Attitudes Toward Humanities and Social Sciences and Their Relationship With English Competence

Abstract

Humanities and social sciences are mostly regarded as ''soft sciences''. Females have greater interest in them compared to males. Because linguistic (in this paper, English language studies) belongs to both humanities and social sciences, the present study aims to examine the relationship of students' estimates of English competence and their attitudes toward humanities and social sciences. The sample consists of 157 participants (88 females and 69 males).Who are at tertiarry level in Turkey. The obtained results reflect no gender differences in students' attitudes toward English and Turkish language; however, significant gender differences were found in their attitudes toward literature, psychology, sociology and pedagogy. Participants' attitudes toward humanities and socal aciences were in significant relationships with all aspects of self-reported English competence. In addition, self-reported grammar skills were the best predictor of attitudes towards the English language. Keywords: English competence, humanities, social sciences, gender differences.