Analyzing the change of students' attitude toward learning English (A case study of the students of foreign language school)

摘要

The present study aims at investigating attitude change which could possibly occur to some students who are pursuing an undergraduate degree. Unlike other studies, the present study was conducted within a longer time span in order to identify the potential attitude change after experiencing one semester learning program. The research method was a case study which involved a few respondents using semi-structured interview as an instrument in order to allow the respondents to freely express their attitudes toward their learning process. The interview was conducted two times both at the beginning of semester I and after the completion of semester I within one week interval. The use of multiple interviews was to provide more elaborate information so that the respondents' attitude differences prior to their learning and after their learning program could be identified. Despite the absence of attitude change, it was found that the five respondents did not indicate the same attitudes. In fact, three of them were identified to have negative attitudes for various reasons. It is imperative that the students who had negative attitudes be given some treatments or remedies in order to prevent academic disruption or failure which might occur as their negative attitudes continue to deteriorate.