Afghan undergraduate students’ attitudes towards learning English

Abstract The study aims to investigate the cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes of Afghan students towards learning English. It also studies the differences in the attitudes of the students by their demographic profile, i.e., gender, age, first language, field of study, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers. The data were collected from 210 randomly selected students from Takhar University through a questionnaire with 30 close-ended items. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Descriptive statistics, sample T-test, and one-way ANOVA test were employed to answer the research questions. The findings show that the students have positive cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes towards learning English. The study also reveals that there is not a statistically significant difference in the attitudes of students by their gender, age, first language, and field of study. However, the attitude of students with access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers is more positive than that of the students without access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers.

Afghan undergraduate students' attitudes towards learning English Sayeed Naqibullah Orfan 1* Abstract: The study aims to investigate the cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes of Afghan students towards learning English. It also studies the differences in the attitudes of the students by their demographic profile, i.e., gender, age, first language, field of study, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers. The data were collected from 210 randomly selected students from Takhar University through a questionnaire with 30 close-ended items. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Descriptive statistics, sample T-test, and one-way ANOVA test were employed to answer the research questions. The findings show that the students have positive cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes towards learning English. The study also reveals that there is not a statistically significant difference in the attitudes of students by their gender, age, first language, and field of study. However, the attitude of students with access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers is more positive than that of the students without access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sayeed Naqibullah Orfan is a senior lecturer at Takhar University, Taliqan, Takhar, Afghanistan. He teaches linguistics, translation, and teaching methods, and he carries out research on and off campus. He obtained his Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA. He also holds a TESOL certificate from Montclair State University. He was co-president of GLAMS (Graduate Linguistics Association of Montclair State) in Montclair State University from 2014 to 2016. He is a Fulbright scholar. He won one of the grants of Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund of the US Department of State in 2017 whose main goal was to boost enrollment of Afghan women at universities. He is an activist and advocate of gender equality in Afghanistan. His areas of research are language attitudes, language and gender, learning in higher education, outcomebased education, and student centered learning.

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Attitude is a person's feeling about an item. The purpose of this research is to investigate the attitudes of Afghan university students towards learning English. It also aims to explore whether the students' gender, age, first language, field of study, English learning experience in English language centers, and access to the Internet affect their attitudes towards learning English. The findings show that the students have a positive attitude towards learning English. They also reveal that the students' gender, age, first language, and field of study do not have any effect on students' attitudes. However, their access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers have affected their attitudes. That is, the attitude of students with access to the Internet is more positive than that of the students without access to the Internet was. Moreover, students with English learning experience in English language centers carry more positive attitudes than students with no English learning experience do.

