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Secondary School Teachers Attitude Toward Teaching English as a Second Language: A Comparative Study |
Negotiations
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Article Info
Authors

Volume

1

Issue

3

Year

2021

ARI Id

1682060054107_1856

PDF URL

http://journals.mehkaa.com/index.php/negotiations/article/view/31/26

Chapter URL

http://journals.mehkaa.com/index.php/negotiations/article/view

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Introduction

When expressing oneself, conversing with others, managing one's life, and exchanging ideas with those around one, one's attitude is vital. People have more opportunities to experience their full potential when they can adopt many attitudes. Thus, English has grown in popularity in Pakistani society and education, where it is seen as the most crucial global mindset and means of communication. English as a foreign language (EFL) is an essential aspect of the educational process in Pakistan's universities. According to the reality of the situation, Pakistan's education service focuses on enhancing student learning and teacher effectiveness. Their approach to the demonstration process should be reinstituted, and they should return to refining their classroom teaching approaches that have been proven effective.

A thorough examination of instructor mentalities and an understanding of how to alter them are essential, says Torres-Velasquez (2000). Having a positive outlook on distant beliefs can assist individuals in learning and demonstrating process successes. It can be challenging to adopt a positive attitude toward distant views if bad attitude against generalizations and a superficial connection with the objective society. Exemplifying techniques for displaying the attitude may drive understudies to be more optimistic about their learning because instructors' engagement and abilities can alter students' attitudes.

English is taught as a foreign language in Pakistan, and learning the language presents several difficulties. Examine the teaching philosophy of academics who will be teaching in the English-speaking classroom. Students will gain proficiency in English as a second language in this manner. Students learning English as a second language might look to their classroom practices and results for guidance. The views and attitudes of teachers have an impact on classroom activities and results. As a result, it is critical to dig into and pinpoint these mindsets. As a result, it is critical to examine and comprehend teacher attitudes, which can be good, harmful, or neutral. In the teaching process, positive, detrimental, or neutral attitudes all directly impact students' performance in class and on teachers' ability to teach effectively. Teachers' attitudes towards teaching English as a foreign language are critical in EFL. Thus this research will focus on how secondary school teachers feel about doing so.

Research Objective

The objective of the study was:

  • To find out secondary school teachers' attitude toward teaching English related to different demographics

    Review of Related Literature

    In recent years, there has been significant growth in the diversity of human languages, civilizations, public spheres, religions, and other ethnographic characteristics worldwide. Fast communication and travel have transformed the world into a village, but technology has also transformed the world into a global village. Nations must now communicate rationally and adequately if they are to continue to exist and survive. It is an inevitable requirement for their survival. Everyone communicates in their language, and mastering a global language such as English, which is essential, is essential. Numerous studies have proved the benefit of learning a foreign language, such as English, for future success, including those conducted by the United Nations. The ability to effectively teach students requires that teachers communicate the necessary knowledge to them; nevertheless, this is impossible if teachers do not have the appropriate attitude toward teaching English to speakers of a second language (ESL) (Van Reusen, Shoho, Barker, 2001; Lopes, Monterio, Sil, Rutherford, & Quinn, 2004).

    Teachers face tremendous problems in meeting the diverse needs of their students in light of the constantly shifting social atmosphere in American culture (Torres-Velasquez, 2000). There is an increasing number of students who speak a language other than English at their school. On the other hand, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 places a strong focus on duty (primarily based on state-administered test scores) of offering essential topics to all understudies. The most surprising aspect is that academics have been elevated to the forefront of public debate. Best practices in education demonstrate that students benefit from having the ability to tailor their classes to match their particular requirements independently.

     

    When dealing with bespoke curriculum understudies, it is suggested that practice and the law individualize the curriculum. Despite this, according to Cuban (Willis, 2002), educators confront problems in overcoming any impediments between government-sanctioned assessments and individualized guidelines due to the restricted resources accessible to them. Because of the restricted resources available to standard instruction instructors, such as time and the ability to boost individual proficiency, this assessment was necessary to assess their attitudes toward ELLs in the regular instruction classroom. It has been discovered that children who come from bi- or multiple-language backgrounds are more likely than their monolingual counterparts to be enthusiastic about studying Chinese and that those who come from bi- or multiple-language backgrounds also perform better in Chinese academics than their monolingual peers (Rafael, & González, 2021).

    These limited assets and instructor attitudes toward English language learners (ELLs) were also explored in this review. It was suggested that an investigation into this link be conducted.

