Abstract:
The attitude one has towards language learning determines the success or failure of learning the language. To this effect, this study aimed to explore EFL learners’ attitudes towards communicative language learning and the relationship between learners’ attitudes and English language achievement. To address these objectives, the study adopted a survey research design. Two hundred seventeen grade 11 students were selected through simple random sampling technique. Attitude questionnaire, achievement test and interview were tools of data collection. In order to verify students’ attitudes towards communicative language learning, the mean score obtained from attitude scale and qualitative descriptions of the interview data were utilized. To address the relationship between students’ attitudes to communicative language learning and English language achievement, and to decide the predictive power of attitude on learners’ English language achievement, Pearson correlation and regression were applied respectively. In addition, t-test was used to investigate if gender caused attitude difference or not. The findings indicated positive attitude towards communicative language learning. In addition, it was found that attitude to communicative language learning significantly predicted achievement scores of the students. Furthermore, gender was not found to be a determining factor in the attitude towards communicative language learning.
Machine summary:
As communicative language teaching has shifted the focus from teachers to students, issues related to students’ have been central in contemporary studies among which learner attitude is one.
For instances, no statistically significance difference was found between female and male students attitudes towards English language learning in Iran (Zareian, Zangoei & Taghvaee, 2014) and in Pakistani (Akram & Ghani, 2013).
There is no statistically significant correlation between students’ attitudes towards communicative language learning and their English language achievement.
Accordingly, non- significant correlations were found between the components of students’ attitude towards communicative language learning and their English language achievement test score.
In addition, there was no significant correlation between attitude towards communicative language learning scale and English language achievement test score.
As indicated, the result revealed that attitude towards communicative language learning significantly predicted students’ English language achievement [F (3, 191) = 2.
With regards to the relationship between students’ attitude towards communicative language learning and their English language achievement, the current study revealed that there was no significant correlation between the variables.
This finding is inconsistent with some studies which revealed gender difference has nothing to do with attitude towards English language learning (Fakeye, 2010; Akram & Ghani, 2013; Zareian, Zangoei & Taghvaee, 2014).
However, the finding is in line with with previous studies which discovered that female students had more favorable attitude towards English language learning than males (Shoaib & Dornyei, 2005; Hashwani, 2008; Abidin, Mohammadi & Alzwari, 2012).