A COMPARISON OF STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARDS LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH (LOTEs) IN TURKEY AND IN THE USA

Abstract

The study aimed at investigating learners’ attitudes towards languages other than English(LOTEs). The study also explored participant instructors’ views on students’ attitudestowards LOTEs. In order to collect data, a language attitude questionnaire was designed byadapting Students’ Attitude Toward Foreign Language (SAFL) instrument. The studysampled a total of 316 students, 261 from Turkey, 55 from the USA. University studentsenrolled in a second language course in the USA and Turkey were compared in terms of theirresponses to SAFL items as well as their attitude scores for each of the 4 dimensions.Separate confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for each sample with 4 varimaxrotated, orthogonal factors. Factor scores for each individual were computed based on theweights identified by the factor analysis to obtain general measures of motivation, students’effort and instructor's role, self-confidence and self-interest, and students' anxiety. Accordingto the research findings students learning LOTEs have favorable attitudes towards thelanguage they are learning both in Turkey and the USA due to their interests in the culturalproducts of the countries speaking those languages and increasing educational opportunities.