    Considering how instructors feel about working with English language learners is a crucial first step in this process. The authors Good and Weinstein (1986) investigated how instructors make predictions regarding future understudy performance based on classroom assignments and how they evaluate the potential of understudy candidates in general. A substantial indicator of how fruitful the understudies will be in the long run is their instructor's ambitions (Youngs and Youngs, 2001). However, for educators who interact with English language learners (ELLs), this impression is accurate regardless of the student's level of English proficiency. Several experts have discovered that an instructor's attitude toward a particular understudy is significantly influenced by the understudy's spoken dialect competence (Bikson, 1974). The study mentioned above found that the first stage in writing was to provide an accurate judgment of what had been legally changed in order to include it and an illustration of what had been legally changed. The writing survey inquired about teacher attitudes toward different types of learners in the classroom, the potential impact on understudy achievement, and the relationship between adequacy and educator attitude. The audit also looked into how much money is being set aside in pre-benefit planning activities to hire new teachers dealing with a varied range of children. When all was said and done, instructional resilience was examined from the perspective of a controlling hypothetical.

    However, as previously said, most educators believe that custom curriculum law necessitates that consideration is a part of the teaching process for years to come, but not all educators are entirely on board with the concept of consideration. The discovery in various assessments of inviting demeanors among comprehensive practice instructors suggests that educators saw incorporation negatively, as Reeves and colleagues (2006) revealed. Even though most educators self-report having a neutral to moderately positive view toward incorporation, Youngs and Youngs (2001) discovered that they were notably averse to working closely with understudies who had benefited from incorporation in their classrooms.

    According to Aleada (2006), when a consideration program is targeted at a single instructor, educators' conceptual support for inclusion becomes convoluted and difficult to discern. According to Scruggs and Mastropieri (1996), most instructors agree with consideration in theory but do not believe it is effective because of a few strategic issues, such as a lack of time, instructional assets, and high-quality preparation among others.

    When it comes to teaching, various elements can influence educators' willingness to consider students' needs while also maintaining unfavorable attitudes regarding educational technology. Forlin, Douglas, and Hattie (2009) found that cheerful instructor demeanors toward integration were associated with lower severity of a disability, whereas the opposite was seen in their investigation. Students who struggle with communication and dialect issues benefit from this engagement because it gives them a sense of belonging and authenticity (Dockrell, Lindsay, Letchford & Makie, 2006). Teachers who interacted with ELLs and their families expressed disappointment when they could not break down language barriers due to dialect differences. Gandara, Maxwell-Jolly, and Driscoll (2005) provided evidence to support the veracity of this claim.

    Cummins (1980) examined the beginnings of the concept of the second dialect picking up as a continuous show, which he termed "second dialect picking up as a continuous display." According to Cummins (1984), evidence supports the learning of a second dialect, including the Iceberg Model, which depicts the idea of inalienable demands for dialect improvement in both social and scholastic contexts, among other things. Example of a matrix illustrating the prerequisites for second dialect acquisition in terms of comprehension and structure, among other things.

    Because of the Common Underlying Proficiency principles, it is critical to employ a multilingual strategy. According to the Iceberg Model, there are inborn needs for advancement in social and academic discourse, which can be demonstrated (see below). It is divided into two sections: an outwardly visible portion of the ice shelf that is located above the water and communicates in English as a social dialect of second dialect learning, and an inwardly visible but equally important portion of an iceberg that is located beneath the water and communicates with academic dialects as a secondary second dialect learning segment. The Iceberg Model, which proposes the concept of inborn demands for improvement in social and academic speaking, is an example of a theoretical framework.

    In response to the higher ice mass's consideration of interpersonal communication abilities, it freezes solidly. This portion of dialect learning discusses the dialect's societal viewpoints and the first steps in learning English as a second language dialect. It is believed under the model that an understudy will quickly learn the dialect that they will be speaking.

    Shape2

    Figure1 The Iceberg Model

    As Cummins (1980) describes it, it is a sociolinguistic ability. Cummins (1980) introduced the idea that the section under consideration would be one to two years in length. Development of basic interpersonal communication skills occurs since it leads to increased achievement in the ice sheet segment that is not immediately visible. However, it is the person who makes decisions and is responsible for students' academic achievement in class.

