Natural Science and Social Science Student’s Expression of Attitude toward English Class: an Appraisal Analysis

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the attitude of natural science and social science students toward their English class, as well as the evaluative language employed in expressing their opinions toward English class. The study employs Martin & White's (2005) appraisal framework to analyze the language used. The participants in the study consist of 60 high school students, with 30 students from the Natural Science major and 30 students from the Social Sciences major, who were selected using the purposive sampling method. The students were requested to write a narrative text outlining their experiences and perceptions of the English class they attended for one semester. The analysis result show that both science and social science students tend to give positive evaluations towards the English class they attend. However, science students are more inclined to give positive evaluations compared to social science students.