EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH

Vol. II, Issue 4/ July 2014

Impact Factor: 3.1 (UIF)

ISSN 2286-4822 DRJI Value: 5.9 (B+)
www.euacademic.org

Students’ Attitude towards English Language

Learning and Academic Achievement: A Case of
Business Students in Punjab

SAMAR RUKH
Visiting Lecturer of Linguistics
Researcher in Language Teaching
ILM College and Al Suffah College for Women, Sargodha
Pakistan

Abstract:
English language is now considered as global language, and
with every single day its users are increasing numerously. The present
study is exploratory in nature, investigating the business students’
attitudes towards English language learning and its association with
their academic achievement. The study incorporates quantitative
approach and has used close ended questionnaire to collect data from
the participants. A total number of 200 business students participated
in the study. From the findings of the data, the study concludes that
business students have a positive attitude towards English language
learning and its’ association with their academic achievement.

Key words: attitudes, academic achievement, English language,

confidence, association

1. Introduction

The present study aims at investigating business students’

attitude towards English language learning and its association
with their academic achievement. More than half of the world
population is bilingual (Grosjean, 2010). Bamgbose claims that
English language is a global language now a day (Bamgbose,
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2001) . According to David Crystal, there are about 430 million

non-native English speakers, whereas native speakers are 330
million, excluding those who are learning English language
(Crystal, 2003). Bottery, claims that globalization is mostly
associated with English Language supremacy (Bottery, 2000).
As English is becoming more and more global language, it’s
becoming more and more associated with academic
achievements for the students in any field. The present study is
an investigation of business students’ attitude towards English
learning. Attitude is one of the key elements for learning a
language (Karahan, 2007), (Starks, D., & Paltridge, B.,
1996).Attitude is a variable thing and it can be changed
governing to many external as well internal personality factors
of a person. After the British left India, even than people of the
sub-continent and particularly in Pakistan do not want to study
English as they considered English language learning as a
mark of slavery. But this attitude about English language
learning is now changed as English has acquired a status of
global language (Bamgbose, 2001). The present study is an
attempt to find out business students’ attitudes towards
English language learning and its’ association with their
academic achievement. Business students need more command
on English language as compared to other disciplines as their
nature of job demands more interaction globally.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Attitude
The very term attitude is a fishy one. Different scholars have
tried to define it differently, and yet we do not have a single
agreed upon definition of attitude. Gardner Proposed that
attitude is the overall feelings of a person towards any
particular thing (Gardner, 1980). Ajzan claimed that attitude of
a person is positive or of negative attributes to anything (Ajzan,
1988). Baker defined attitudes as a person persistent way of

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behaving in particular way (Baker, 1992). Gardner proposed

that attitude is an important element in language learning
(Gardner, 1985) Wenden gives a new dimension to attitude
concept by dividing into three elements, namely: cognitive,
evaluative and behavioral which all works together (Wenden,
1991).Bernat and Gvozdenko while discussing social factors
upon language learning, place attitude with them for having its
effect on language learning (Bernat, E. and Gvozdenko, I,
2005). Csizer and Donyei draw same conclusion in their
research and place attitude at an important position for
language learning (Csizer, K and Dornyei, Z, 2005).

2.2 Related Studies

Studies upon attitudes related to language learning got much
attention after Gardner influential work in 1985 (Gardner,
1985), and there is a bulk of work on attitudes of people
regarding different languages and language learning, (Benson,
1991) (Balcazar, 2003), (Malallah, 2000) , (Marley, 2004), (Al-
Kahtany, 1995), (Assaf, 2001), (Dalton-Puffer, C and
Kaltenbock, G, 1995) (Gibb, 1999), (Karstadt, 2002), (Starks, D.,
& Paltridge, B., 1996), (Villa, 2002).
In Pakistan, English normally has a status of second
language in most of the official work, and there is sufficient
research particularly exploring the attitudes of learners
towards ESL and EFL context. (Pritchard, M & Nasr, A, 2004),
(Joseba, 2005) (Venkatraman, G., & Prema, P, 2007) through
their studies show the positive aspects of attitudes for language
learning and higher academic achievement. Attitudes, English
learning and academic achievement is studied in relation with
other aspects as well. Levine tried to established relationship
between first language usage anxiety with respect to second
language learning (Levine, 2003). Yang and Lau studied
attitudes of learners towards English at secondary (Yang,
2003). Graham pays particular attention to attitude with
respect to achievement and language learning (Graham, 2004).

