An Analysis of the Relationship Between Language Attitudes and English Attainment of Secondary Students in Hong Kong

This study analyzes the relationship between English language attainment and attitudes towards English among Chinese‐speaking (Canton dialect) secondary school students in Hong Kong. The subjects were Form IV (10th grade) students from both English‐medium and Chinese‐medium schools. Attitude measures were obtained by use of both direct and indirect means. Attitudes towards English were measured directly by means of a series of statements concerning the study and use of English to which subjects were asked to respond on five‐point scales. Indirectly, attitudes were measured with a scale of stereotypes modelled on the work of Spolsky. English attainment was assessed by a cloze procedure as suggested by Oller. Results of factor analysis of the direct attitude questions regarding English show that several of these attitude factors are significantly related to English attainment as measured by the cloze test. In some cases, however, the correlations were contrary to the directions that one might expect. In general, the statistical results of this study indicate that, for the population under study, the direct measure of attitude was a better predictor of English attainment than an indirect measure. The indirect measures obtained by asking Ss to rate (1) themselves, (2) themselves as they would like to be, (3) Chinese people, and (4) Westerners did produce some significant results, but these were not as strong indicators of language attainment as the results obtained from the direct measures.