PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

The process of learning English as a second language in the primary education of Malaysia is still one of the priorities to be in the future and is the key to being successful. To examine the attitudes of primary school students towards learning the English language and the factors influencing students’ attitudes, quantitative approach of the research was employed. Also, it examined the correlation between the students’ attitudes in learning English and their language performance. Data was collected using a standardised questionnaire that contained a 5-point Likert scale. Purposive sampling was employed in selecting 162 Year Six (6) ESL students in SK Mohd Khir Johari in Johor Bahru. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequency distribution and Pearson correlation. Reliability and internal consistency are measured using Cronbach Alpha of the questionnaire. The findings indicate that a teacher support, teaching method, as well as peer support are the three most important factors that influence students’ attitude towards learning English language. The attitude and the English language performance of students were proved to correlate statistically, which means that the better their attitude is, the stronger the connection is. The given study proves that, when encouraging students to have positive attitude, teachers are to resort more to interactive methods of teaching and learning among peers. All these ideas can be helpful to teachers, parents and students in their efforts to improve the teaching and learning of the English language in Malaysian primary schools. Keywords: Attitudes, ESL, English Language, Primary school, Language Performance