X Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2018

Introduction

Nowadays learning languages is the most adorable worldwide activity among the students and teachers. People from several countries practice learning a new language, as a new aspect as it gives an opportunity to travel, to communicate and to get a data from the original source.

English as a second language becomes inseparable and unavoidable in Kazakhstan Education system. The head of state highlited that Kazakhstan must be regarded as a high-educated country all over the world the population of which speaks 3 languages: Kazakh as a state language, Russian as a language of international communication and English as a language of successful integration into global economics.(http://kazatu.kz/en/international-relations/multilingual-education/) In higher education institutions of Kazakhstan, leading its activities towards the development of multilingual education, a growing number of professional disciplines, including informatics, computer engineering and software, mathematics, physics, information systems, ecology, economics are taught in multilingual academic groups in English. Coonecting with this it is revealed that the choice of method and technique could be discussed in this failure. The choice of method and technique is an important and indispensible factor that takes place before education process and that has a determining role in the efficiency of teaching according to current opportunities (Cook, 1991. 4).

Aim of the research

The general aim of the research is to determine the reasons why secondary school students in Kazakhstan use kazakh or russian languages while they are learning a foreign language (English). Based on this general purpose, the answers to the following questions have been searched.

1. What are the general opinions of the students considering the whole scale?

2. Is there a meaningful difference between the opinions of the students according to their gender?

Method

Model of the research

The research is designed according to the scanning model. The scanning model aims to reveal the various features of a group as they exist (Büyüköztürk ve diğ., 2010: 16-17) Universe and sampling

The universe of the research in which general scanning model was used was comprised of secondary schools of Astana, Kazakhstan, during 2017-2018 spring term. Sampling was comprised of randomly chosen 11th grade 80 students.

Table 1: Gender Distribution of Students

Gender	F	%
Male	44	55.00
Female	36	45.00
Total	80	100.00

As you can see, 55% of the participants (44 people) are male and 45% (36 people) are female students..

Data collection tool

An attitude scale developed by Ocak, Kuru ve Özçalışan was used as data collection tool. This scale was developed to find out the reasons why students use Turkish during class interactions. (Ocak, Kuru ve Özçalışan, 2010).

The scale consisting of 24 items whose K.M.O. value was 0.67 and factor loads varied between 0.35-0.85. First factor “fear”(6 items), second factor “the lack of motivation” (9 items), third factor “lack of self-esteem”(6items) and fourth factor “readiness” (3 factors) were named. The reliability of the scale was found to be Alpha=0.71

Scale had Likert type and options were ‘I totally agree’4.21-5.00, ‘I agree’3.41-4.20, ‘I can’t decide’2.61-3.40, ‘I don’t agree’1.81-2.60 and ‘I totally disagree’1.00-1.80.

The application of data collection tool

The questionnaire were handed out to students by the researcher and collected the next day.

Analysis

In analysis of data frequency (f) and percentage (%) techniques were used for analysis of personal characteristics.Independent groups t test was used to determine whether the differences between groups that were formed according to gender and age were meaningful in opinions about reasons why students use Kazakh or Russian in class interactions in English classes.

Results (Findings)

Findings obtained in the study are discussed below. According to this, the averages and standard deviations of student opinions on each view are presented in Table 1.

Table 2: Reasons of avoiding speaking Foreign Language (English)in the class

Nr	View points	x̄
1	I believe that course books don’t assist us to improve speaking.	3.43	1.17
2	I believe that my English knowledge is adequate for listening but not for speaking.	2.85	1.24
3	I believe that English is a skill that I can only use at school.	2.28	1.40
4	I am anxious about being ridiculed as I speak.	2.80	1.15
5	I am offended by the teacher correction as I speak.	2.83	1.21
6	I am anxious about the possibility of mispronouncing English words.	3.43	1.19
7	By the time I finish preparatory program, I will start my department where the medium of instruction is Turkish.	2.85	1.17
8	When I start my program, I can the must courses in English as a passive listener.	2.28	1.24
9	I think, in English I will not be able to express what I want to.	2.80	1.40
10	I believe, my previous negative experiences has built up prejudices against English.	2.78	1.19
11	I want to speak English in the class but as my friends are not enthusiastic, I give up.	2.85	1.26
12	My motivation in speaking English decreases because of absenteeism.	2.81	1.27
13	I believe that the best medium is the native tongue.	3.06	1.35
14	I believe that I have learned English but I am not ready to speak.	3.02	1.39
15	I abstain from the teacher’s reaction if I make a mistake.	3.03	1.19
16	I cannot build English sentences.	2.62	1.22
17	I think that a level of success to pass the proficiency test is enough.	3.41	1.11
18	My vocabulary knowledge is not adequate for speaking.	2.92	1.30
19	I do not think that my English will improve by speaking with classmates.	2.61	1.07
20	It takes a longer time to express in English	3.01	1.23
21	As the lessons are entertaining, I get more disposed to speak English.	3.27	1.16
22	If I fulfill my assignments in time, I speak English more in the class.	3.33	1.29
23	If I do any pre-learning activity, I speak English more in the class.	3.28	1.33
24	I think the main objective of the program is to teach a general English, not to teach speaking.	3.42	1.40

