خلاصة:
The purpose of this study was to explore the predictors of negative attitudes towards learning English from L2 learners’ points of view. A mixed methods research approach was adopted with a sequential exploratory design, followed by an endorsement phase. Eighteen high school students in Fars province (Iran) were interviewed on the sources of negative attitudes towards learning English. Based on the interviews, a questionnaire was developed and pilot-tested. Results of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed 6 latent variables: materials, difficulty of learning English, affective factors, teaching methodology, school policy, and learning environment. Questionnaire was administered to 980 high school students. Through a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and simple linear regression, we found that the variable materials was the best predictor of negative attitudes. Then, came the variable affective factors that predicted negative attitudes better than the variables teaching methodology and learning environment, and the least predicting variable was difficulty of learning English.
ملخص الجهاز:
In other words, the main objective of the study was to explore sources that make the Iranian EFL learners hold negative attitudes towards learning English, though they have been reported to have high degrees of instrumental motivation and are aware of the role of English as a useful, practical, and international language (Aliakbari & Monfared, 2014; Mehrpour & Vojdani, 2012; Rahimi & Hasani, 2012; Rashidi, Rahimi, & Alimorad, 2014; Vaezi, 2008).
A large body of research has targeted the relationship between attitudes and other variables, revealing that attitudes towards L2 study are significantly related to world-mindedness and social distance (Sakuragi, 2006), and there is a positive relationship between L2 learners’ beliefs about language learning and their attitudes towards their teachers (Tavassoli & Kasraeean, 2014); however, a low correlation between achievement and instrumental motivation was reported by Genc and Aydin (2017), arguing that there was not a significant correlation between the learners’ attitudes and achievement variables, even though almost all the participants indicated a positive attitude towards learning the English language; they suggested that the factors that affected the learners’ attitudes in the processes of language learning should be taken into account.
However, exploring the sources of negative attitudes towards learning an L2 from the learners’ points of view, as the most important participants in the process of learning EFL, has been ignored, although numerous studies have been accomplished on language attitudes and other variables (Bonyadi & Zeinalpur, 2014; Chang, 2010; Chen, Chen, & Chen, 2015; FaramarzZadeh, 2016; Gorjian & Aghvami, 2017; Jannati & Marzban, 2015; Torshizi & Torshizi, 2016).