Promoting positive attitudes towards foreign language learning: a New Zealand initiative

Abstract

This paper reports on the effectiveness of a tailored undergraduate course at a tertiary institution in New Zealand constructed to challenge, and encourage changes to, monolingual ‘English-only’ attitudes. The course was designed to provide knowledge and promote understanding of the phenomenon of English as a global language, and the place of, and implications for, languages other than English in that context. Working with two cohorts of students, a pre- and post-treatment design was used whereby participants completed an attitudinal questionnaire at the start of the course and the same questionnaire at the end. They were also asked what they thought about languages in a globalised world. The questionnaires were analysed to determine if there had been any shift in attitudes by the end of the course. Findings are presented and discussed in terms of the effectiveness of this course to promote positive attitudes towards foreign language learning in New Zealand-based students. It raises the question of whether similar courses could be planned for use by secondary and other tertiary students as part of initiatives to help them to recognise that speaking languages other than English is normative in today's world.

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