This paper is an exploration of Bangladeshi college students’ attitude towards English language learning. Learners’ attitude towards any language can be either positive or negative. Students with positive attitudes put more efforts into the job of learning a foreign language and therefore learn it better, faster and easier than those with negative attitudes towards the same language. Therewith, gender could be one of the factors influencing students’ attitudes towards ESL / EFL learning. The present piece of research was undertaken on 50 Bangladeshi college (higher secondary) students with a view to finding their behavioral and emotional attitudes towards English language learning and the study came up with a finding that the students hold positive attitude and there is no statistically significant difference in attitudes between males and females. In this research a questionnaire survey on participants’ behavioral and emotional attitudes was carried out and the colleted data were put in SPSS and thereafter the statistical results were interpreted. A Mann-Whitney U Test was performed to get the result of the difference of attitude on the basis of gender. The findings are expected to add significance to the body of research done in the relevant area and help teachers and syllabus designers re-set the pedagogical principles of English language learning and teaching at college level in Bangladesh in particular.
Keywords: EFL Learner., ESL/ EFL learning, Gender, attitude
