The Attitudes Of Yemeni Secondary Learners In Public Schools Towards The English Language Learning

Due to the great deal of attention that attitude study has received and theimportance that English language has in all dominants of life and especially its role inlearning situation, this study aims to investigate Yemeni secondary learners attitudestowards English in comparison with Arabic. What do they think about English inlearning situation? Where and with whom do they speak English language? Moreoverare there any attitude differences among students with good, medium, and poorEnglish proficiency?The thesis first presents an introduction of the related terms such as languageattitude. To show the theoretical and practical significance of the present study, thethesis then reviews and evaluates the major researches on language attitudes,especially the attitudes towards the English language both abroad and in Yemen afteran overview of the history of English teaching in Yemen. Afterwards the thesisprovides a detailed description of the research methodology, procedure and theanalysis of the results. The theory used in this study is based on Lambert s (1967),which includes three components in language attitude, cognitive component,evaluative component and behavioral component. The questionnaire is used as adirect measurement to study the learners attitudes. About one hundred and two copiesof the questionnaire were distributed to the subjects. To analyze the collected data,SPSS was employed, with the calculation of the mean value.Then findings of the present study are discussed, which shows that Yemenisecondary learner s attitudes towards the English language are mixed and balanced.On one hand, they hold favorable attitudes towards the English language incomparison with Arabic. There is a balance between their attitudes towards Englishlanguage and Arabic: they recognize the importance of English and maintain Arabicas it is their mother tongue at the same time. In learning situation they hold positiveattitudes towards the English language as an interesting subject and they do not feelbored when participating in the class discussions. On the other hand, they havenegative attitudes towards English language if they speak it with their teachers or infront of others. That means Yemeni learners hold unfavorable attitudes towards the use of English, and they use it very rarely in situations outside the classroom.However, there are no attitude differences among learners with different proficiencyof the English language.The present study reveals the attitudes of Yemeni secondary learners in publicschools towards English language in Yemen; it has both theoretical and practicalsignificance. Theoretically, this study enriches the research of language attitudes thusenhance the efficiency of foreign language teaching and learning in Yemen. It alsoexpands the research scope of Lambert s language attitude study by using Lambert slanguage attitude approach on studying the attitudes of Yemeni learners.Practically, the present research is of great importance to the Yemeni community.Its findings will give English teachers clear insights into the learners attitudestowards this language in the context of the Yemen EFL learning community byrevealing what students need from English language learning as well as what theythink and feel about the target language. It is also of great importance for helping withlanguage policy and language planning in Yemen, in order to give the relevantgovernment organizations insights to achieve the aim of proficiency in the Englishlanguage. By selecting the appropriate materials and developing programsaccordingly for English learners they can make further modifications or necessarychanges in the syllabi and encourage the Yemeni learners to learn English moreeffectively. A great effort should be made by the EFL policy makers in Yemen to beaware of the Yemeni learners attitudes, needs and thoughts.