male and female participants have positive emotional, behavioral, and cognitive attitudes toward English learning This may lead to conclude that they are well aware of the importance of English and learn it as an essential subject
The current findings contribute to and have implications for a variety of different areas, such as affective variables in Second Language (L2) learners, language attitude research, high school students, and English education policies and practices in Vietnam First, this study adds to the research on learners’ attitudes towards English and the growing body of studies on the spread of EFL
Second, this study provides insights into how Vietnamese high school students perceive various aspects of English By providing insights into attitudes of Vietnamese high school students towards the English language, English education policies, and their purposes for learning English, this study makes a valuable contribution to understanding of English learning and teaching in Vietnam
Besides, studying learners’ personalities is an important factor to make their attitudes towards learning If Vietnamese high school students have a positive attitude and enjoy learning a foreign language, cognitive performance can come about For that reason, creating an encouraging atmosphere in the English classes to help the students’ positive attitudes toward English be developed and increased is recommended to EFL teachers English curriculum and class activities should be planned according to students’ needs, feelings, behaviors and also teachers should recognize and respect the students and encourage them to positive attitudes toward English learning
Last but not least, examining the relationship between attitudes of learners, the study provides a more comprehensive picture of attitudes of Vietnamese high school students towards English language learning in terms of possible factors affecting the construction of their attitudes
Due to the limited time for data collection, future studies on attitude changes in students might alter the Vietnamese high school students perceiving toward the language of English
Regarding the observed negative attitude towards English, the EFL teachers are recommended to create an encouraging atmosphere in the English classes to promote the students’ positive attitudes towards English They should also motivate the students to learn English, highlighting its importance This can be achieved by implementing the appropriate methods and activities of teaching English effectively Furthermore, they should integrate up-to-date materials and supplementary resources in addition to the English text - books This can help them capture students’ attention to learn English successfully