ERIC Number: ED219932
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1981
Pages: 36
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
U.S. Suburban Middle Class Attitudes toward Foreign Language Learning.
Zamir, Jan
Studies in Language Learning, v3 n2 p42-77 Fall 1981
A study was made of language attitudes of suburban middle class high school students with special reference to French, German, Spanish, and Latin. Of the 621 subjects chosen for the study, 82 had never had any foreign language learning experience. Two types of questionnaires were given, one to those who had studied foreign language and the other to the group who had not. The survey was taken in a high school with a population of 2,300 students in an affluent suburb. The first part of the report gives background information on parents' educational background, their language experience, the students' knowledge of a foreign language prior to high school, and enrollment figures for the four languages. This part also provides information on overall academic performance, grade averages in foreign language, students' attitudes toward each language, and their rationale for studying a foreign language. The second part discusses language choice and grades achieved in terms of sex of the students, as well as attitudes of males and females toward each language. Part 3 discusses parents' educational background as the index of the rationale for pursuing a foreign language. Here, no correlation showed up between parents' educational background and the students' consideration of the importance of foreign language. The two questionnaires used in the study are attached. (AMH)
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, French, German, Grades (Scholastic), High School Students, Language Attitudes, Latin, Middle Class Students, Parent Education, Questionnaires, Second Language Learning, Second Languages, Secondary Education, Spanish
Not available separately; see FL 013 032.
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Journal Articles
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Illinois Univ., Urbana. Language Learning Lab.
Identifiers - Location: Illinois
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A