The Language Teacher
03 - 2002

A Cross Sectional Study of Attitudes and Manifestations of Apathy of University Students Towards Studying English

Peter Burden

Okayama Shoka University


The Paradox of Language Education

This paper was inspired by concerns over students' attitudes to foreign language learning in the university where I teach. Often students display what McVeigh (2001, p.29) has referred to as an apathetic attitude which manifests itself by a loss of academic interest once students pass through the academic gate and into the English language classroom. Yet paradoxically, there seems an eagerness to promote English education. My university uses native speakers of English to adorn promotional materials and frequently videos their classes. There seems to be a mismatch of ideals. English education seems to be valuable and fashionable, perhaps in response to the pronouncements of former Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo who called for English to be the second common language. Yet, there appears to be a foreign language malaise among students reflected in dramatically falling attendance in elective classes and a decline in interest in homestay programs which can only be partly explained by the economic situation. Overall, it seems there is an attitudinal problem that manifests itself in classroom apathy which perhaps has been somehow ignored in the rush towards internationalization.

This does not seem confined to universities. This became apparent when participating in an "Open Campus" week in which local high school students attended lectures at my university to determine its suitability for their educational goals. As a native English teacher, I sat in an "English Cafe" while potential applicants from neighboring high schools were cajoled or even coerced to have a talk in English with the gaijin in return for free coffee. The students either brazenly ignored any attempt to speak English or, more likely, stammered that they "were poor at English" and proceeded to look uncomfortable until they could safely flee. This was not a particular happy memory to take away from an institution that is, after all, attempting to woo customers.

Beliefs in the culture-at-large: The "I'm poor at English" syndrome

The feelings of being poor at English illustrated above are reflected in a survey carried by the Daily Yomiuri ("Survey," May 22, 2000), which claimed to bring to light "ambivalence for English" with 66% of 1,918 respondents acknowledging that while there is a growing need for English, many indicated they had negative feelings towards the language. "It's difficult," "It's hard to understand," "It's hard to deal with," and "I can't speak it" were ranked among the more frequent answers. The article concludes that while most respondents recognize the usefulness of learning English, they feel the language is "beyond them." Horwitz (1988, p.283) also noted that if beliefs about language learning are prevalent in the wider culture, "then foreign language teachers must consider that students bring these beliefs into the classroom" and teachers need to assess the beliefs to determine when there might be a conflict of learning ideals. Students hold definite views about language learning and it would be useful for classroom teachers to discover whether these beliefs might affect motivation and therefore learning outcome.

Beliefs and motivation

Attitudes influence the effectiveness of future learning in the new environment of the university conversation class and could make the class a success or a miserable experience for all concerned. Wenden (1991, p.52) defines attitudes as "learned motivations, valued beliefs, evaluations, or what one believes is acceptable." Therefore, favorable attitudes tend to influence language learning, as "high achievers tend to develop positive attitudes as they go along" (Svanes 1988, p.369), while low achievers thus become disenchanted and learning proportionately decreases. Dornyei (1990) suggests that in EFL contexts, where learners have not had sufficient experience of the target language community, motivational factors such as instrumental motivation should receive special attention. Motivation is complex and consists of intrinsic, integrative, and instrumental subscales, and thus it is often difficult to determine an over-riding motivational factor. The lack of any single factor, however, may be evidence of the difficulty many teachers report in motivating Japanese EFL learners. Reid's (1990) study indicated Japanese language learners' lack of predominant learning styles support the implication that Japanese learners may not be so easily motivated to learn foreign languages.

Dornyei (1990) finds that success in language attainment was dependent upon the learners' affective predisposition towards the target linguistic-cultural group. In order to facilitate communication (integrative motivation), components such as interest, the wish to learn, and attitudes towards the foreign language are desirable, together with the desire to interact with the target community. Learning a foreign language is different from learning other subjects, as it involves more than learning skills, a system of rules, or a grammar; it involves an alteration in self-image and a person's whole social being.