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Karahan while investigating Turkish students’ attitudes

towards English concludes that social factors as well as
economic needs greatly affect the attitudes of the students for
learning English Language. At the beginning, Turkish learners
do not have a positive attitudes for English learning, but in
adulthood, when they become more aware of the economic and
global needs of English, they becomes more motivated in
learning English. So, attitudes can vary due to social and
economic factors. Atef and Munir investigate relationship
between role of motivation and attitudes to learn English
among petroleum students and conclude that students have a
positive attitude towards English Learning. (Atef Al-Tamimi &
Munir Shuib, 2009) . The present study focuses on relationship
between English learning and academic achievement of the
business student.

3. Research Design

The present research is exploratory in nature and quantitative

approach is employed to get empirical evidence of business
students’ attitude towards English language learning and its
association with their academic achievement.

3.1 Research Questions

The study while focusing on attitudes of the business
students towards English language learning and its’ association
with their academic achievement intends to answer the
following research questions:
Q. What is the business students’ attitude towards English
language learning?
Q. What is the relationship between their English language
learning and its’ association with their academic achievement?

3.2 Hypothesis
The study hypothesis is:

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H: There is a positive attitude among business students

regarding English Language learning and its’ association with
their academic achievement.

3.3 Population
Population for the present study is all business students of
MBA in their Final Semester/ year in Province, Punjab,
Pakistan. The rational for selecting final semester/year
students is that, they are almost ready to get complete their
postgraduate degree, so they will be in a better position to give
authentic data for the study.

3.4 Sample
Out of the whole population, a total 200 hundred participants
were selected, using convenient sampling technique, from four
districts of Province Punjab. The districts from where data was
collected are: Sargodha, Lahore, Multan and D.I. Khan.
The districts were selected keeping in mind to cover up
maximum population of the study. From each district, 50
participants were selected, and out of these, 25 from public
sector and 25 from private sector were selected. Moreover,
gender discrimination is not being used in the present study.

3.5 Data collection Tool

A close ended 3-point Likert scale questionnaire is used to
collect data from the participants of the study. As
questionnaires are more expedient in language learning
research, keeping in view: the time, space and resources of the
researcher (Dörnyei, 2003).

3.6 Questionnaire
The questionnaire for measuring business students is adoptive
and items were selected from three survey instruments used by
(Atef Al-Tamimi & Munir Shuib, 2009), (Karahan, 2007) and
(Mohamad Jafre Zainol Abidin,Majid Pour-Mohammadi, Hanan

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Alzwari, , 2012). Questionnaire items were selected from these

surveys and modified to meet present study necessities and
context. A total 10 items are used to measure business
students’ attitude about English language learning and its’
association with their academic achievement. Out these, first
five items measure students’ attitudes towards English
language learning, whereas the next five items measure
association between English language learning and their
academic achievement. Questionnaire scale range is agree,
disagree, neutral. See appendix 1. Questionnaire consists of
two parts:
A: Biographical/ Educational information of the respondents
and instruction for filling out the questionnaire.
B: Respondents attitude towards English language learning
and its association with their academic achievement consisting
of 10 items.

4. Results

4.1 Data collection

The data is being collected by the researcher himself from all
the participants, monitoring and guiding the participants for
correct filling of the questionnaire. Participants were selected
from Public as well as Private sector universities, so as to
represent both sectors equally. A total number of 200 students
participated in the present study. The study does not utilize
gender base discrimination as well and both male/female
genders have equal value in the study. After collection of the
data SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is being
utilized to interpret the data, after interpretation of data, its
frequencies were also measured. For the present study, graphic
presentation of the results of the findings is incorporated. First
5 graphs show business students’ attitudes towards English
language learning, and rest of the 5 graphs represent their

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attitude towards English language learning’s association with

their academic achievement.

4.2 Graphic Presentation of Study Findings

Graph 1.

Graph 1 shows that 83% of the participants were agreed to

notion that they feel proud while studying English, 8%
disagreed to this very notion whereas 9% of the participants
remain neutral.

Graph 2.

Graph 2 depicts that 77% of the respondent were of the view

that they feel excited while using English in communication,
13% disagree to this notion, and 10% remain neutral about this.
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Graph 3.

Graph 3 illustrate that 68% of the participants think that

studying English enhance their overall knowledge learning ,
17% disagree to this and 15% have a neutral attitude towards
this notion.

Graph 4.

Graph depicts participants’ attitude towards English language

learning. 89% of the respondents want to study English more in
the future, whereas 4% disagree to this, and 7% of the
participants have a neutral attitude about this.

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Graph 5.