    The second part of the dialect learning paradigm is Cognitive Academic Language Ability (CALA). It begins with the multifaceted use of hypothetical dialect for both semantic and utilitarian significance of substance-specific dialect in Basic Interpersonal Language Skills. It progresses to the more complex scholastic undertakings of assessing, integrating, and dissecting new data in the guideline to critical thinking. Most understudies study Cognitive Academic Language Ability for five to seven years before the condition jeopardizes their academic work in the original dialect. Normal. The presence of secondary intrusions in academic work before beginning to learn a new dialect might significantly increase its time to develop Cognitive Academic Language Ability. The knowledge of this model of the second dialect taking in, its events and periods for guidelines and instructors who plan and convey it, has many ramifications.

    In the words of (Al-Tamimi and Shuib, 2009), the mentality is 'the sum of a man's impulse and sentiment, inclination or predilection, assumptions, dread, risks, and feelings regarding any predefined issue.' It is described as "the individual's convictions regarding the outcomes or qualities of carrying out the activity that is weighted by assessments of these outcomes and features." According to Papanastasiou and Zembylas (2002), a person's state of mind is defined as the ardent predisposition of a person for or against any conditions, occasions, items, places, or thoughts consistent with Gardner's description of demeanors. As a result, a person's mental state impacts everything he or she does, from their personality traits and convictions to the decisions they make in all areas of activity. According to the Online Business Dictionary of states of mind, "a predisposition or tendency to react emphatically or negatively towards a specific thought, question, individual, or scenario, and it influences an individual's decision of activity and reactions to challenges, motivators, and prizes." According to the events and tests that they go through, individuals can create either a constructive or hostile state of mind, and mentalities can be transformed when bolstered by influence or encompassed by wonder (Eagly and Chaiken, 1995). Changes in an intellectual section, such as accepting new information from other individuals, might bring about this transformation.

    Looking at various interpretations of the term "demeanor," as used by teachers and clinicians, it can be concluded that disposition is an inclination or recognition or conviction increased through previous involvement and that a man slopes to compare through behavioral expression either positively or horribly towards the people, items, circumstances or situation that the individual is locked in with, and that it can be changed through jolts.

    Research Methodology

    Teachers' attitudes on teaching English as a second language were the subject of the current study; hence, the researchers used a descriptive quantitative research method. The study's participants were male and female students from Punjab province's secondary schools. The participants in the study came from throughout Punjab province, and they were all secondary school instructors that taught English in those classrooms. To avoid wasting valuable time and resources, the researchers could not reach out to everyone in the population at once. Of Punjab's 36 districts, those of Lahore, Multan, Sialkot, and Vehari were randomly selected.

    To gather information from participants, researchers created a research tool called a questionnaire. Thirty-five items make up the research tool; the first 17 measure instructors' attitude toward teaching English, and the last 18-35 items measure the adequacy of that attitude. Following validation by the area's most experienced English teachers, 20 items were finalized on the questionnaire. After that, 30 teachers were given the study tool to see if it was reliable regarding their attitudes regarding teaching English as a second language. According to the statisticians, the aggregate Cronbach Alpha (Reliability Coefficient) was 0.851.

    In order to get the information, researchers gathered information from male and female secondary school teachers who were instructing English classes in local high schools. The researchers went out of their way to obtain the information. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 22 was used to analyze the data. Microsoft Excel 2013 was used for the analysis. We calculated the mean, standard deviation, t-test for independent samples, and ANOVA. Concerning the independent samples t-test, according to Mills and Gay (2019), average values of a continuous scale characteristic are evaluated between two subgroups of a categorical variable.

    Data Analysis and Interpretation

    Analysis of the data is given below with its interpretation.

    Table 1

    Mean score difference on gender basis

    Gender

    N

    Mean

    SD

    Df

    t-value

    P

    Male

    200

    3.121

    .407

    398

    -.075

    .634

    Female

    200

    3.114

    .417

    The substantial disparities in male and female teachers' attitudes were discovered using an independent sample t-test. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean score of male and female teachers (df = 398); t = -.075, p>0.05), as shown in the above table. According to the results, males and females have about the same views on teaching English as a second language.

    Table 2

    Mean score difference on professional qualification basis

    Gender

    N

    Mean

    SD

    Df

    t-value

    P

    B. Ed.

    200

    3.031

    .391

    398

    .521

    .047

    M. Ed.

    200

    4.049

    .389

    Teachers with B.Ed. and M.Ed. degrees in education studied using an independent sample t-test to see if there were significant variations in their attitudes regarding teaching English as a second language. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean scores (df = 398; t =.521, p=.0470.05), as shown in Table 2. It was found that instructors' attitudes about teaching English as a second language differed significantly based on their professional credentials. Hence different professional qualifications were observed to have varied attitudes.

