Abstract
English Language is the most powerful and effective language around the world. Moreover, people have different attitude toward English.The objective of this study is to explore Omani university and college students' attitudes toward English. Data were collected through an online questionnaire from a total of 33 students from nine colleges and universities in Oman. Kaur and Singh (2014) way was used to analyze the data.Furthermore, Researchers find that English is being a crucial language for student and they want to learn English even is difficult and stressful. According to research findings students have.a positive attitude towards the English language.
1. Introduction
Language plays a crucial part in the expansion of social identity (Eastman, 1985).English has become a controlling language in different fields such as business, finance and banking, science and technology. Moreover, everyone accepted that fluency in the English language is a key to success in life. In addition, Attitude is an important meaning to understand someone's behavior, opinions or feelings. Latchanna & Dagnew (2009) explain attitude as a psychical state which comprise beliefs and feelings. All people have some attitudes towards all things, the attitude could be neutral, positive or negative. However, English is used in Oman as a second language to communicate with people from other languages. Many students use the English language, especially university students because they are studying with different people who speak different languages and dialects. In addition, students prefer to use English language to speak and communicate with these students.
1.1 Purpose of the study and Research questions
The objectives of this study is to know Omani university and college students' attitudes toward English. In this study, researchers explore the attitude of Omani college and university students toward the English language if they have positive or negative attitude. Also, researchers will try to answer this research question:
• What is the attitude of Omani college students to the English language?
1.2 Literature Review
In recent years there has been huge interest in students' attitude towards English around the world. A lot of studies .show.that many students have a positive attitude while other have a negative attitude towards English. Hall (2009)found that a student's attitude toward learning the language is one of the leading to success in learning English. Moreover, Kansikas says that the Finns have a positive response towards the English language. Also, she finds that Finns see English as nice, easy, normal and a Lingua Franca Kansikas (2002).
2. Methodology
2.1 participants
The participants in the research were 33 students. The respondents comprise males and females from nine colleges and universities in Oman in academic year 2017-2018.The colleges and universities of the study were Alburaimi University College, Sultan Qaboos University, Sohar University, Colleges of Applied Sciences at Rustaq and Nizwa, Shinas College of Technology, Mazoon College, Higher College of Technology and Majan University College.Also, Sohar University respondents were ten of the total respondents, followed Shinas College of Technology and Colleges of Applied Sciences at Rustaq with four respondents and three from Sultan Qaboos University, Mazoon College and Alburaimi University College.While two from Colleges of Applied Sciences at Nizwa,Higher College of Technology and Majan University College. The number of respondents varied due to the multiplicity in the colleges and universities in Oman.The number of male students was 10 while the number of female students was 23. The ages of participants were between 18 to 29 years.
2.2 Instruments
The Language Attitudes Questionnaire used by Kaur and Singh (2014)and it was adapted by this study. The questionnaire was used to collect data on the respondents' basic information in Section A. Section B was the next section. Also,In the section B, the respondents were asked to indicate if he agree or disagree or unsure about eight statements.The last section is an open question. This section was related to the respondent's attitude toward Englis. The questionnaire were translated to Arabic. The Arabic translation of each item was provided after the English version. The translation was done to ensure that the respondents will understand the questions because some of respondents were not proficient in English. This also ensured that the respondents did not misunderstand the questions which may lead to a wrong choice of answer. The questionnaire was online to reach respondents from many colleges and universities in Oman.They were take their time to answer all the questions without any pressure.
3.2 Data analysis
The collected.data were.analyzed by following Singh (2014) way. Singh( 2014) used thematic analysis to disply data. Researches founded thematic analysis the most appropriate for this reseach because it requires specifics details systematically.The findings were show in tabular form and they were divided into six main section; basic information, importence,attitude and motivation toward English and role of the English program in respondent university.
3. Findings
Figure 3.1 Basic information
Table 3.1 languages that you use at home
Statement English Arabic English and Arabic
The languages that you use at home. 0% 64% 36%
The table 3.1 present the languages that used by the participants at home. As
can be seen sixty-four percentage of participants used Arabic language at home. While the other thirty-six used in home mix of English and Arabic.
The finding on the question (Do your parents speak to you in English?) is present in the table 3.2. More than an eighty percentage of respondents said no while another twelve percentage said yes.
Table 3.2 parents speaking language
Yes No
Do your parents speak to you in English? 12% 88%
Discussion
Researchers cannot list the family as a factor which affect the attitudes of students toward English. In the other hand, Csize´r (2010) says that parents can be listed between the factors affecting students to develop positive attitudes toward language learning.
Figure 3.2 Importance of English Language
This part in the questionnaire gain with information about knowledge of the importance of English Language. Table.3.3 has presented the findings of this part. All the participants agreed with the statement that English is crucial for their future. However ; twenty-four participants agreed that they do not need English in their daily lives while three disagreed and six were unsure. Nineteen participants found studying English in class interesting, while six disagreed and eight were unsure.
