An Investigation of Social Factors in Children’s Foreign Language Learning—A Case Study of Taiwanese Elementary School Students

Yen-Ju Hou^*

Shu-Zen Junior College of Medicine and Management, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

DOI: 10.4236/ojml.2015.52010                

Abstract

Social factors are believed to play a crucial role in language learning and have a major impact on second/foreign language proficiency (Ellis, 2003). The study was conducted to investigate Taiwanese children’s English learning motivation/attitude and the impacts of social factors of age, gender and social class on their English learning. Participants were 520 students from 6 elementary schools near Tainan City, divided into two groups as Urban Group (N = 271) and Rural Group (N = 249) based on their schools’ location. All were arranged to fill out a questionnaire dealing with their background and English learning motivation/attitude (Gardner, 1985). All available data were processed by SPSS 17.0 for descriptive, correlation, ANOVA, and predictive analyses. It was expected that the findings could provide more understanding about how social factors affect children’s second/foreign language learning, and to unlock the potential of the rural students when it comes to the tenth year of the official implementation of English teaching in Taiwanese elementary schools.

Keywords

Age, Gender, Social Class, Motivation, Attitude

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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