Lebanese Students’ Attitudes toward English: An Exploratory Study

This is a study of high school students’ attitudes toward the English language in Lebanon. The purpose of this research is to assess the extent of use of English inside and outside the schools taking into consideration the attitude towards the language. Two schools were selected, one upper middle class and one lower middle class. This selection of different social classes aims at finding whether a student’s socio- economical background affects his/ her attitude toward the English language. The sample of respondents returned 52 questionnaires from the two schools. Although this sample was a modest one, it highlighted the differences in attitudes towards the English language, but these attitudes did not relate much to the socioeconomic class as much as personal preferences. However, what was salient in this research is how students from the lower middle class were more inclined to use English to raise their social status and both groups agreed that English is essential to their progress in life.