Introduction
There is not a consensus on the definition of the word attitude in social psychology and sociolinguistics literature (Ajzen, 1988;Ryan & Giles, 1982). Baker (1992) discusses the original meaning of attitude. He believes that the original meaning of attitude is different from its current meaning. It originally meant a posture in a picture or drama. According to Eiser (1986), "to say that we have a certain attitude towards something or someone is a shorthand way of saying that we have feelings or thoughts of like or dislike, approval or disapproval, attraction or repulsion, trust or distrust and so on".
Language attitudinal studies have different focuses. Some studies seek attitudes of a group of individuals towards language itself. In such types of studies, the subjects are asked about the richness, poorness, beauty, ugliness, sweetness, and harshness of a language or a variety of a language. However, most often language attitude is broadly defined not only to include attitudes towards language but also to include attitudes towards speakers of a specific language or variety. Some researchers define it even more broadly to include attitude towards language maintenance and language planning (Fasol, 1984). Language attitude is an umbrella term that includes a wide range of studies concerned with a number of specific attitudes. Baker (1992:29-30) lists the followings as the main areas: (a) attitude towards language variation, dialect, and speech style; (b) attitude towards learning a new language; (c) attitude towards a specific minority language; (d) attitude towards language groups, communities,; and minorities; (e) attitude towards language lessons; (f) attitude of parents towards language lessons; (g) attitude towards the uses of a specific language; (h) attitude towards language preference.
Attitude towards an item (e.g., language) has three aspects: cognitive, affective, and behavioral (Baker, 1992). The cognitive element refers to values, thoughts, and beliefs of a person towards a language (Matsuda, 2000). In other words, it deals with the beliefs of learners about the knowledge of the target language they learn and their understanding during learning the target language. The affective aspect is based on the feelings and emotions of a person towards a language. Rajecki (1982, p. 34) states, "The affective component is essentially the evaluation element in an attitude, on the basis of which attitude holder judges the objects to be good or bad". It is believed that the learners' feelings and emotions, which are included in the affective domain of learning, affect their perspective and attitudes towards the target language (Choi and Troudi, 2006). The behavioral aspect refers to behaviorally intended acts towards a language (Baker, 1992;Mastuda, 2000). It involves how a person behaves in a specific situation. These three elements of attitudes are interrelated. That is, positive belief towards a language brings about positive affect, which leads to positive behavior. However, attitudes towards certain items may depend on an attitudinal element more than another does. In other words, some people may have a stronger cognitive attitude towards a language than affective or behavioral attitude.
Attitude is considered an important factor in learning a language in particular English in this research. A number of studies emphasized the importance of students' attitudes towards learning English. According to Weinburgh (1998), attitude towards learning affects behaviors such as speaking a foreign language. Young (2006, p. 480) states that "learners' positive attitudes may lead to increased motivation, which, in turn, may lead to successful attainment of proficiency due to increased input and interaction". In another study, Tella, Indoshi, and Othuon (2010) found a correlation between negative attitude towards learning English and poor performance of students in English. That is, they reported that negative attitude towards learning English was the most affective and psychological factor that led to poor performance of students in English. This study explores the attitudes of Afghan undergraduate students towards learning English, considering the three aspects of attitude, i.e., cognitive, affective, and behavioral. In addition, it attempts to determine the effects of students' gender, age, first language, field of study, access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers on their attitude towards learning English.