     

     

    Table 3

    One-Way ANOVA for difference in means score of secondary school teachers on the basis of their academic qualification

     

    Sum of Squares

    Df

    Mean Square

    F

    Sig.

    Between Groups

    .431

    3

    .141

    .624

    .590

    Within Groups

    97.519

    398

    .161

     

     

    Total

    98.962

    399

     

     

     

    A one-way ANOVA was used to examine whether there was a significant difference in student achievement based on the academic qualifications of the teachers. Teachers at different academic levels had similar attitudes, as demonstrated by the F-value of.624 and a p-value of.590>0.05. It concluded that secondary school instructors have the same approach to teaching English as a second language based on their academic background.

    Findings and Conclusions

    The study's findings showed no significant difference in mean scores between male and female teachers (t-value = -.075, p=.634>0.05). A substantial difference was detected between teachers' attitudes about teaching English as a second language at the secondary school level, with professional qualifications of B.Ed and M.Ed (t-value =.521), p=0470.05. F-value =.624, p=.590>0.05 showed no significant difference based on the academic qualifications of the teachers. In conclusion, men and women who took the survey had nearly identical attitudes toward teaching English as a second language.

    As a result, it was found that teachers' attitudes regarding teaching English as a second language at the secondary school level differed significantly because of differences in professional qualification. Meanwhile, it has been noted that no special training is provided for fostering a high and positive attitude among teachers to be inspired to teach English as a second language. However, a recent study indicated that there were discrepancies between the two professional programs. Based on their academic qualifications, secondary school instructors share the same attitude toward teaching English as a second language.

    To begin, researchers found no significant difference between male and female teachers' attitudes regarding teaching English as a second language in terms of mean scores. There was no significant difference between male and female professors in this study, supporting previous research (Anghelache, & Bentea, 2012). It could be because teachers at the secondary level must teach multiple classes at once, and this applies to both male and female teachers. It meant that they faced the same problem, and as a result, their approaches to teaching English were similar. Teaching English as a second language is something that both male and female teachers are equally passionate. Anghelache & Bentea (2012) found that attitudes regarding teaching English as a second language among male and female Secondary teachers were not significantly different.

    According to Semerci and Semerci (2004), instructors' attitudes on teaching English as a second language do not differ much based on their academic background. This conclusion confirms a recent study that found the same general trend: instructors' attitudes regarding teaching English as a second language differ significantly. As a consequence of our research, secondary school instructors have a good attitude toward teaching English as a valuable communication medium.

    Recommendations

  • Researchers may suggest to policymakers that curriculum designers devise ways to encourage instructors and students to collaborate more in the classroom.

  • Teachers' attitudes about English teaching can be improved by enriching them to be more motivated to learn the language.

  • According to the findings, stakeholders should supply necessary teaching materials for English at the secondary school level.

    References

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    Al-Tamimi, A., & Shuib, M. (2009). Investigating the Learning Styles Preferences of ESL Learners-The Case of English Majors in Universiti Sains Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 5(1), 56-107.

    Anghelache, V., & Bentea, C. C. (2012). Dimensions of teachers' attitude towards educational change. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 33, 598-602.

    Bikson, T. K. (1974). Minority speech as objectively measured and subjectively evaluated. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1(1), 336-338.

    Brown H. D. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Prentice Hall. Inc. Englewood Cliffs. New Jersey 07632.

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    Dockrell, J. E., Lindsay, G., Letchford, B., & Mackie, C. (2006). Educational provision for children with specific speech and language difficulties: Perspectives of speech and language therapy service managers. International Journal of Language Commun Disord, 41 (4), 423-440.

    Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1995). Attitude strength, attitude structure, and resistance to change. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds.), Ohio State University series on attitudes and persuasion, Vol. 4. Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 413-432). Hillsdale, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

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    Scruggs, T. E., & Mastropieri, M. A. (1996). Teacher perceptions of mainstreaming/inclusion. 1958-1995: A research synthesis. Exceptional Children, 63 (1), 59-74. Semerci, N., & Semerci, Ç. (2004). Türkiye'de öğretmenlik tutumları. Fırat University Journal of Social Science, 14(1), 137-146.

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    Youngs, C.S., & Youngs, G. A. (2001). Predictors of mainstream teachers' attitudes toward ESL students. TESOL Quarterly 35, 97-120.

    Rafael, O., & González, G. (2021). A Comparative Study of Kindergarten 3 Students' Chinese Academic Achievement and Attitude Toward Learning Chinese Language According to Gender and Linguistic Family Background in a Private School in Bangkok, Thailand. Scholar: Human Sciences, 13(2), 374-374.

     

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