The big amount of the students' opinion at the highest level of "agree" level (x̄ = 3.43) was concerned that they have fear of bad pronunciation. Similarly, students' attitudes (x̄ = 3.43) were also showen their view that textbooks did not improve speaking skills.

It has been determined that students are ambivalent about the views presented to them in many dimensions (Item 17).

These views can be summarized as follows:

Pupils are not sure about will be they able to speak fluently in English even if pupils do their homework on time,and if they have pre-learning activities related to the course and if they have intertainning activities in the class. In other words, even if these activities are practised , they are unsure about will they influence their English speaking skills.

Students attitudes according to their answers have shown that the best learning environment is the environment in which the native language is used, they learn English, but are not ready to talk, it takes a long time to express in English, their vocabulary is not enough for speaking, the English levels are sufficient for listening but not enough for speaking, and they are also hesitant to speak in English as they can not make correct sentences in English.

They also argue that if they make a mistake they do not come up with a positive or negative opinion in terms of the teacher's reaction, corrective action,they want to speak in English, but because of reluctant attitude by their friends they give up, in other words, it was determined that opinions at the level of indecision were at the forefront.

Students have been accepted at the level of indecision by their believes that English speaking skills will develop by talking to their classmates and that their absence is negatively affected their motivation. It has also emerged that, students believes pupils can be passive listeners when the English-language programs will begin, in addition to all of these they think English is not the skill that is necessary only at school.

The opinions of the students were compared with the gender independent variables. In other words, it has been attempted to determine whether gender is an important variable for the students deciding to use a native language in teaching second language.

Independent groups t test results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. t- test results for gender

Gender		x̄		sd	t
Male	44	2.98	0.523	78	0.056	0.955
Female	36	2.98	0.488

According to the results of the t-test aiming to find out whether there is a significant relationship between gender and the responses given to the statements, table 2 show that the relationship between gender and responses is not significant (t(78)=0.056; p>0.05).

Conclusion and Discussion

A total number of students participated in the research are 80, 44 of whome were male and 36 of whome were female. have been made initiatives to determine the level of participation and proposals that may cause students to use their native language during their class, rather than using English.

-It has become clear that the gender of pupils is not a significant variable as to the reasons for avoiding using foreign languages ​​when they are learning foreign languages. In other words, both male and female students were generally unsure about the reasons for using their mother

tongue, avoiding the use of foreign languages ​​they learned, and the level of ambiguity revealed opinions.

As a general evaluation, it can be said that the English lessons in secondary school do not have enough positive results in terms of reaching the main goal. Students generally avoid using foreign language in the class enviroment as a result of such problems: lack of motivation and being criticized by teachers, fear of making mistakes and do not trust themselves enough.

Penny Ur (2000) investigates: “Why do we have difficulty in making our students speak the target language in foreign language classes?” and she states reasons more or the less the same as presented here in this study: fear of making mistakes, abstaining from criticism, effortlessness of speaking the native tongue versus the artificial environment when they speak the target language although they all possess a common native tongue.

Recommendation.

According to the findings obtained as a result of the research, the following suggestions can be made:

-Precautions should be taken to increase the self-confidence of the students. For this purpose, more English communication environment should be established, It will be also useful to focus on avoiding negative behaviors such as correcting errors, making fun of etc.

-It is beneficial for English teachers to show more positive attitudes towards students and to be educated in terms of motivational speaking in teaching process.

-It would be helpful to design English textbooks in a more communication-oriented and student-centered manner.

-The learning-teaching process of English courses is required to be designed according to a more student-centered structure.

References

Büyüköztürk, Ş. ve Diğerleri. (2014). Bilimsel Araştırma Yöntemleri. 17. Baskı. Ankara, Pegem A Akademi Yayıncılık.

Cook, V. (1991). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching, Arnold, London.4 p

Ocak, Gürbüz., Kuru, Nurcay. and Özçalan, Hande. (2010). As a classroom language, students’ attitudes towards speakingTurkish in English prep classes. Procedia Social and Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2(2010) 661–665.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042810001205

http://kazatu.kz/en/international-relations/multilingual-education/

Ur, Penny (2000). A Course in Languge Teaching: Practice and Theory: Trainer’s Handbook, Cambridge University Press, UK

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