Looking at "good learner" research, Naiman, Frohlich, Stern, and Todesco (1995) attempted to isolate some of the critical variables among the common characteristics of good learners including personality traits, cognitive styles, strategies, and learning environments of the good language learner in a formal L2 learning environment. Naiman, et al. noted that attitude and motivation were in many instances the best overall predictors of success. Yet attitude is not the only factor for success. There are cognitive factors, personality traits, and -- at later stages of L2 learning in a formal situation -- cognitive style factors such as field independence and tolerance of ambiguity. Such knowledge should help the teacher see that students cannot respond alike to teaching. Students need to analyze their own characteristics and adjust their learning as far as possible to what they know about themselves.

Research Questions

Teachers are likely to find instances of student concern or dissatisfaction whenever instructional activities are inconsistent with preconceived beliefs about learning. Students can lose confidence in the teaching approach and their ultimate achievement can be limited (Horwitz 1987, 1988). Mori (1999) showed that learners' beliefs are statistically related to achievement. One pedagogical implication is that teachers should encourage the understanding that the ability to learn a foreign language is not innately fixed and can be improved with effort. Teachers, therefore, may need to provide achievable, meaningful learning tasks as well as encourage the students in the belief that they can accomplish them. Horwitz (1987, 1988) developed the "Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory" (BALLI) to assess student opinions on a variety of issues and controversies related to language learning. Are some students more likely to be successful than others? The belief that some people are unable or are less able to learn an L2 can lead to negative expectations. Student judgments about the difficulty of the language are critical to the development of expectations for and commitment to language learning. The use of strategies and the practice of spontaneous communication in the classroom are important to prepare students to participate in what may be to them nontraditional learning activities. Shyness and over-concern with accent will inhibit their communication attempts. Foss and Reitzel (1997) report that negative self-perceptions set in motion a perpetual cycle of negative evaluations that may persist in spite of evaluations from others to the contrary. Through a questionnaire survey, learners can reflect upon their experiences. Introspection can help students become accurate in evaluating their language competence. This could provide them with a means for modifying their approaches to learning, as irrational beliefs are the source of much anxiety. If these beliefs can be recognized, students can learn to interpret such situations in more realistic ways and thus may choose to approach rather than avoid situations demanding conversation. Therefore this study will consider attitudes towards: (a) the difficulty of language learning; (b) foreign language aptitude; (c) the nature of language learning; (d) learning and communicative strategies; and (e) student motivations and expectations.

Methods

Materials

Horwitz's (1987, 1988) beliefs questionnaire was adapted to make it easier to understand for non-native speakers of English in an EFL setting. A six-point Likert scale for responses was used to encourage clear indications of agreement or disagreement. Reid (1990, p.336) noted that Japanese "tended to respond to the mean: That is they responded to the Strongly Agree and the Strongly Disagree categories only rarely." In this study, I wanted the subjects to clearly indicate positive or negative attitudes towards each questionnaire item (see also Kimura, Nakata, & Okumura, 2001; Matsuura, Chiba, & Hilderbrandt, 2001).

Table 1: Background Information of the Respondents

Number of years studying English
 

1 year or less 3 years 5 years 7 years 10 years More than10 years
16 43 215 722 60 1

Student self-assessment of English level
 

Elementary Lower Intermediate intermediate Upper Intermediate Advanced Like a native speaker
395 383 241 33 4 1

Length of time spent in an English speaking country
 

None A month or more 2 months or more 3 months or more 6 months A year or less
1,019 33 0 0 1 4

notes: n = 1057

The 28-item questionnaire was divided into four groups of seven questions and distributed to four native Japanese college teachers to translate into Japanese. These translations, and the wording of the instructions which were adapted from Ozeki (1995), were then passed around these four teachers until there was agreement about language and style of both the English and Japanese versions. This was to ensure student understanding, particularly of the level of Japanese language, as there was a strong possibility that nonnative readers of Japanese would also take the questionnaire.

