Factors Affecting Students’ Attitudes toward Learning EFL

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the different factors that affect students’ attitude towards learning English language, such as the behavioral, cognitive and emotional aspects of attitude. Hence, it aims to investigate the interlaced relationship among those different factors. An adapted questionnaire is employed as a measuring instrument asking the participants about their different attitudes toward learning English language. However, the researcher uses percentages to show the results of the questionnaire. The SPSS16 software is used for the results obtained. The findings indicate that there are multiple factors that affect the students’ attitude toward learning English such as the feeling of being more educated is a determining factor in learning English, worrying about the process of learning English is detrimental to the students learning ability, the status of English as the language of science and technology makes learners more knowledgeable, the desire to speak English fluently plays a major role in enhancing the students learning process. In addition to that the difficulty of English could be challenging, having more opportunities inside the class room proved helpful, how the class is conducted is a major factor makes students more or less interested in attending the class. Finally, the texts books taught is also holding a leading factor in affecting the student’s attitudes towards learning English either positively or negatively. The study recommends that more studies should be conducted to investigate other variables such as socio-economic and cultural level, income level, and education level of the parents. Also the study recommended that further studies with larger samples be undertaken to develop more understanding of these factors. Furthermore, qualitative studies could be done to find out the factors affecting students’ attitudes towards learning English. A possible further research topic could be to interview other universities and faculties’ students to find out more about their attitudes towards learning English.