ESOL 210 / 1665223 III. Method.

Subjects The population of interest for this research was Korean tertiary students. A total of 311 freshmen from a private Korean university were asked randomly out of convenience and availability to answer a 5-paged survey form on attitudes towards English. These students were selected from 3 faculties namely Humanities (54%), Commerce (30.2%) and Law (13.5%). All the students selected were expected to

have Korean education qualification, as it was compulsory for them to have studied 6 years of English before enrolling in University. Materials and Procedures The instrument used to conduct this research was a 5 pages survey form. This form was given to students of freshman year on their arrival in University. The answers for this survey were to depict attitudes of the Korean students with English in comparison to their level of English proficiency background. The survey forms were divided into 3 parts, each respectively covers the aspect on biographical information, student evaluation of English aptitude and on why study English? focusing on motivation for English study. In the Part 3 of the survey form, students were given a set of 12 reasons that were tailored to suit Korean setting. This questionnaire is a modified version of Copper and Fishman (1977, p. 252) study done on high school students in Jerusalem. Then, the students were instructed to number 1-3 if they found it to be top 3, the most important reasons and number 10-12 for the least important reasons. Next, to analyze the data collected, the totals of each question were calculated by adding the positive and negative type of reasons to get the scale of most important reason to the least important reasons on why students were not motivated to learn English in Korea. However, in the report only the primary and less significant selections were discussed in depth. The data from the survey were then coded and transferred to a spreadsheet. Both in the completed surveys and researcher coding the scoring order used were

ESOL 210 / 1665223 that the smaller numbers hold the higher scores and as the number got bigger the scores got lower. For example, no. 1 is a better score in comparison to no. 4, which is seen as the lowest. V. Discussion This study aimed to investigate the attitudes of Korean university students to learning English. It was conducted by using four main questions, which focuses on the social factors that exposes students to English, the self-rating of their skills in English, the students motivation level to studying English and the students perspectives on the usefulness of English Language. The findings for the research portrays the four main aims through the questions posed. The first question inquires the students previous experience with English. One of the main finding for this question shows that only a small fraction of students out of the 311 students surveyed have parental involvement with English. Owing to this statement, it is clear that Korean students lack the needed exposure in learning English, which limits their motivation, as they are not encouraged and modeled by their parents and there is no need for them to practice speaking English in daily basis. In addition to that, the second question focuses on how the students rate their skills in English. From the results, it is evident that these students rated their reading and writing skills higher than their understanding and speaking. The reason for it might have been the grammar drilling system used by the Eastern education system, which solely focuses on accuracy more than fluency. Besides that, the ability to speak might not be as important as the capability to read and write in their country. Next, the primary motivation of the students to study English was inquired. In the findings, the instrumental reason, easier to get along in other countries scored higher followed by the integrative and personal reasons. Instrumental reasons were rated higher because the needs of English in Korea might have been limited to the utilitarian value of English than that for their individual development or satisfaction. Lastly, the fourth question deals with the usefulness of English for various purposes. From the table created, a clear division could be seen. The reasons rated higher were in favour of commercial usage while the least useful

ESOL 210 / 1665223 reasons were related to domestic usage of English. Koreans are proud of their own mother tongue, as a consequence, they might have preferred to use Korean in private and use English when it is only needed. However, there are several limitations evident in the research. One of the weaknesses of this study is that it surveys only three faculties, which does not show a great variety of how future career affects their choices as it only focuses on students from law, commerce and humanities. Besides that, for the second question posed on self-rating of English skills, the students were not asked to reason their responses. From this research, teachers in Korea could improvise their teaching technique by encouraging and promoting the usage of English in their students daily life. The teachers could ask the parents to provide English rich setting by letting the students to watch English programs or listen to English radio channels. Besides that, lessons taught should not solely focus on reading and writing skills. More exercises on speaking and understanding should be done too. Furthermore, learning English should not be seen as a compulsory need to gain something externally. This is because intrinsic need motivates the students more and encourages them to take initiative to master the language. In future, more research on Korean university students motivation from a larger and variant sample should be used to get a better understanding of their motivation level over the wide range of course interest spectrum. Moreover, for the question on self-rating of English skills, an additional question should be inserted to justify why they chose a particular reason. Overall, the results of the study suggest that these four elements play a major role in determining and reasoning the students motivation in learning English. Therefore, the motivation of Korean students for learning English is subjective to the students experience, skills that they are confident in using, their motivation for studying English and the usefulness of English for them. (620 words)