Enhancing EFL learning in
students with negative attitudes
towards the English class.
Viviana Arcila
Lenny Campuzano
“Attitude is a little thing
that makes a big
difference”
Winston Churchill
What is an attitude?
•A "readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way“. (Jung)
•A mental or neural state of readiness organized through
experience”. Allport (1935)
•A "psychological construction towards a target” Crystal (1992)
•Attitudes are judgments. They represent an individual's degree of
like or dislike towards a subject matter.
The genesis of attitudes

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Some of the main influences on attitude
formation are:
teacher (it depends on the teacher)
friends/peer group
parents (my mother likes it)
teaching method (it is fun)
the language itself (I like how it sounds)
Common learners’ attitudes in
the classroom

How have we tackled learners’
attitudes?
How does a positive attitude
influences English learning?
Succesful
learning
Positive
attitude
Learners
gain
motivation
Lessons
Become
more
stimulating
How does a negative attitude
influences English learning?
Hindered
learning
Negative
attitude
Learners
lose
motivation
Lessons
Become
boring
& difficult
NEGATIVE
ATTITUDES
TOWARDS THE
ENGLISH CLASS
Internal
factors
learning
rythm
motivation
Learning
styles
External
factors
Learning
preferences
Teacher’s
role
pressure
Teaching
method
family
English Learning is hindered
friends
Research objectives

To discover new strategies to
deal with learners’ negative
attitudes and generate a
positive engagement with the
English class.
Population


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35 EFL teenage learners
Elementary-early intermediate
English competence
13-15 years old
From Pereira, Colombia.
Research instrument: A students’ survey
about their attitudes in the English class
Encuesta: El rol de algunas situaciones afectivas en el aprendizaje del inglés.
Proyecto de Investigación. Team teaching group. Teens 3A, 3B Y 3C
Por favor contesta sinceramente y de manera individual la siguiente encuesta relacionada con
algunas situaciones emocionales en el aprendizaje del inglés en el Colombo. Califica con una X
el nivel de tu respuesta de la siguiente forma:
1=No
2=Un poco
3=Mas o menos
4=Mucho
5=Demasiado
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Mi rendimiento en inglés depende de la actitud del profesor hacia mi
2.Tengo confianza en mi mismo (a) a la hora de realizar un trabajo oral o escrito en inglés
3.Estoy calmado (a) y tranquilo(a) a la hora de realizar ejercicios durante la clase
4.El que tenga un problema con alguien de mi familia o amigos hace que me desconcentre
durante la clase de ingles
5. Me intimida hablar en público
6. Si alguna vez tengo un conflicto con un profesor, creo que soy capaz de seguir en clase como
si nada hubiera pasado
7. la forma en cómo me siento afecta mi desempeño en la clase
8. ¿Te gusta la clase de ingles? ¿Por qué?

9. Describe cómo sería el ambiente de clase ideal para que aprendas inglés.

10. Describe cómo sería el profesor ideal para que aprendas inglés.
11. ¿Cómo te sientes emocionalmente durante la mayoría de las clases de inglés?
bien ______regular______ mal _____¿Por qué crees que esto sucede?

RESULTS
Learners’ attitudes in the English class
100
80
muchodemasiado
60
40
mas o menosun poco
20
0
Preguntas

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1. Mi rendimiento en inglés depende de la actitud del profesor hacia mi
2.Tengo confianza en mi mismo (a) a la hora de realizar un trabajo oral o escrito en inglés
3.Estoy calmado(a) y tranquilo(a) a la hora de realizar ejercicios durante la clase
4.El que tenga un problema con alguien de mi familia o amigos hace que me desconcentre
durante la clase de ingles
5. Me intimida hablar en público
6. Si alguna vez tengo un conflicto con un profesor, creo que soy capaz de seguir en clase
 como si nada hubiera pasado
7. la forma en cómo me siento afecta mi desempeño en la clase

