Attitudes of Turkish and foreign students towards English language, and their speaking anxiety at Turkish ınternational schools in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The study focused on the attitudes of Turkish and foreign students’ attitudes towards English language, and their English speaking anxiety. The study adopted case study research design based on quantitative data. The participants were 140 High School Students (70 Turkish, 70 foreign) at Turkish International Schools in Saudi Arabia, and were all selected randomly and on voluntary basis. The data were collected via a) the Questionnaire on Attitudes Toward English adapted from Aiken by Tunç (2003); b) the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)’ adapted from Horwitz by Saltan (2003). The data were analyzed through statistical tests, such as Pearson Correlation, t-test, standard deviation, mean scores, and simple linear regression. The results of the two groups in terms of attitude anxiety indicated that Turkish students developed more negative attitudes towards English with more anxiety, whereas foreign students had more positive attitudes towards English with less anxiety. The results also revealed that there was a significant and negative relationship between attitudes of students towards English and their English speaking anxiety