Participants

The participants in this study were 1,057 students from one prefectural, one national, and one private university within the same prefecture in western Japan. Six hundred and eight-six respondents were male and three hundred and seventy-one female. They were studying a number of majors, including Education, Law, Nursing, and Japanese History. None of the students were majoring in English. Similar to the newspaper survey mentioned earlier, the questionnaire did not target one age group or academic year and was designed to be representative of the student body. Eight hundred and twenty-two of the respondents were aged 18-19, 122 were 20-21 years old, 78 were 22-24, 16 were 25-29, and 10 were over 30 years old. This age range may be because many students have yet to receive required English credits and were repeatedly forced to retake compulsory classes. Of the 1,057 completed questionnaires, 37 were from Chinese students, five were from South Koreans, and one questionnaire each came from a Russian and a Malaysian student. The students were asked to assess their own English level and to state how many years they had spent studying English. Looking at the data in Table 1, it is interesting to note how little many students claimed to have studied English prior to tertiary education. This may be an indication of "aversive experience avoidance" (Bandura, 1977, p.59) whereby the students have underestimated the effectiveness and value placed on prior learning experiences or even ignored or dismissed English education in high school as having little meaning.

Table 2: The difficulty of language learning
 

6 5 4 3 2 1 mean sd
1. Some languages are easier to learn than others. 284 462 167 35 80 29 4.71 1.26
2. I believe that ultimately I will speak English well. 59 152 319 226 202 99 3.38 1.34
3. It is easier to read and write English than to speak and understand it. 91 269 254 157 189 97 3.65 1.47
25. If someone were to spend one hour a day learning English, how long would it take to become fluent? 58 260 373 200 100 66 3.79 1.25
26. English is: 158 411 360 92 9 27 4.51 1.04

notes: n = 1057

1-3: 6) strongly agree; 5) agree; 4) slightly agree; 3) slightly disagree; 2) disagree; 1) strongly disagree

25: 6) less than a year; 5) 1-2 years; 4) 3-5 years; 3) 5-10 years; 2) over 10 years; 1) you can't learn a language in 1 hour a day.

26: 6) a very difficult foreign language; 5) a difficult language; 4) a language of medium difficulty; 3) an easy language; 2) a very easy language; 1) the easiest foreign language

Procedure and data analyses

The questionnaire was administered in both English conversation and reading classes by 11 teachers, six of whom were native speakers of English. No student responded more than once. The student participants comprised a convenient sample since they had been asked to voluntarily fill out the questionnaires by their teachers who were known to me and who kindly cooperated in the research. The students were given the questionnaire on a single B4 sized sheet with English on one side and a replication in Japanese on the other. Only four students voluntarily filled the English version. On completion of the data collection, the mean and the standard deviation were calculated.

The Results of the Survey

Table 1 shows that while the majority of students have studied English for 7 years, 778 respondents out of 1,057 assess their own English ability level as elementary or lower intermediate. This is despite colleges habitually referring to compulsory classes for first year students as "intermediate" and elective classes as "advanced," terms which the students are familiar with, but which do not seem to match their candid views of their own level. Interestingly, only 38 students have had any experience in an English speaking country.

The students responded on a scale from "strongly agree"to "strongly disagree" or the equivalent Japanese (see Appendix) with the exception of the final two questions. The students chose from a set of categories specifically related to the questions. In Table 2, while acknowledging that some languages are easier to learn than others (Q1), English with a mean score of 4.5 was seen as at least a language of medium difficulty (Q26). This is reflected in Question 2, where the mean score of 3.38 indicates that the majority believe they will not ultimately speak English well, possibly because they are not prepared to invest the one hour a day for five to ten years perceived to be required.

Table 3: Foreign language aptitude
 

6 5 4 3 2 1 mean sd
4. It is easier for children than adults to learn English. 486 332 141 40 43 15 5.07 1.15
5. Some people are born with a special ability which helps them learn English. 90 164 259 177 247 120 3.35 2.2
6. I have English aptitude. 34 81 250 297 237 158 2.96 1.65
7. Women are better than men at learning English. 25 70 176 204 358 224 2.61 1.29
8. People who speak more than one language well are very intelligent 258 322 240 92 102 43 4.39 1.4
9. Foreigners are good at learning languages. 54 157 277 250 230 89 3.33 1.33
10. Everyone can learn to speak a foreign language. 182 356 308 99 78 34 5.2 1.04

notes: n = 1057

6) strongly agree; 5) agree; 4) slightly agree; 3) slightly disagree; 2) disagree; 1) strongly disagree

