The relationship between orientations, ethnocentrism and parental roles in second language acquisition among form four students of fully residential schools in Terengganu

Abstract

Based on a report by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) of the Prime Minister’s Department in 2013, it can be known that 1191 secondary schools in Malaysia had exceeded 23% of the failure rates in SPM English. Terengganu was one of the states highlighted and the statistic acquired from the Terengganu Education Department showed that about 5000 students failed in the subject in the past five years. Subsequent to this, a quantitative research was done to test the relationship of orientations, ethnocentrism and parental roles in English language acquisition of 275 students in five fully residential schools in Terengganu. A questionnaire adapted from the AMTB, MSLQ and GENE was used where the pilot test resulted in .788 Cronbach’s Alpha. The findings conclude that the students were integratively and instrumentally orientated. Although there were positive correlations between ethnocentrism and SLA, a majority of the students managed to acquire the L2 excellently. There was a mild positive relationship between parental roles and the achievement of students in English. Total institution could best explain this result as students had limited time spent with their parents. These findings could help improve students’ achievement in English in residential schools in other problematic states by using approaches that are integratively and instrumentally orientated.