Literature review
There are many factors that influence learning a foreign language, i.e., English. The attitude of the learners towards learning English is one of the major factors, which has been widely studied. According to Smith (1971), it is the attitudes of students that make life easier or more difficult in a foreign language classroom. Moreover, Csızér and Dörnyei (2005) consider attitude as a crucial factor in learning a foreign language. Nunan (2000) believes that the attitude of learners along with the skills and strategies they use determine whether they can absorb and understand the complexities of language. Furthermore, Açıkgöz (1992) asserts that a positive attitude of students can boost their success and Gardner (1985) considers attitude as an element of motivation. Gardner and Lysynchuk (1990) studied the role of attitudes in second-language acquisition. Their studies revealed a number of findings. One of the findings is that positive attitudes and better motivation results in better proficiency in the target language. Their findings also showed that positive attitudes towards the target language help the learner to obtain higher proficiency in it. Moreover, the type of attitudes (positive or negative), the learners hold towards the target language or the culture of the target language, determines their level of involvement and engagement in the learning process of a target language. Bagheri and Taghi (2015) studied the relationship between attitudes of 155 medical EFL learners and their English proficiency. The results demonstrated that there was a small positive correlation between medical students' attitudes towards learning English and their English proficiency. Feenstra (1967) and Gardner (1968) studied the role of parents in their children's success in learning a second language. The results revealed that parental attitudes towards the community, whose language the child is learning, affect the child's attitudes. They, in turn, influence second language learning. The attitudes of the children towards the target language community are essential in motivating them to learn the language. For example, Dari-speaking parents have positive attitudes towards Turkish community. These parents transfer their positive attitudes towards Turkish to their children by encouraging them to do well in the Turkish class. They make sure that their children do their homework assigned by their Turkish instructor. Such positive attitudes of children towards Turkish motivate them to work hard to learn Turkish.
A large number of studies have been conducted in many different countries to seek the attitudes of students towards learning English. The findings of most of the studies show that students hold positive attitudes towards learning English (e.g., Ahmed, 2015;Almahmoud, 2012;Al Noursi, 2013;Goktepe, 2014;;Khalid, 2016;Muthanna & Miao, 2015;Sayadian & Lashkarian, 2010;Siddiq et al., 2019). Instrumental function of English (e.g., job opportunities) was the main reason for positive attitudes. However, some studies show that students carry negative attitudes towards learning English (e.g., Abidin, Pour-Mohammadi, & Alzwari, 2012;Al-Zahrani, 2008;Lin & Warden, 1998). These studies argue that instructional and traditional techniques used by English teachers are the major reasons for negative attitudes of students towards learning English.
A number of studies explored whether gender played any role in the attitudes of students towards learning English. The results of some studies showed that gender impacted students' attitudes. For example, the findings of the studies by Abu-Snoubar (2017), Gomleksiz (2010), Kesgin and Mehmet (2015), Eshghinejad (2016) and Paradewari and Mbato (2018) showed that females had more positive attitudes towards learning English than male students did. Saranraj et al. (2016) studied the motivational factors and gender differences in learning English as a second language. The participants were 43 students from VIT University, India. It showed that males were instrumentally more motivated than females. On the other hand, other studies revealed that gender did not impact the attitudes of students towards learning English (Ababneh, 2016;Bagheri & Taghi, 2015;Fakeye, 2010;Malekmahmudi & Malekmahmudi, 2019;Nduwimana, 2019).
Regarding the age variable, Akay and Toraman (2015) studied the attitudes of 293 students towards English grammar and the effect of their age on their attitudes. They classified the participants into three age categories (17-19, 20-22, and 23+). The findings showed that there were not any significant differences in the attitudes of different age groups. In another study, Elkilic (2016) studied the attitudes of 80 EFL students in Kafkas University towards speaking skills and classes. He also explored whether age of the participants had any significant impact on their attitudes. The findings demonstrated that age did not have any effect on the attitudes of the respondents towards learning English.
With respect to the field of study, Nduwimana (2019) studied the attitudes of 65 students of pure sciences the University of Burundi towards learning English. He also explored whether the field of study of the participants had any impact on their attitudes. The respondents were majoring in math, physics, chemistry, and biology. The findings showed that there was not a significant difference in the attitudes of students with a different field of study. Similarly, Abu-Snoubar (2017) studied the attitudes of students of Al-Balqa Applied University towards learning as a foreign language. He also investigated whether the participants' field of study affected their attitudes. The findings revealed that the participants' field of study did not have any significant impact on their attitudes.
The Internet is one of the most dynamic sources that carries the largest repository of information, which can be accessed instantly. It is the most important tool for language learners especially English ones (Conole, 2008). Students can have access to a large number of English learning resources if they have access to the Internet. These English learning resources can be used to improve different English skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students can also have access to authentic English learning materials on the Internet (Yang & Chen, 2007). Unfortunately, the author could find no article that explored whether access to the Internet impacted EFL students' attitudes towards learning English.
Regarding the first language variable, Perveen and Awan (2018) studied the attitudes of 240 students of public schools based in Multan City towards learning Urdu (national language), foreign language, English, and regional languages such as Punjabi, Saraiki, Pashto, Brahavi, and Balochi. They reported that the participants had a positive attitude towards learning English. The findings also showed that there were not any conflicting loyalties about the status of languages. Moreover, the participants held all the languages in high esteem.
English learning experience in English language centers implies that students who studied English in English language centers had spent more time on learning English than those who only studied English at school and at the university. Yu (2010) studied the attitudes of 398 Chinese college students towards learning English. He also investigated the attitudes in relation to a number of factors one of which was the length of time students spent on learning English. The findings revealed that the longer time students studied English, the more likely they had positive attitudes towards learning English.
A very small number of research have been carried out to explore the attitudes of Afghan students towards learning English. One studied (Manap, Othman, & Ramli, 2018) the motivation of Afghan students regarding learning English while another one (Siddiq et al., 2019) studied the attitudes and motivation of Afghan students towards ESP (English for Specific Purpose) and EGP (English for General Purpose). However, they did not address the three aspects of attitudes and the differences in the respondents' attitudes in relation to their gender, age, first language, field of study, Internet access, and English learning experience in English language centers.

Problem statement
Despite the significance of the attitude of learners towards learning English and its influence on their attainment, the role of EFL students' attitudes towards learning English has not received any attention in the context of Afghanistan. The current research attempts to eliminate this gap in the literature. Furthermore, this research makes a contribution to an understanding of learning and teaching English in Afghanistan, and it contributes to the growing body of literature on the spread of English. It also offers insights for language attitudinal studies on a number of variables including gender, age, first language, field of study, Internet access, and English learning experience in language centers in EFL context.

