Affective characteristics of university students about English course and their attitude and thoughts toward the course

The aim of this research is to search affective characteristics of the students of Cyprus International University Foreign Languages School Preparatory Classes about English Course and their attitude and thoughts toward the course. The other aim of this research is to search affective characteristics of the students, their attitude and thoughts toward the course according to their faculty, gender, socio-economic level, high school type and high school success. 228 students at Preparation Classes of Cyprus International University in 2009-2010 Academic year form the sample of the research. The sample was chosen by suitable sampling method. "Attitude Scale about English Affective Area", which is used for measuring affective characteristics of the students, their attitude and thoughts toward the course, was developed by Gomleksiz (2003). Data collected in the research will be evaluated by "SPSS 15.0 for Windows". In the analysis of data, Kolmogorov-Sminornov test, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis H-test and Scheffe Meaningfulness Test are applied to test whether the score means show normal distribution or not. Meaningfulness is accepted as .05 in the interpretation of the findings. As a result of the research it was found that attitude toward English of the students were not affected by gender, high school type, socio-economic level, on the other hand their attitude was affected meaningfully by faculty, and high school success (Faculty(Chi-Square)=11,947 df=4 p<0,05; High School Success(Chi-Square)=11,728 df=2 p<0,05). (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.