Students' Attitudes towards the Study of English and French in a Private University Setting in Ghana

Abstract

English and French are two important international languages taught as mandatory courses at Wisconsin International University. Therefore examining attitudes of students to these two languages was appropriate for reasons of improving its teaching and likeability by students. Four hypotheses were tested and results indicate that gender had a significant effect on students' attitudes to the study of English; where females showed a better attitude to the two languages than their male counterparts. However, gender had no significant effect on students' attitudes to the study of French, thus no significant difference exists between males and females in their attitudes to French. It was also found that age had no significant effect on students' attitudes to the study of both English and French. Further it was revealed that level of students had no significant effect on students' attitudes to the study of English and French. Likewise, language background had no effect on students' attitude to the study of English; however, the results showed that language block had a significant effect on students' attitude to the study of French. Francophone students indicated a much positive attitude to the study of French than their Anglophone counterparts. The results of this study are a firm indication that interventions should be made in encouraging male students to appreciate and develop the right attitude to the study of the two languages. Special attention should be given to the Anglophone students in the French lectures with the view of improving likeability and achieving a much positive attitude to the language.

Keywords: Students' Attitudes; English; French; Gender; Age; Level; Language background