Purpose of the study
The main goal of the study is to investigate the attitudes of Afghan students towards learning English in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects. Another aim is to study the differences in the attitudes of the Afghan students by their gender, age, first language, field of study, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers. The study attempts to answer the following research questions.
(1) What are the attitudes of Afghan students towards learning English in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of attitude?
(2) Are there statistically significant differences in the attitudes of Afghan students by their gender, age, field of study, first language, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers?

Context of the study
Afghanistan is a multilingual country where more than 35 languages are spoken. Dari, Pashto, and Uzbek are the languages with a large number of speakers. Dari and Pashto are the official languages (Afghanistan, 2004). Dari is used in all the domains of the Afghan society from politics to education to business, and it serves as the lingua franca of the country (Central Intelligence Agency, 2019; Glassman, 1971b). Although Pashto has enjoyed the support of the Afghan government, it is little propagated among speakers of other languages particularly Dari. It is the language of politics, business, and it is the medium of instruction at schools and universities where the majority of students speak it (Central Intelligence Agency, 2019; Coyle, 2014;David, 2014).
English is learned as a foreign language in Afghanistan because Afghan English learners do not widely use English in their immediate social context. (Saville-Troike & Barto, 2012, p. 4). According to Coleman (2019), English is used mainly in four areas in Afghanistan: to study abroad, to connect with people outside the country, to provide translation and interpretation services, and it is used in the media (i.e., social networks). Moreover, it is regarded as a foreign language in the strategic plan of Afghan Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE, 2016). English in Afghanistan belongs to the expanding circle of Kachru's concentric circles of Englishes in the world. The expanding circle refers to countries where English is learned as a foreign language including Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and an increasing number of other countries (Kachru, 1988).
English has been one of the major courses in Afghan public schools and universities for years. For example, students were required to take a foreign language course (English, Urdu, or Turkish) in Habibia School, which was established in 1903. The instructional materials of most faculties of Kabul University were primarily in English, German, French, Arabic, or Russian in 1932 (the first university established in Afghanistan) (Sherzad, 2017). The use of English increased gradually after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in 1989. It soared up dramatically after the collapse of the Taliban Regime at the end of 2001 particularly after the American troops and international organizations arrived in the country that brought the supremacy of western culture (Azami, 2009).
Having recognized the significance of English as the language of development and modernization, Hamid Karzai (the former president) suggested English to be the medium of instruction for engineering and medical faculties in 2012 (Afghanpaper, 2012). Since then, steps have been taken to use English as the medium of Instruction. For instance, the medium of instruction for some courses in Engineering Faculty of Kabul University is English now and it will be transitioned to English for other courses gradually (Kabul University, 2017). Kabul University of Medical Sciences has already started transitioning to English as a medium of instruction (Kabul University of Medical Sciences, 2016). Ministry of Higher Education has planned 18 major goals for its strategic plan 2016-2020, one of which addresses English as a medium of instruction in higher education of Afghanistan (MoHE, 2016).
Currently, English education begins from fourth grade in public schools and continues through university. English is the only foreign language taught as a required course in Afghan public schools (Ahmad, 2016). Moreover, English plays a crucial role in academic employment and promotion in higher education. Currently, candidates of instructorship in public universities have to pass an English proficiency test before taking the specialized test in order to work as an instructor at the university. Candidates for master's programs in Afghan public universities have to pass an English test as well. Lecturers and professors of public universities need their English proficiency certified by an accredited English body before they promote to a higher academic rank. The Ministry of Higher Education funds research projects of professors whose proposals are written only in English.
In addition, English is important in Afghan economy and social media. English has become one of the major requirements for almost all types of jobs. Afghans with better proficiency in English receive a monthly salary, which is 10 to 15 times higher than that of those who work for governmental organizations (Alamyar, 2017). English is widely used by Afghan politicians and journalists on social networks mainly twitter. GIZ-Afghanistan (2014) studied social media use in Kabul and six Northern provinces. A total of 1184 individuals participated in the study. It revealed that English was the most prominent language in social media use. Over 60% of the participants used English to access the social networks.

Research design
The design of this research is quantitative in nature. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data. A questionnaire was used as a measuring instrument. The respondents were required to express their responses to 30 items which sought their attitudes towards learning English in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects, and their demographic profile, i.e., gender, age, first language, field of study, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers.

