Why Can’t We Learn English? : Students’ Opinions at Akdeniz University
Öz
The main purpose of this study is to find out university students’ opinions on the social, personal and educational reasons for their failure in learning English. Data is collected by means of a scale answered by 1414 students enrolled at Akdeniz University. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, mean scores and standard deviations) were used to interpret participants’ perceptions on social, personal and educational reasons for their “failure” in English. Results show that students feel disadvantaged because of their parents’ not knowing English. Students also do not hold ethnocentric thoughts that may hinder their language learning. Results also show that students are aware of the importance of English in their future careers. However, participants do not particularly blame themselves for their failure as they tend to blame some sociocultural and economic on their learning. Students also believe that their failure is mostly related with educational factors among which giving all skills and especially the speaking skill and a variety of materials less importance in the classroom environment are the leading ones.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Kaynakça
- Abidin, M. J. Z., Pour-Mohammadi, M., & Alzwari, H. (2012). EFL students’ attitudes towards learning English language: The case of Libyan secondary school students. Asian Social Science, 8(2), 119-134.
- Çelebi, M. D. (2006). Türkiye’de anadili eğitimi ve yabancı dil öğretimi. Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 21, 285-307.
- Çelik, S., Arikan, A., & Caner, M. (2013). In the eyes of Turkish EFL learners: What makes an effective foreign language teacher?. Porta Linguarum: Revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras, 20, 287-297.
- Gökdemir, C. V. (2005). Üniversitelerimizde verilen yabancı dil öğretimindeki başarı durumumuz. Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 6(2), 251-264.
- Hamid, M. O., & Baldauf J. R. B. (2011). English and socio-economic disadvantage: Learner voices from rural Bangladesh. Language Learning Journal, 39(2), 201-217.
- Reiss, M. A. (1983). Helping the unsuccessful language learner. Canadian Modern Language Review, 39(2), 257-66. Sawir, E. (2005). Language difficulties of international students in Australia: The effects of prior learning experience. International Education Journal, 6(5), 567-580.
- Stern, H. H. (1975). What can we learn from the good language learner? Canadian Modern Language Review, 31(4), 304-318.
- Teddlie, C., & Yu, F. (2007). Mixed methods sampling a typology with examples. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1(1), 77-100.
- Trang, T., Moni, K., & Baldauf, R. J. (2012). Foreign language anxiety and its effects on students’ determination to study English: To abandon or not to abandon. TESOL in Context, S3, 1-14.
- Wang, Z. (1993). Factors that affect Chinese EFL learner's acquisition. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED363130 on June 30, 2017.
