Teachers’ Linguistic Attitudes and Their Approach to Lithuanian Language Education During Lessons in all Subjects

Abstract

Linguistic attitudes of teachers in different subjects are one of the main factors shaping the school’s linguistic environment. This paper analyses teachers’ linguistic attitudes and their attitudes towards pupils’ Lithuanian language education across all subject areas.
The study shows that teachers’ evaluations of the prestige of the Lithuanian language were contradictory (positive and negative evaluations were almost equally distributed). There is a consistent view that the problem of language prestige is a collective responsibility of all and that correctness is an essential condition for language prestige. Teachers appeared to observe the norms of the common language when giving lessons. They are motivated not only by formal requirements but also by deep inner attitudes: professional responsibility, patriotism, and the attitude that correct language is an essential quality of an educated person. It is recognised that teachers of all subjects have a responsibility to take care of their pupils’ language, not only those of the Lithuanian language.
Although positive attitudes and a deep value-based approach to language are revealed, and it is argued that the responsibility for developing pupils’ language lies with all teachers, in practice these principles are only partially respected: they often correct pupils’ mistakes in their written language and tend to develop their spoken language, but almost a third of them never take into account mistakes made in their assessments. This means that the school lacks clearly defined criteria for assessing pupils’ linguistic expression in all subjects.
The study also highlighted another problem: most teachers do not improve their language skills by attending language training courses and seminars, even though they claim to lack some language skills.
The survey analysis concludes that teachers are aware of the value of the language, but there is a gap between attitudes and actual behaviour – language education is not consistently practised in the classroom. The more experienced and qualified a teacher is, and the more he or she appreciates the importance of correct language, the more involved he or she becomes in language education.