Elementary School Students’ Language Attitude towards Teachers’ Use of English in an EFL Classroom

• Main Authors: Lee, Yi-Jing, 李怡靜
• Other Authors: Huang, Li-Jung
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23120281290802474045

碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 英國語文學系 === 103 === Previous research on the use of target language in classroom setting has indicated a mixed result on the effectiveness of the language programs. Specifically, in research on bilingual education, some researchers have suggested a positive effect of language learning outcomes when the target language is used in classrooms while others have indicated the opposite. In addition, language attitude was found to play an important role in the success of language learning. The aim of this research is to explore learners’ attitude towards the use of English – the target language – by English native speakers in an EFL classroom where Chinese is the first language of the students; consequently, whether the use of the target language has led to positive learning outcomes. Twenty-nine students were recruited from an elementary school in Taichung for the research. A questionnaire was designed to explore the language attitude of the elementary school students. The data were analyzed by using the t-test of independent-samples to investigate if there were significant differences between gender and attitude, and by using one way ANOVA to determine the relationship between English proficiency and attitude. Next, the correlation of the three dimensions of attitudes was also examined. Pearson correlation was used to investigate if there were significant differences on attitude towards foreign English-speaking teachers and attitude towards local Taiwanese teachers. There are four main findings in this study: 1.There are significant differences between gender and attitude. Regardless cognitive domain, behavior domain, or affective domain, females have more positive attitude towards English learning. 2.There are significant differences between English proficiency and attitude. Specifically. Based on students’ English proficiency, the level on average or higher average shows well language attitude than lower average. 3.Compared with students’ English learning attitude, their learning performance of affective and behavior domain are better than cognitive domain. 4.The difference of students’ English learning attitude is teachers’ language use. The foreign teachers’ language use has significance difference.