The relationship between education faculty freshmen students' attitudes towards distance education and towards English course

The aim of the this study is to investigate the relationship between attitudes of Education Faculty first grade students' towards distance education and their attitudes towards English course. The population of the research is composed of 524 students (female: 348, male: 176) at Abant İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Education. In the present study, data related to students' attitudes towards distance education were collected through the Attitude Scale towards Distance Education developed by Ağır (2007) and has two different subscales (Advantages of distance education and disadvantages of distance education). Data about the students' attitudes towards English were collected through the one-dimensional Scale of Attitudes towards English, originally developed by Altunay (2004). Data collected from the students were analyzed by using SPSS 15 and AMOS statistical programs. To analyze the data collected as independent-samples t test, One-Way ANOVA, Pearson Moments Correlation Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analyses were conducted in order to answer the research questions appropriately. According the findings obtained from the research results, it is seen that attitudes of students' towards distance education were seen a little more from mediumlevel. No difference was seen both attitudes of students' towards distance education regarding gender and graduated high school. There was difference between attitudes of students' towards distance education regarding their departments. Students who thinks distance education has advantages are departments of computer and education technology, science teaching, primary education and primary mathematics education, students who thinks distance education has disadvantages are departments of music, mental disabilities education, guidance and psychological counseling, social sciences and preschool education. However, students' attitudes towards English course have been also found above from medium-level, a significant difference has been discovered between gender and attitudes. Female students have shown more positive attitude to English course than male students. It has been observed that there have been differences regarding to graduated high school, general high school students have higher attitudes level towards english course than science, anatolian and foreign language intensive high schools students. Differences are obtained between departments and attitudes of students. Primary mathematics education students' attitudes are the lowest when compared the other departments, on the other hand, art, music, primary education, mental disabilities education and guidance and psychological counseling students' attitudes are the highest of the others. Finally, it has been found that there has been a positive but low-level significant relationship between attitudes of Education Faculty first grade students' towards distance education and their attitudes towards English course. Keywords: Distance education, English lesson, Attitudes towards distance education, Attitudes towards English course