The questions in Table 3 examined whether the students feel they have foreign language aptitude, and the results showed that there is a belief that it is easier for children than for adults to learn English (Q4). While Question 10 had a mean score of 5.2 indicating that there is a widespread belief that anyone can learn a foreign language, 692 of the respondents seemed to feel that they themselves do not have an aptitude for English (Q6) reflected in the low mean score of 2.9. The students disagreed with the statement that women are better than men at learning English and slightly disagreed that foreigners, not people of their own nationality, were good at languages, an excuse often given to justify language aptitude and to explain one's own perceived inability. With a mean score of 4.4, there was slight agreement that speakers of more than one foreign language are very intelligent.

Table 4: The nature of language learning
 

6 5 4 3 2 1 mean sd
11. It is better to learn English in an English-speaking country. 524 334 128 39 25 7 5.2 1.02
12. Learning English is mostly a matter of learning a lot of new vocabulary words. 60 133 281 255 242 86 3.3 1.32
13. Learning English is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar rules. 38 138 266 286 239 90 3.22 1.27
14. Learning English is mostly a matter of translating from my mother tongue into English. 29 96 279 305 259 89 3.11 1.2
5. Learning English is different from learning other school subjects. 128 257 316 198 122 36 3.96 1.3

notes: n = 1057

6) strongly agree; 5) agree; 4) slightly agree; 3) slightly disagree; 2) disagree; 1) strongly disagree

Table 4 examined the nature of language learning; the students overwhelmingly believed that it is better to learn English in an English-speaking country (Q11). Questions 12, 13, and 14 elicited ranges of responses primarily from "slightly agree" to "disagree" that learning largely consists of learning vocabulary, grammar rules, or translating. With a mean of nearly 4, students recognized learning English is different from efforts required in other subjects.

The questions in Table 5 examined the learning and communicative strategies of students, and they have particular relevance for classroom teaching. With mean scores of 4.5, learners felt it is important to speak with an excellent accent (Q16) and felt that the traditional learning strategy of repetition and practice (Q24) is important for mastery. Encouragingly for teachers of a communicative approach, the students disagreed with the proposition that, until learners can say what they want to correctly, they should not say anything at all in English (Q17), which is linked with the idea of the importance of guesswork as a strategy to overcome misunderstanding. With a mean of 3.1, students slightly disagreed that they would approach someone who was speaking English in order to practice (Q18) and slightly agreed that they feel self-conscious speaking in front of others (Q20).

Table 5: Learning and communicative strategies
 

6 5 4 3 2 1 mean sd
16. It is important to speak a foreign language with an excellent accent. 237 342 292 118 49 19 4.51 1.19
17. You should not say anything in English until you can say it correctly. 12 36 55 142 342 470 1.94 1.13
18. If I heard someone speaking English, I would go up to them so that I could practice speaking English. 46 94 245 310 242 120 3.08 1.29
19. It is OK to guess if you do not know the word in English. 206 327 297 116 80 31 4.35 1.28
20. I feel self-conscious speaking English in front of other people. 152 303 337 117 93 54 4.13 1.33
24. In order to become a good speaker, it is important to repeat and practice a lot. 309 411 360 92 9 27 4.51 1.04

notes: n = 1057

6) strongly agree; 5) agree; 4) slightly agree; 3) slightly disagree; 2) disagree; 1) strongly disagree

The final three questions in Table 6 examined student motivations towards English, and with mean scores of over 5, students perhaps surprisingly agreed in large numbers that if they could speak English well, they could have many chances to use it in the future (Q21), and that it would help them to find a good job. In Question 23, students showed a high integrative motivation for learning English, with students agreeing that they would like to learn English to know native speakers better.

