The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between anxiety, attitude and motivation of tertiary students in learning English as a second language with regards to discipline, gender and language proficiency. The respondents were 60 first year undergraduate students studying at the Faculty of Education in a local university in Malaysia. The data were collected using a questionnaire (adapted from Gardner and Smythe’s AMTB survey) and semi structured interviews. Data obtained were analysed using SPSS software to determine the relationship between anxiety, attitude and motivation of tertiary students in learning English as a second language while the interviews conducted was transcribed and used to triangulate the findings. The findings from this study indicated that there were negative but significant relationship in learning English as a second language between the three main variables with regards to discipline, gender and language proficiency among the tertiary students. Findings also revealed that students majoring in the sciences have slightly higher positive attitude towards learning English than the Non-Science course students but interestingly, low proficiency students have higher and significant relationship in attitude and motivation than high proficiency students.
Yvonne Jain, [email protected]
Gurnam Kaur Sidhu [email protected]
Faculty of Education
University Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam
