The language attitude of Islamic boarding school students toward English

Language attitude study has proven to reveal students’ success and failure in
learning language. Attitude is not innate, but learned. Students learn to grow
and improve their positive language attitudes towards foreign languages
through certain programs at schools. The aim of this research is to investigate
the language attitude of students in an Indonesian Islamic boarding school
towards English as a foreign Language and to describe why they have the
attitude. The respondents were 49 students of 2nd grade of senior high school
classes from HAC (High-Achieving Class) and LAC (Low-Achieving Class).
The design of this research was mixed method using explanatory sequential
design. To obtain the data, the instrument used was a questionnaire
consisting of cognitive, affective and conative components of language
attitudes. Interview was carried out to acquire the reason the students had the
attitudes. The finding was both HAC and LAC students’ language attitudes
were mostly positive (91.83%) in cognitive, affective and conative language
attitudes. Some (8.17%) had different language attitudes. They showed
positive language attitudes, but acquired low scores and showed negative
language attitudes, but acquired high scores. The interview revealed
this phenomenon.