INCAT Grade 12 Senior High School Students Attitudes Towards Speaking

English

Introduction
One of the common languages used by many counties around the world is
English. Here in the Philippines, English is now considered as the country’s
second language. English has been taught to students from elementary to
tertiary education. It is commonly used by all Filipinos of all ages.

English is important because it is the leading language of business and

helps in building your career path, being able to speak English opens many
opportunities to students around the world (ICLS, 2021). Though there are
many uses of English, Filipino students are still not confident about their
English writing and speaking skills. Kauffman (2020) stated that “It isn’t
enough to want to be fluent in English. In order to actually learn English, you
have to like learning English”. This statement is a fact because a lot of
learners tend to study the language because they want to become fluent
however learning the language requires loving the language itself.

Many students are still hesitant to use the English language. There views
and attitudes towards a language has affected their way of learning a
language. To be successful in language learning and teaching, it is important
to understand the attitudes of the learners towards learning a language (Alam
2017, as cited in Ong, 2020, p. 2). There are different factors that affects
attitudes of students towards a language. Language attitude can be affected
by the social factor or individual differences (Olorunsogo, 2017). On the other
hand, Miller (n.d) gave out nine factors that influences language learning
these are, motivation, support at home, prior linguistic knowledge, learning
environment, comprehensible input, student personality, age and comfort in
their community. In addition, Baker (1992, as cited in Ong, 2020) mentioned
other different factors towards language attitudes such as gender and type of
school.

This study is conducted to determine the attitudes of Ilocos Norte College

of Arts and Trades students attitudes toward English and whether individual
differences leads or affects the attitudes of students towards speaking
English.

Review of Related Literature

Language Attitude
According to Dragojevic (2017), language attitudes are evaluative
reactions to different language varieties. In addition, language attitudes can
change in response to shifts in inter group relations and government language
policies, once evoked language attitudes can have myriad behavioral
consequences that centers in prejudice, discrimination and problematic social
interactions.
 Goktepe (2014, p. 324,as cited in Ong 2020, p. 3) mentioned that attitudes
encompasses the set of beliefs that the learner has towards the second
language. In addition, Kroskrity (2016-2018) defined language attitudes
invoke speaker’s feelings and beliefs about language structure or language
use.

Individual Differences in Language Learning

Altman (1980, as cited in Fu-Guo-Yu, 2015, p. 1) found out factors that

affect learners individual differences such as age, sex, language learning
experience of the past, the native language proficiency, character, linguistics,
motivation and attitude, intellectual factor, cognitive strategies and methods,
etc. In contrast, Skehan (1989, as cited in Fu-Guo-Yu, 2015 p.1) argued that
the factors of individual differences includes linguistics, language learning
strategies, and motivation, cognition and emotion, character, intelligence,
cognitive styles, anxiety, etc. Ellis (1989, as cited in Guo-Fu-Yu, 2015 p.2)
established system of second language acquisition theories, he divided
individual differences into two categories: personal factors and common
factors.

REFERENCES

Dragojevic M. Language Attitudes

https://oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/
acrefore-9780190228613-e-437

Fu, Y., Guo, W., Z, Y. A Research into the Influence of Individual Differences
on the Effect of Second Language Acquisition – A Case Study.
https://www.shs-conferences.org/articles/shsconf/pdf/2015/04/shsconf_icmet
m2015_02012.pdf

International Center for Language Studies. (2021). Why is it so important to

learn English?. https://www.icls.edu/why-is-it-so-important-to-learn-english/

Kauffman, S. (2020) Why English is Important.

https://blog.thelinguist.com/why-english-is-important/

Kroskrity, P. (2016-2018). Language Ideologies and Language Attitudes.

https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199772810/
obo-9780199772810-0122.xml

Miller, A. (n.d). 9 Factors that Influence Language Learning.

https://www.whitbyschool.org/passionforlearning/9-factors-that-influence-
language-learning

Olorungso, D. (2017). Factors Affecting Language Attitudes.

https://davidolorunsogo.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/factors-affecting-
language-attitudes/

Ong, J. (2020). Attitudes of Filipino Senior High School Students Towards

English: Implications for Teaching English.
http://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/ace2020/
ACE2020_59000.pdf