Discussion and Pedagogical Implications

Erroneous beliefs about language learning lead to less effective language learning strategies as student convictions of their own effectiveness determine whether they will even try to accomplish the task (Bandura, 1977). From this point of view, knowledge of student beliefs may be useful as a number of cognitive styles and affective variables (such as motivation and attitude) lead to successful second language achievement. As Horwitz (1988) noted, teachers and learners need to identify and describe positive beliefs and should encourage exchange of opinions on these beliefs as to how they can better learn a language and how the teacher can help them.

Learners' beliefs are related to achievement and, as can be seen in Table 1, students have very low self-estimation of their English ability despite, in the vast majority of cases, being in their seventh year of English. Thus the students place little value on instruction in Japan, leading to the overwhelming belief that it is better to learn in the country where English is spoken (Table 4). Learning for a grade or a requirement openly limits language learning to what is perceived as the bare minimum, and the learners do not equate classroom learning with successful acquisition. As Gillette (1998, p.199) has noted there is little "use-value" in foreign language classroom learning. Good and Brophy (1990, p.167) note that students need to attend to the "right things"; therefore modeling and verbal explanations can be used to enhance the salience and distinctiveness of classroom learning materials. Bandura (1977) argues that teachers should ensure that the belief that ability to learn a foreign language is not innately fixed and can be improved with effort. An "efficacy expectation" is the conviction that one can successfully carry out the behavior, and the strength of conviction in ability will determine if one even attempts to cope with difficult situations (Bandura, 1977, p.79). The stronger the sense of mastery that can be engendered, the more active students will become. This will encourage a sense of accomplishment, a sense of value in the instruction itself, and a resultant confidence boost that successful task completion brings. This may raise beliefs in a student's ability to speak English well (Table 2), and that they possess aptitude (Table 3). Teachers must provide an achievable, meaningful learning task, encourage students that they can do it, and work together until learners have completed the task. In Table 3, the students agreed that everyone can learn a language, but the students have lacked the necessary motivational encouragement. There is no clear-cut answer and teachers must carefully design or select instructional activities to encourage learners that they should learn to be flexible in modifying their conceptions about learning.

Table 6: Motivation
 

6 5 4 3 2 1 mean sd
21. If I get to speak English well, I can have many chances to use it in the future. 421 405 157 42 18 14 5.07 1.03
22. If I learn English very well, it will help me get a good job. 443 386 170 28 21 9 5.11 0.994
23. I would like to learn English so I can get to know its speakers better. 269 275 322 109 53 29 4.48 1.26

notes: n = 1057

6) strongly agree; 5) agree; 4) slightly agree; 3) slightly disagree; 2) disagree; 1) strongly disagree

Oxford, Hollaway, and Horton-Murillo (1992, p. 451) suggest altering the teaching style to create teacher-student matching through a range of activities. In Table 4, there was a wide range of learner beliefs about the nature of learning, and so instruction should be matched when possible to the students' learning styles. An effective instructional style for dealing with many Japanese students might include paying attention to the individual, creating a structured but somewhat informal classroom atmosphere to ease students out of their formality, introducing topics slowly, avoiding embarrassment, and being consistent. Williams and Burden (1997, p.125) note it is important to present tasks which tap into the learners' intrinsic motivation, including a consideration of interest, curiosity, challenges, and the development of independent mastery and judgment. While there is no wrong way to learn language, students often have learned helplessness -- they see failure as essentially due to a lack of ability. They feel they have no control over their actions and thus do not become motivated. The classroom teacher can deal with perceived causes of success and failure in achievement situations such as ability, effort, and task difficulty. Students need concrete ideas about how to reach their goals, which has obvious implications with strategy training that can ultimately help students overcome language deficiencies, as success is a potent motivating factor in learning. Types of holistic activities asso ciated with successful language learning such as actively involving themselves in the language learning through inferencing and monitoring language use could be adopted. Crookes and Schmidt (1991, p.472) note that cooperative strategies may "alleviate the otherwise negative self-perceptions that evolve from poor individual performances." This would lead to a greater degree of self-belief as group reinforcement creates support from others. Teachers must also provide sufficient challenges to students through a variety of approaches in order to interest and excite them and must ensure that all students participate. Students need to realize that accent is not of primary importance in these days of global English, and the need for repetition and practice is something that perhaps should be discouraged. Such beliefs produce anxiety since students are expected to communicate in the L2 before they feel fluency is attained. Similarly, shyness and over-concern with accent (Table 5) will probably inhibit their communication attempts. The greatest source of anxiety was having to speak the target language in front of their peers when overly concerned about making errors.

