The Effects of Using a Guidance Activities Package to Develop Positive Attitude Towards Learning English of High School Students in Private English Language School in Nan Province

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) compare students' positive attitudes toward learning English before and after implementing a guidance activity package and 2) compare the positive attitudes toward learning English between students who participated in the guidance activities and those who received conventional instruction. This research employed a quasi-experimental design, utilizing both experimental and control groups with pre-test and post-test measurements. The population was 300 high school students enrolled in a private English language school in Nan Province. The representative student comprised 65 students who participated in a guidance activity program to enhance their positive attitudes toward learning English. Initially, they showed a moderate level of positive attitudes. From this group, simple random sampling was used to assign 20 students to the experimental group and another 20 to the control group. The research tools included: 1) a positive attitude toward English learning assessment, 2) a set of guidance activities package designed to enhance positive attitudes toward learning English, and 3) conventional instruction. The statistical methods employed for data analysis were mean, standard deviation, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the Mann-Whitney U test.

            Research findings revealed that: 1) after participating in the guidance activities package, the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in positive attitudes toward learning English at the .05; and 2) the post-intervention,

the experimental group exhibited significantly more positive attitudes toward English language learning than the control group with statistical significance at .05