Graph 5 is about business students’ attitude towards English

language learning if it’s not a compulsory subject in their
studies. 66% want to study English even it is not a compulsory
subject, 20% disagree to this, whereas 14% participants have a
neutral attitude about this.

Graph 6.

Graph 6 shows English language Importance for job

availability. 96% of the participants agree to the notion that
English language learning will be beneficial for them to net a
new job, whereas only 4% disagree to this notion.

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Graph 7.

The 7th graph depicts participants’ attitude about English

language learning and its’ association with other disciplines.
71% of the respondents agree that studying English is helpful
for them for the understanding other discipline of knowledge,
22% disagree to this and 7% have a neutral attitude about this.

Graph 8.

Graph 8 is about English language learning and its association

with the very notion of education. 97% of the respondents think
that English language is the very mark of an educated person
in the society and only 3%participants of the study disagree to
this.

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Graph 9.

Graph 9 shows English Language learning and its impact on

the learning of other subjects. 82% of the participants were of
the view that learning English language will be helpful for
them for studying other subjects, 16% disagree to this, and 2%
have a neutral attitude about this.

Graph 10.

Graph 10th is about participants’ attitude about English

language learning and its’ relation with personality confidence.
88% of the participants were of the view that studying English
gives them more confidence while expressing themselves in any
forum while 12% participants did not agree to this notion.

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4.3 Discussion

The first 5 graphs are about business students’ attitudes

towards English language learning and graphs 6-10 show
business students’ attitude towards English learning’s
association with their academic achievement. The findings of
the study as presented through graphs clearly demonstrate that
business students have positive attitudes towards English
language learning. Graph 1 shows that 83% participants feel
proud while studying English, graph 2 shows that 77%
participants feel excited when communicating in English, graph
3 shows that 68% participants consider English language
learning has positive effect on other subjects learning as well,
graph 4 shows that 89% participants want to study English
further in future and graph 5 depicts that 66% participants
were of the view that they would take English even if it is not a
compulsory subject at graduate and post graduate level. This
all data interpretation shows that overall there is a positive
attitude for English language learning among the business
students and it provides answer for the first research question
of the study, asserting that, business students have a positive
attitude towards English language learning.
Graphs 6-10 show students attitudes towards learning
English language’s association with their academic
achievement. Graph 6 illustrates that 96% participants
consider English learning as beneficial for them to get new job,
graph 7 shows that 71% participants consider English learning
as beneficial for getting new information and knowledge, graph
8 depicts that 97% participants consider English language
learning as a mark of education, graph 9 shows that 82%
participants consider English as a good tool in learning other
subjects as well, graph 10 shows that 88% participants hold the
view that studying English give them more confidence while
expressing themselves in any forum.

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All this shows that business students view English

language learning as closely associated with their overall
academic achievement and there is a positive attitude
prevailing among the business students about the association
between learning English language and their overall academic
achievement. Items from 6-10 in the questionnaire as their
interpreted data presented in the graphs 6-10 give answer to
the second question of the research , asserting that, there is a
positive attitude among the business students about English
language learning’s association with their academic
achievement.

4.4 Delimitation
Present study explores academic achievement of the business
students with respect to English language learning only. The
academic achievement of the business students can be studied
in a number of different ways as well, for example with respect
to institutes, with respect to educational background and
likewise in a number of different ways. Moreover this study is
being conducted in Punjab Province of Pakistan, so the findings
of the study can only be generalizable to this population only.

5. Conclusion

The overall findings of the study prove the hypothesis of the

study, as clearly illustrated in the graphic presentation of the
data. The present study from the data findings concludes that
business students in Punjab, Pakistan, have a positive attitude
towards English language learning and its association with
their overall academic achievement.

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Appendix 1

STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE
SECTION (A)

Personal Information
1. Name: ……………………………
2. Gender: M/F
3. Program: …………………………
4. Institution: ………………………...

Guideline:
Please answers the questions in the below honestly, the information
you provide will not be disclosed to anyone, not to your teachers as
well and will only be used for research purpose.

S.No Statement Agree Disagree Neutral

1 I feel proud when studying English language

2 I feel excited when I communicate in English

with others
3 I have more knowledge and more
understanding when studying English
4 I look forward to studying more English in the
future
5 I would take English even if it were not a
compulsory
subject at school
6 I want to learn English because it will enable
me to get a job easily

7 Studying English helps me getting new

information in which I can link to my previous
knowledge
8 English is the mark of an educated person

9 Being good at English will help me study

other subjects well

10 Studying English makes me have more

confidence in expressingmyself

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