Language attitudes towards English and Filipino in relation to gender, age, and socioeconomic status

• Main Author: Sicam, Faith Patricia M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Psycholinguistics; English language—Study and teaching—Filipino speakers; Language and Literacy Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6890
• Institution: De La Salle University

Age, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) are three of the widely used variables in research. These variables are used in correlation studies which recognize individual difference as a great factor in bringing about varied results in terms of a person‟s performance, attitude, or motivations. This study surveyed on the different attitudes of bilingual high school students towards English and Filipino and explored the relationship of the language attitudes in terms of gender, age, and SES. 473 Filipino participants, randomly selected from 3 inclusive secondary learning institutions (2 public, 1 private), answered a three-part questionnaire (1 – Language Background Questionnaire, 2 – General Language Attitudes Survey, and 3 – Language Orientation Survey). Descriptive analysis and the test of Pearson correlation revealed the following: 1) In general, students have very high positive attitude towards English and Filipino; 2) Females had significantly higher positive attitudes towards English than males; 3) SES is significantly related with positive attitudes towards English language; 4) Gender is significantly related with instrumental language orientation in Filipino, 5) Age is significantly related to instrumental language orientation in Filipino and integrative language orientation in English; and 6) SES is significantly related to all language orientations. The results from the study suggest that language attitudes truly vary among different variables and shed light on the areas where educators can begin to focus their efforts in motivating the students.