Attitude of Grade 12 SHS Academic Tracks

Students Towards Speaking in English

INTRODUCTION:
The study explores the impact of students' attitudes on their ability to speak English, particularly among
senior high school students in the Philippines. Attitude plays a crucial role in language learning, as positive
beliefs can enhance motivation and performance, while negative attitudes may lead to anxiety and lower
achievement. Gender differences also influence language learning, with studies suggesting that females
generally exhibit more interest and better performance. Additionally, various factors such as motivation,
teaching strategies, social environment, and peer influence contribute to students' attitudes toward speaking
English. Given the observed difficulty of students in adhering to the "Speak in English" policy in classrooms,
this research aims to analyze students’ attitudes toward speaking English while considering their gender and
academic strand.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

-What is the general attitude of Grade 12 SHS students toward speaking in English in terms of confidence,
willingness, and anxiety?

How do attitudes toward speaking in English differ among students from different academic tracks (GAS and
TVL)?

-What are the common factors influencing students' attitudes toward speaking in English (self-perception,
peer influence, teacher encouragement, exposure to English)?

-How do students' attitudes toward speaking in English impact their overall language proficiency and
classroom participation?

-What strategies can be recommended to improve students' attitudes and confidence in speaking English?

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

The present study aimed at investigating the attitude of the students toward speaking in English, examining
whether the attitude of the students towards speaking in English significantly differs according to their profile
variables such as their academic track strand and sex.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

The matter of learner’s attitude is acknowledged as one of the most important factors that impact on
learning language. Hence, this study aimed to determine the attitude of students toward speaking in English
as it employed descriptivecorrelational method to describe their profile and their attitude. It also ascertained
the relationship between the students’ attitude towards speaking in English and their profile variables and the
difference of their attitude when grouped by strand and by sex. The data were collected from Grade 12 Senior
High School Academic Track students with the use of the English Speaking Attitude Questionnaire (ESAQ).
Results show that both GAS and TVL strand students have positive attitude towards speaking in English and
that speaking in English is important to them in general. Interestingly, however, these students admitted that
they do not speak English well, are worried about making mistakes when they speak English and are afraid of
being laughed at when they make mistakes in speaking. The students also believe that they need to learn
speaking in English because they might need it in their future job and that practicing it will make them better
speakers of English. The study found no significant difference in the attitude of the students towards speaking
in English when grouped according to strand and sex. The implication of these results redounds to the
emphasis on the importance of classroom motivation to improve students’ attitude towards speaking in
English.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION;

English as the global language has undoubtedly dignified its standing in global communication essentially
targeting both oral and written skills. In the Philippines however, as observed by the researcher, speaking in
English seems to be very difficult most especially to students in the secondary level. There are various factors
that affect the learning of speaking in English, one of which is attitude. Attitude is determined by the
individual's beliefs about outcomes or attributes of performing the behaviors (behavioral beliefs), weighted by
evaluations of those outcomes or attributes. The concern on the learners’ attitudes towards the target
language was emphasized by Gardner (1985). He stated that the learners’ attitudes towards learning another
language play a key role in enhancing and motivating them to learn that language. Kara (2009) as cited by
Abidin (2012) stated that attitudes towards learning besides opinions and beliefs have an obvious influence on
students’ behaviors and consequently on their performance. It is argued that those students who possess
positive beliefs about language learning have a tendency to increase more positive attitudes towards language
learning. Attitude is considered as an essential factor influencing language performance and received
considerable attention from both first and second and language researchers. There are many reasons why
student's attitude toward language learning is important. Attitude is one of the factors that influence foreign
language learning because how much effort students put into language learning depends partly on attitude
(Gardner, Lanlonde and Moorcroft, 1985). Thus, it can be inferred that learners with positive attitude
towards speaking English will be more involved in speaking activities and may try to make use of more
strategies that help them deal with their difficulties in the course of conversation; and learners with negative
attitude will be less willing to participate in speaking activities. Conversely,negative beliefs may lead to class
anxiety, low cognitive achievement, and negative attitudes (Victori & Lockhart, 1995). Moreover, gender has
been an important perspective under second language learning investigations; highlighting females to execute
more interests, positive behaviors and performances, in comparison to the males (Keller, 1983; Aacken, 1999;
Dornyei & Shoaib, 2005). These gender differences are due to students’ unlike levels of motivation, attitudes
and anxiety towards language learning, further influenced by their learning characteristics and styles, lesson
content and teaching strategies, social environment and supportive mechanisms, family influences and peer
pressures, cognition levels, and so forth (Williams, Burden & Lanvers, 2002). Thus, investigating affective
aspects have become vitally important, especially under the gender perspective in order to enhance students’
interests and outcomes in second language learning.Furthermore, in the study concluded by Cabansag (2013)
titled “The Attitudinal Propensity of Students towards strategies in English Language Learning” it was
found out that positive attitude towards English may lead to awareness of the importance of English and
learn it as a compulsory subject. Attitude concept is considered as an essential component in language
learning. So, a positive attitude should be the umbrella of the language learning. It is soimportant to study
learner’s personalities. For that reason, the effective perspective, especially attitude, should be considered in
language research. Senior High School students are expected to have better English language proficiency,
especially their oral communication ability. However, as an ESL teacher that implements “Speak in English”
policy inside the classroom, it was observed that most students find it hard to keep up with the class rule, thus
the researcher is bounded in discovering the attitude of the students towards speaking in English.This study
looks into the concept of attitude as one of the major affective factors for success in speaking the English
language amongst students. More specifically, it investigates senior high school students’ attitudes towards
speaking in English, taking into consideration their profile variables such as gender and strand.

METHODOLOGY:

The method of data collection employed for the present study was the stratified random sampling. There were
two groups under the Academic Track, the GAS and the TVL. The purposive sampling method was also
adopted. As a result, only 36 students were selected from the two groups (19 from the GAS and 17 from TVL)
with a total of 17 males and 19 females.

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