Ideal English teacher
Ideal learning environment
Steps to effectively
handle learners’
negative attitudes
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Display a cheerful, optimistic and enthusiastic attitude towards the class,
the students and the lesson activities as teachers attitudes are replicated
by learners.
Identify the specific student’s emotional situation.
Approach the student without previous judgments.
Wait for the student’s response (whether he/she wants to talk about
his situation or reserve it.
Listen and orient the student but avoiding only becoming into his
therapist.
Try to get the student involved in the class by telling him/her that being
in the class can help him/her to forget about any complex emotional
situation.
If the situation is critical, invite the student to write or draw on a piece of
paper all the negative things he/she is feeling and thinking of. Then, the
student burns the paper as a symbol of destroying all the negative factors
that are affecting him negatively. This exercise leads learners to reflect
upon themselves.
Try to get parents and children closer maybe through a talk.
What things you need to do
to change negative attitudes
to more positive attitudes?
Sequence the steps you should follow to make your
attitudes more positive:
 (1) recognize the bad attitudes and say the feelings
you have with them (categorize the feeling),
 (2) ask yourself "What can I do about it?"
 (3) identify the situations that are associated with the
attitude or feeling
 (4) decide what you were saying to yourself when you
had the negative feeling in the situation,
 (5) decide more useful, functional things that you could
say about the situation.
Strategies to effectively handle
learners’ negative attitudes
BEHAVIOR: Shyness, silence and lack
of participation.
Strategies:
•
Change teaching strategies from group discussion to
individual written exercises or a videotape•
Give strong positive reinforcement for any contribution.
•
Involve by directly asking him/her a question.
•
Make eye contact.
•
Appoint to be small group leader.
BEHAVIOR: Talkativeness -- knowing everything,
manipulation, chronic whining.
Strategies:
 Acknowledge comments made.
 Give limited time to express viewpoint or
feelings, and then move on.
 Make eye contact with another participant and
move toward that person.
 Give the person individual attention during
breaks.
 Say: "That's an interesting point. Now let's see
what other other people think."
BEHAVIOR: Heckling/Arguing -- disagreeing
with everything you say; making personal
attacks.
Strategies:
 Redirect question to group or supportive
individuals.
 Recognize participant's feelings and move
one.
 Acknowledge positive points.
 Say: "I appreciate your comments, but I'd
like to hear from others," or "It looks like
we disagree."
BEHAVIOR: Hostility/ Resistance, angry,
belligerent, combative behavior.
Strategies:
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Hostility can be a mask for fear. Reframe hostility as fear to depersonalize it.
Respond to fear, not hostility.
Remain calm and polite. Keep your temper in check.
Don't disagree, but build on or around what has been said.
Move closer to the hostile person, maintain eye contact.
Always allow him or her a way to gracefully retreat from the confrontation.
Say: "You seem really angry. Does anyone else feel this way?" Solicit peer
pressure.
Do not accept the premise or underlying assumption, if it is false or prejudicial,
e.g., "If by "queer" you mean homosexual..."
Allow individual to solve the problem being addressed. He or she may not be
able to offer solutions and will sometimes undermine his or her own position.
Ignore behavior.
Talk to him or her privately during a break.
As a last resort, privately ask the individual to leave class for the good of the
group.
BEHAVIOR: Griping -- maybe legitimate
complaining.
Strategies:
 Point out that we can't change policy here.
 Validate his/her point.
 Indicate you'll discuss the problem with
the participant privately.
 Indicate time pressure.
BEHAVIOR: Side Conversations -- may be related to
subject or personal. Distracts group members and
you.
Strategies:
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Don't embarrass talkers.
Ask their opinion on topic being discussed.
Ask talkers if they would like to share their ideas.
Casually move toward those talking.
Make eye contact with them.
Comment on the group (but don't look at them
"one-at-a-time").
Standing near the talkers, ask a near-by
participant a question so that the new discussion
is near the talkers.
As a last resort, stop and wait.
Bibliography
1. Jung’s definition of attitude.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_(psychology).
2. Children’s attitudes to learning English.
http://www.the-bus-stop.net/Training/ChildAtti.pdf
3. Psychology of Exceptional Learning. Learning Attitudes. John
Munro.
http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/eldi/selage/documents/PELAttit
udelearning.pdf
4.