L2 ATTITUDES ACROSS SECONDARY EDUCATION: HOW (RELATIVELY) STABLE ARE THEY?

Abstract

Investigation into L2 attitudes is challenging within SLA research because they are: (1) highly complex, i.e. sociocultural, cognitive, and affective by nature, and (2) deemed a good predictor of behaviour. The study explores secondary students’ attitudes to learning English as a foreign language. The final sample involved N=55 participants (m=16, f=39), attending two grammar school courses (philological and general) in Serbia, with equal distribution (Phil=25, Gen=30). The participants were tested via repeated measures design on their L2 learning attitudes within a three-year period (Time 1, 2, 3). The main goals were to determine whether their attitudes change along secondary education, and whether the two main educational profile groups’ attitudes differ in their intensity. Тhe subsidiary goal was to test the validity of the EFLS-ALE scale employed in this research. The results indicate that general attitudes were positive in both groups, stable throughout secondary education (no differences were found between Time 1, 2, 3), Phil group had much more positive attitudes in every year of testing, and the EFLS-ALE scale showed a very good internal consistency (Time 1: α=.891, Time 2: α=.920, Time 3: α=.913). In conclusion, our sample attitudes have proven to be quite stable across secondary education, but we contend that it is the question of relative stability within one developmental period (mid-adolescence), not absolute stability. Finally, further research is needed to gain more valuable insights into the issue of L2 attitudes’ stability, due to sample size and its nature.