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What makes up the attitude to learning English: EFLS-ALE scale
Grubor, Jelena V.
Abstract: Attitudes have long been measured due to their predictive values; consequently, the paper deals with EFL students’ attitudes to learning English (ALE). Since it is vital that the attitude construct be distinguished from other individual variables (e.g. affective variables such as motivation), the investigation into attitudes and their structure must be explored more thoroughly prior to taking the next step of establishing the link between attitudes and behaviour – herein achievement in English. Consequently, the main aims of the study were: (1) to test the validity of the employed scale (EFLS-ALE), (2) to examine the attitude structure, (3) to determine the participants’ general attitude to behaviour (GA). The sample included 223 participants, the statistical analyses were performed via IBM SPSS 21. The scale reliability analysis showed good internal consistency of the EFLS-ALE; GA was reported predominantly positive in both age groups (secondary and tertiary students) and educational profiles (philological and non-philological subgroups); the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the attitude construct includes the following complex dimensions: Factor 1– behavioural & emotional (BEF); Factor 2–cognitive & instrumental (CIF); Factor 3–language purism (LPF). Factor 1 has brought novelty to attitude research since behavioural and emotional dimensions are theoretically distinguished as two separate components, whereas in this study they merged into one. Accordingly, since the behavioural dimension can be viewed as the best predictor of behaviour itself, we believe that teachers may make an impact on their students’ results by working towards intensifying their behavioural intentions.
engleski
2020
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Keywords: attitude structure; attitudes to learning English; behavioural intentions; EFL; individual differences