AN INVESTIGATION ON NON-ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AT A MEDICAL COLLEGE

Abstract

The study aims to investigate non-English-majored students' attitudes toward English language learning at Thai Nguyen Medical College. The subjects of the study were 312 first-year students at Thai Nguyen Medical College. Two data collection instruments were used in this study, including  questionnaires, which  has 30 items concerning language attitudes in terms of behavioral, cognitive and emotional aspects of attitude and  semi-structured interviews which was used to confirm the information obtained from the results of the survey questionnaire. This study focused on investigating: (1) the students' attitudes toward English language learning at Thai Nguyen Medical College; (2) the influences on the students' attitudes towards English language learning at Thai Nguyen Medical College. Research results show that most learners were aware of the importance of English language learning. In general, the first-year students at Thai Nguyen Medical College had an average positive attitude towards English language learning. However, the data also revealed that the majority of students had negative feelings about practicing and applying English in real life. Furthermore, according to the analysis results, students did not have a really positive attitude towards learning English for such reasons as not determining the purpose of using this language after graduation, losing their previous knowledge of this subject, and not finding a suitable learning method.