The current paper presents the proposal draft for the research of the effect of social media on Saudi university students’ attitudes towards English as a foreign language. As students of the intensive English learning course display various stages of schooling, dissimilar devotions of education, and diverse ranks of preceding preparation, the research should observe different aspects, which establish the consequence of these variables on scholar approach.
It is widely debated that language education is observed as the foundation of the human way of life. Learning the language, even the foreign, provides a person with an opportunity to define their feelings, expectations, and imaginings.
In the framework of learning a foreign language, numerous influences impact the learning course, for example, inspiration, attitudes, apprehension, education attainments, abilities, intellect, age, temperaments, etc. The material of beginner’s attitude is recognized as one of the most significant issues that have an effect on learning a foreign language.
The research aims to respond to the following questions:
- What are the attitudes of Saudi university students towards taking an English course in the framework of their social, mental and emotive features?
- Is there any statistically substantial impact of the social media towards Saudi university students’ attitudes towards learning English language?
- Is there any statistically substantial alteration in Saudi university students’ attitudes towards learning English language and the impact of the social media by the area of study?
- Is there any statistically substantial alteration in Saudi university students’ attitudes towards learning English language and the impact of the social media by the period of education?
In order to gather the essential information, a five-point Likert scope approach questionnaire and the interviews with the students of the university in Saudi Arabia will be applied. The scope approach elaborates thirty-two matters. ‘Language Attitude Scale’, which is a Likert sort measure of five points, is directed to every student to conclude whether there was any connection concerning their attitude and achievement and the impact of social media on the attitudes towards learning English.
The group of participants will consist of 100 students, 52 individuals of which are (52%) men and 48 individuals (48%) women, unsystematically selected from diverse universities in the part of Saudi Arabia that is reachable according to my area of living. There are 32 scholars (32%) of the first year, 38 scholars (38%) in the second year, and the part of the third year scholars is 30 (30%).
The chosen participants represented three different areas of schoolwork: Basic Sciences (BS), Life Sciences (LS), and Social Sciences (SS). There were 34 scholars of the Basic Sciences (34%), 34 scholars of the Life Sciences (34%), and 32 scholars of the Social Sciences (32%).
As the majority of the universities in Saudi Arabia implement the separate education for males and females, diverse universities will be selected to characterize both sexes’ attitudes towards taking an English course and the social media effect on the attitudes of both genders.
The design of this research is combined; it is qualitative and quantitative. To be more precise, the analysis is eloquent and inferential in addition. Therefore, a modified questionnaire will be implemented as an assessing instrument.
The participants will be asked to provide the responses to every question of the survey in an honest manner, providing their own insights about their attitudes towards taking an English course as a foreign language in their universities in the framework of the demonstrative, intellectual and interactive features of attitude along with their demographic summary, for example, their sexual characteristics, period and area of education.
The assessing instrument is represented by an attitude questionnaire that aims its attention on the attitudes towards taking the English course as a foreign language and the social media effect on it. In addition, the attitude questionnaire focuses on exploring the alterations in the applicants’ attitudes by their demographic facts. The questions are partially adjusted from the similar survey examination conducted in a research by Boonrangsri.
Other questions were possessed from Attitude and Incentive Examination Battery planned by Gardner thirty years ago. Additionally, there will be several matters founded on the academics’ practices in schooling English as a foreign language.
In general, there will be 40 questions regarding learning attitudes in the framework of demonstrative, intellectual and interactive features of mentality and the social media effect on the attitudes. The items will be conducted according to a five-point Likert scope measure from point 1: Intensely Disagree to point 5: Intensely Agree.
The received material will be evaluated by the SPSS Program targeting to response to the investigation items quantitatively. In order to give a response to the first study inquiry, evocative indicators will be directed to define the occurrence, the mean, the alteration and the average aberration of the received material.
Moreover, the liberated sample T-test will be directed to reply to the second study inquiry. Furthermore, the One-way ANOVA examination assessment will be the other kind of numerical investigation to inspect the third and fourth study inquiries.
The study will examine the Saudi university students’ attitudes toward taking an English course as a foreign language and the impact of social media on it in relations to the interactive, cerebral, and demonstrative characteristics of attitude. Moreover, the study will discover whether there is some important alteration in the scholar attitudes toward the learning of the foreign language founded on their demographic summaries, such as sexual category, area, and period of studying.