Honey catches more fl ies than vinegar.

 Omar Al Noursi

Institute of Applied Technology

The 17th TESOL Arabia Conference10-12- March 2011

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” ”

Winston Churchill

outlinesWhat is an attitude

How can it affect behavior

How does it influence learning

How does it influence learning a foreign language

How have we tackled attitude

What strategies can teacher use to foster positive attitude

ICEBERG

SEA LEVEL

BEHAVIOR

VALUES – STANDARDS – JUDGMENTS

ATTITUDEMOTIVES – ETHICS - BELIEFS

KNOWN TO OTHERS

UNKNOWN TO OTHERS 90 %

10 %

What is an attitude?

Likert (1932): "an inference, which is made on the basis of a complex of beliefs about the attitude object".

Gardner (1980, p.267) "the sum total of a man's instinctions and feelings, prejudice or bias, preconceived notions, fears, threats, and convictions about any specified topic". Ajzan (1988, p.4) “a disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object, person, institution, or event”.

Baker (1992, p.10) “a hypothetical construct used to explain the direction and persistence of human behavior”.

Eagly and Chaiken, 1993, p.1) "A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor".

Attitude in 2nd Language LearningEllis (2000) mentions that positive attitudes towards the

L2 and its speakers can be expected to enhance learning while negative attitudes impede it

Shah (1999) studied certain characteristics of low-achievers, and found that lack of a positive attitude contributed to the students’ low achievement.

Brown (2000,p.181) “positive attitudes towards the self, the native language group, and the target language group enhanced proficiency”.

Attitudes and Achievement

How does a posit ive attitude influence English learning?

How does a negative attitude influence English learning?

The genesis of attitudes

Some of the main influences on attitude formation are:

teacher (it depends on the teacher)

friends/peer group

Parents: education, attitude, age

teaching method (it is fun)

the language itself (I like how it sounds)

Textbook

Culture

Attitudes towards Learning English: What research says

Musa (1985) the United Arab Emirates /357 secondary male students: “ they like learning English because of its significance as a global means of communication, because it also enables them to pursue their higher studies, and because it helps them to keep in contact with a high-status foreign culture

Al Bassam (1987) -Saudi high school students, in particular in the

Holy City of Mekka.- results indicated that the achievement in English significantly correlated with the students’ attitude, motivation and satisfaction with the curriculum.

•In the Yemeni Arabic EFL context, Al-Quyadi (2002) •Suliman (2006) ithe UAE state secondary school •Shuib and Al Tamimim (2009) in Yemen•In the European context, Lasagarbaster (2007) •(Benson, 1991 in Japan•In the Turkish EFL context, Karahan (2007

Attitudes towards TeachersWhat research says

Mallalah’ that Kuwaiti students had favorable attitudes toward native speakers of English teachers. Kuwaiti students liked native speakers of English and saw them as honest, hard workers, efficient, well mannered, intelligent, friendly, polite, clean, educated, cheerful, democratic, kind, progressive in science and humorous.

Al Noursi (2009) the results indicate that students generally have positive thoughts and emotions towards learning English language and that there was no statistically significant difference between the students’ attitudes of the group that were taught by NESTs and the attitudes of the group that were taught by NNESTs due to the native-ship of the teacher

The Lasagarbaster’s (2007) divulged that foreign language has been mainly valued neither positively nor negatively, but attitudes were neutral in most cases (63.5%).

Mahboob's (2001) qualitative study explores the perceptions of 32 English students at a U.S. university. Essay statements were categorized and revealed that students perceived distinct strengths and weaknesses of NS and NNS teachers, and did not express a clear overall preference.

Hertel, et al (2009) investigated students’ attitude toward native and non-native speaking instructors of Spanish. Results indicate that students perceive native speaking instructors to possess advantages over nonnative speaking instructors with regard to pronunciation and culture, but not with regard to the teaching of grammar or vocabulary. Proficiency level and the native language of a participant's current instructor also influenced opinions.

Common learners’ attitudes in the classroom

How have we tackled learners’ attitudes?

NEGATIVE NEGATIVE ATTITUDES ATTITUDES

TOWARDS THE TOWARDS THE ENGLISH CLASSENGLISH CLASS

Internal factors

External factors

Teacher’s role

learninglearning rythmrythm

motivationmotivation pressure

Teaching method

family

friends

LearningLearningstylesstyles

LearningLearning preferencespreferences

English Learning is hindered

What effective teachers do…..

discover new strategies to deal with learners’ negative attitudes and generate a positive engagement with the English class.

How can teachers

promote positive attitudes in the

EFL/ESL classes?

Building a rapport with learners

1. Remember that your everyday classroom behavior is important. ’

2. Acknowledge the importance of immediacy in your classroom behavior.

3. Provide to all students, regardless of their performance, enough time to answer questions.

4. Communicate expectancies for success for al l students.

5. Address the issue of lack of interest due to past fai lures in the foreign language.

6. Be extremely careful in providing praise.

ContCont….….Building a rapport with learners Building a rapport with learners

Fostering a Posit ive Psychological Classroom Atmosphere

Error correction

Classroom rules: 3 Fs

Incorporate collaborative work

Student-to- student interaction

Touch the 3Hs

Fostering a Positive Physical Classroom Atmosphere

1. Pay attention to seating arrangement.

2. Make effective use of bulletin boards and display areas.

3. Posters, maps, newspaper cl ippings, can be used in order to provide a stimulus for classroom discussion.

4. Classroom procedures and rules are necessary for effective classroom organization.

5. Bring to the classroom a number of authentic materials, so that students can view and borrow them.

Integrating Technology into EFL teachers’ instructions

1. online resources

2. blogging

3. online

assessment

4. interactive activities

5. class website

6. electronic forum

7. computer games

Improving teachers’ attitudes towards

1. Students

2. Target Language

3. affi l iation

4. textbooks

5. hosting culture

6. colleagues

Ideal English teacher

Ideal learning environment

Steps to effectively handle learners’ negative attitudes Display a cheerful, optimistic and enthusiastic attitude towards the class, the

students and the lesson activities as teachers attitudes are replicated by learners.

Identify the specific student’s emotional situation.

Approach the student without previous judgments.

Wait for the student’s response (whether he/she wants to talk about his situation or reserve it.

Listen and orient the student but avoiding only becoming into his therapist.

Try to get the student involved in the class by telling him/her that being in the class can help him/her to forget about any complex emotional situation.

If the situation is critical, invite the student to write or draw on a piece of paper all the negative things he/she is feeling and thinking of. Then, the student burns the paper as a symbol of destroying all the negative factors that are affecting him negatively. This exercise leads learners to reflect upon themselves.

Try to get parents and children closer maybe through a talk.

What things you need to do to change negative attitudes to more positive attitudes?Sequence the steps you should follow to make your attitudes more

positive:

(1) recognize the bad attitudes and say the feelings you have with them (categorize the feeling),

(2) ask yourself "What can I do about it?"

(3) identify the situations that are associated with the attitude or feeling

(4) decide what you were saying to yourself when you had the negative feeling in the situation,

(5) decide more useful, functional things that you could say about the situation.