Conclusion

Students have become worn down by a lack of perceived progress manifesting itself in a majority of students regarding themselves as beginners despite seven years of instruction. Rather than displaying just apathy towards English learning, the fear of making mistakes makes them appear apathetic to teachers when in fact they are discouraged and hopeless with a fossilized learned helplessness. While teachers need to recognize different learning styles, a varied approach through manageable tasks leads to a sense of accomplishment that the learners have achieved a positive result. Success raises mastery expectations while repeated failure lowers them (Bandura, 1977). Success would lead to greater confidence and raise motivation that arguably is a requisite for language acquisition and self-belief, displacing the "I'm poor at English" syndrome, sadly all too apparent in many classrooms and in the wider society.

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Crookes, G., & Schmidt, R. (1991). Motivation: Reopening the research agenda. Language Learning, 41(4), 469-512.

Dornyei, Z. (1990). Conceptualizing motivation in foreign-language learning. Language Learning, 40(1), 45-47.

Foss, K.A., & Reitzel, A. (1997). A relational model for managing second language anxiety. In E. Horwitz & D.Young (Eds.), Language anxiety from theory and research to classroom implications (pp. 129-140). Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall International.

Gillette, B. (1998). The role of learner goals in L2 success. In J. Lantolf & G. Appel (Eds.), Vygotskian approaches to second language research (pp. 195-215). Norwood: Ablex Publishing.

Good, T., & Brophy, J. (1990). Educational psychology. New York: Longman.

Horwitz, E. (1987). Surveying student beliefs about language learning. In A. Wenden & J. Rubin (Eds.), Learner strategies in language learning (pp. 119-133). Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall International.

Horwitz, E. (1988). The beliefs about language learning of beginning university foreign language students. Modern Language Journal, 72(3), 284-293.

Kimura, Y., Nakata, Y., & Okumura. T. (2001). Language learning motivation of EFL learners in Japan: A cross-sectional analysis of various learning milieus. JALT Journal, 23(1), 48-67.

Matsuura, H., Chiba, R., & Hilderbrandt, P. (2001). Beliefs about learning and teaching communicative English in Japan. JALT Journal, 23(1), 70-89.

McVeigh, B. (2001). Higher education, apathy and post-meritocracy. The Language Teacher, 25(10), 28-33.

Mori, Y. (1999). Epistemological beliefs and language learning beliefs: What do language learners believe about their learning? Language Learning, 49(3), 377-415.

Naiman, H., Frohlich, M., Stern, H., & Todesco, A. (1995). The good language learner. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Oxford, R., Hollaway, M., & Horton-Murillo, D. (1992). Language learning styles: Research and practical considerations for teaching in the multicultural tertiary ESL/EFL classroom. System, 20(4), 439-456.

Ozeki, N. (1995). Learning styles of Japanese students. Proceedings of the 1995 JALT Conference, pp. 120-128.

Reid, J. (1990). The dirty laundry of ESL survey research. TESOL Quarterly, 24(3), 323-338.

Survey brings to light ambivalence for English. (2000, May 22). The Daily Yomiuri. p. 5.

Svanes, B. (1988). Attitudes and 'cultural distance' in second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 9(4), 357-371.

Wenden, A. (1991). Learner strategies for learner autonomy. Cambridge: Prentice Hall International.

Williams, M., & Burden, R. (1997). Psychology for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Appendix - The Japanese Questionnaire

Click on the picture below

Appendix


Peter Burden is an Associate Professor in Okayama where he has lived for a number of years. His research interests include students' attitudes to and perceptions of what goes on in the language classroom. He can be contacted at <burden-p@osu.ac.jp>.



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