Table.3.3 Importance of English Language
Statements
Agree
Disagree
Unsure
English is important for my future
33 0 0
Do not need English in my daily life
24 3 6
I find learning English in class is interesting
19 6 8
Discussion
In this section participants have a positive reaction. They believe that learning English important for their future and English is totally useful to their lives. In Singh (2014) study also found students interested to study English for better future.
Figure 3.3 Attitudes towards English Language Learning
Table 3.4 presents the findings from the questionnaire about the attitude of the participants towards English Language. In the answer to the first statement
(It is hard and stressful learning English) presented that thirty-five percentage of participants agreed that it is hard and stressful studying English while fifty-five percentage disagreed, while ten percentages of participants were unsure about the statement. However; For the second statement, six percentages agreed that learning English is a waste of their time, eighty-four percentage disagreed and ten percentages of the participants were unsure.
Table 3.4 Attitudes towards English Language Learning
Statements Agree Disagree Unsure
It is hard and stressful learning English. 35% 55% 10%
Learning English is a waste of time 6% 84% 10%
Discussion
Even if some students find English hard and stressful language to learn, but they continue studying English. Most students do not find learning English as a waste of time. This is crucial for them to upgrade their English language. Moreover, Singh (2014)founded the same findings that students suffer from learning English, but they still study English.
Figure 3.4 Motivation towards English Language
Table 3.5 Motivation towards English Language
Statements
Agree
Disagree
Unsure
Learning English is good for self-development. 93.5% 2% 4.5%
Learning English will allow me to converse with more and varied people.
96.8% 3.2% 22.6%
I gain more confidence upon learning English. 90% 2% 8%
This Table shows the students’ motivation towards English language studying. More than ninety-three percentage participants agreed that learning English is crucial for self- development, whereas two percentages disagreed and more than four percentage were unsure. Almost ninety-seven of participants agreed that learning English will allow them to converse with more and different people while three percentages disagreed. Ninety percentage participants agreed that they gain more confidence upon learning English while two percentages disagreed and eight percentage unsure.
Discussion
Motivation is a crucial in studying language. Almost all participants had positive attitudes. The majority of students felt that they should study English to be a brilliant person. In addition, Young finds that students‘ have positive attitudes which may rise motivation which in turn can cause successful (Young, 2006, p. 480).
Figure3.5 role of the English program in respondent university
In the last section of a questionnaire about the role of English programs in universities and colleges the answer of students as follows English program plays the largest role such as speaking. Also, they said that the English program helps them in meeting with foreign nationalities. Moreover, It helps them to learn new words and they feel excited in learning English. Some students said It equips students with the necessary study and academic skills required at undergraduate level Main major language. In addition, English Improve their language.
Discussion
Respondents had positive responses about the English program in their college. They are happy about English program.Also,They believe that English has an important role in developing student language.
4. Conclusion
Language is the most powerful and effective tool of communication. A lot of people believe that English is useful to their lives because it is a dominant language around the world. This study discussed the attitude of Omani college students towards English Language .Most of the studies on attitude toward English have concluded that students have a positive attitude.Also, The research question was to know Omani college students attitude toward English.The findings of this study answer the research question by presenting that participants (both females and males) had a positive attitude towards English language.While Gömleksiz (2010) finds that female students had more positive attitudes towards English language .It is noticed that the participants are motivated to study English and they realize that English is being a crucial language and they should study it for better future. More over, students see that the English program plays a great role in their college.
4.1 Limitations
One of the difficulties that researches faced was not being able to communicate with the students from all universities and colleges in Oman, we connected with students from nine universities and colleges. In addition, the questionnaire was changed from printed to online to reach different universities and colleges. Moreover, The number of males in the study was small compared with the number of females.
4.2 Future studies
Researches suggest that in a future study to deal with larger samples. Furthermore,they represent the factors which affect students’ attitudes toward English language to have a clearer picture about students’ attitudes.
4.3 Recommendations
Researchers recommend students to follow these steps to learn English. First, they should speak without fear and use all of your resources. Second, they must surround themselves with English by listening to native speakers and watch English films . Finally, they should study as often as possible and do exercise and take tests.
References
A/P SANTA SINGH, H. K. (2014). Attitudes Towards English Language Learning and Language Use Among Secondary School Students (pp. 1-81).
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Eastman, C. M. (1985). Establishing Social Identity Through Language Use. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 4(1), 1-20. doi:10.1177/0261927×8500400101
Gömleksiz, M. N. (2010). An evaluation of students’ attitudes toward English language learning in terms of several variables. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 9, 913-918. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.258
Hall, S. (2009). Studies on attitudes towards learning English.
Kansikas, M. 2002. “As many men, so many minds” – A study on attitudes towards
foreign languages in Finland .
Latchanna, G. & Dagnew, A. (June 2009). Attitude of teachers towards the use of active learning methods. E-journal of All India Association for Educational Research, 21(1).
Young, M. Y. (2006). Macao students attitudes toward English: A post-1999 survey. World Englishes, 25(3-4), 479-490. doi:10.1111/j.1467-971x.2006.00468.x