38 towards the methods used in teaching learning of English writing skills in
secondary schools in West Pokot County Kenya. The data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed by use of mean and t-test. The study revealed that
both teachers and students had negative perception towards methods used in teaching learning of English writing skiils and this was not statiscally different.
that For instance, İnal, et al 2003 assert that identifying the attitude of the students is important for both the learner and the academic program.
Al- Tamimi, et al 2009 states that attitudes towards a certain language affect a learner‟s motivation in learning that language. Buschenhofen 1998
affirms that educators not only hold attitudes highly accountable for the degree of learners responses, but they also believe that they predict achievement and
contribute to it. According to statement above, attitude is perception which can be defined as regarding something mentally in specified manner. Despagne
2010 elaborates on the relation between perceptions and attitudes, explaining that perceptions is centered on the inner unconscious feelings from which
students ‟ attitudes towards learning a language emanate. Thus, attitudes can be
defined as the behavioral outcomes of perceptions.
2.7 Perception in English Teaching Learning
Despagne 2010:55 states that perceptions towards language will be influenced mostly through our parents, teachers, and peers perceptions, which in
turn will be defines based on the social the social context in which we are living. He also explains that perceptions of the language are at the origin of languages
attitudes, areas which have been studied separately, Despagne 2010: 58. Richards 1994: 5 defines them as the informational attitudes, values, theories
39 and assumptions about teaching and learning which teachers build up over time
and bring with them to the classroom. Wenden 1991 cites in Ziyad 2015:139 referes to the many ways in
which attitudes have been conceptualised in the literature: as learned motivations, as evaluations, as valued beliefs, as responses oriented towards either
approaching or avoiding a situation, as what one believes to be acceptable thus pointing to the fact that attitudes have
1. a cognitive component, i.e. beliefs, perceptions or information about an
object 2.
an evaluative component, in the sense that the object of an attitude can evoke feelings of pleasure or displeasure, acceptance or refusal, agreement
or disagreement 3.
a behavioural component, i.e. they predispose or induce people to make decisions and then act in certain ways.
It is precisely this interplay between the cognitive and the affective areas of personality that explains how beliefs and attitudes have been proved to affect
intentions, decisions and behaviour in the classroom. Beliefs and attitudes thus act as a powerful hidden curriculum. The real curriculum that is enacted and
experienced by teachers and students beyond and underneath the official array of programmes, curricula and syllabuses.
The role of beliefs and attitudes becomes even more relevant to teaching and learning when we turn to a major change which has been investing school
systems in the past few decades, i.e. the gradual shift towards competences as the basic objectives of a teachinglearning programme. The emphasis on competence
40 development in school reforms constitutes a very ambitious perspective precisely
because it goes well beyond the mere assimilation of knowledge or the training of skills to include a third dimension which has to do with the specific ways in
which individuals make sense of knowledge and skills and become prepared to use them in specific contexts beyond the individual differences which include
beliefs and attitudes together with such crucial individual variables as motivations, values, cognitive styles and personality.
A definition proposed by Shaw and Wright 1967 stated that perception
is relatively enduring system of affective, evaluative reactions based upon and reflecting concepts or beliefs which have been learned about the characteristics of
a social object or class of social objects. The latter definition implies that perception attitudes are not innate Shaw and Wright,1967:14. They are
regarded as products of social structure. It stated that attitudes is a syndrome of response consistency with regard to a set of social objects.
2.8 Theoritical Framework