Participants
The participants of the study were 210 non-English major undergraduate students selected randomly from Takhar University, which has more than 7,000 students. Half of the respondents (105) were female students. Eighty-seven (41.4%) participants were between 15 and 20 years of age while 123 (58.6%) were between 21 and 25. The respondents were speakers of three different languages (Dari, Pashto, and Uzbek). As Table 1 shows, the majority of the participants were Dari speakers (66.2%). The participants were majoring in different fields in seven major faculties of Takhar University, i.e., engineering, economics, law, agriculture, language and literature, education, and Sharia (Islamic

Data collection instrument
A review of the literature was carried out in order to design the research questionnaire. The questionnaire items were partly adapted from Attitude and Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) designed by Gardner (1985). Other items were taken from the attitude questionnaire test used by Boonrangsri et al. (2004) and Abidin et al. (2012). The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part sought demographic information of the participants. The second part consisted of 30 statements that aimed to elicit the attitudes of the respondents towards learning English. The participants were asked to indicate to what extent they agreed or disagreed on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree). The author translated the English questionnaire into Dari (the medium of instruction at Takhar University). The reason for presenting the questionnaire to students in Dari was threefold. First, many of the participants were not fluent enough in English to read and make sense of the items in the questionnaire. Second, the language of presentation would probably influence their responses. Furthermore, it was presented in Dari to avoid the possibility of misunderstanding the questionnaire items in English.

Validity
The questionnaire was given to four of my colleagues in the Department of English for revision and improvement. After receiving their feedback on the questionnaire, the problematic items were recognized and edited. The author translated the English questionnaire into Dari. The Dari questionnaire was given to three faculty members in the Department of Dari for revision. The Dari questionnaire was modified based on their feedback.

Reliability
According to Cohen et al. (2000), the wording of the questionnaire is very crucial and for the questionnaire to be successful, the researcher must carry out a pretest (pilot). A pilot study was carried out with 21 students randomly selected from Takhar University to measure the reliability of the 30 items of the Dari questionnaire. They were required to respond to 30 items on a 5-point Likert Scale. Using SPSS version 26.0, the reliability analysis of questionnaire items was carried out. The analysis showed that the value of Cronbach's alpha was 0.838 (Table 2). The questionnaire items were appropriate for the research.

Data collection procedure
The data were collected from students at Takhar University. The researcher arranged 10 sessions with participants with the approval and coordination of deans of faculties. He explained the research and its purpose to the participants in each session followed by asking them if they were willing to take part in the research. They were presented with a Dari questionnaire along with a consent form. They were required to express their agreement for participating in the research by reading and signing the consent form attached to the questionnaire. They were made sure of the confidentiality of their responses. The participants were asked to read the instructions and complete the questionnaire. The researcher informed that there were no true or false responses, what mattered was their response to each given statement. He also encouraged the respondents to ask about any instruction or item that seemed unclear or ambiguous to them. It took the respondents 10-15 min to fill out the questionnaire.

Data analysis
The data were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 26.0 to answer research questions quantitatively. Descriptive statistics were employed to determine the frequency, the mean, and the standard deviation of the data. The independent sample T-test was carried out to explore the differences between two groups of the participants (e.g., gender, age). Moreover, oneway ANOVA test was carried out to explore the differences in the attitudes of more than two groups.

Students' overall attitudes towards learning English
The results of descriptive analysis reveal that the overall mean score of the respondents' attitude towards learning English is 3.7952 (SD = 0.49745). This result shows that the participants have a positive attitude towards learning English (Table 3). Moreover, the mean scores of students' attitudes in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects are different. According to table 4, the mean score of the cognitive aspect is 3.7780 (SD = 0.58467) while that of the affective aspect is 3.7515 (SD = 0.62494). Furthermore, the mean score of the behavioral aspect is 3.8574 (SD = 0.57370).

The cognitive aspect of attitude
The first 10 questionnaire items elicited the cognitive attitude of the respondents towards learning English. As Table 4 shows, cognitive aspect has the second highest mean score (M = 3.7780, SD = 0.58467). Over 75% of the respondents (Table 5) have strongly agreed and agreed with the six positive statements that elicited information about the importance of English, English helping other courses, liking English, getting new knowledge through English, creating new thoughts through English, and knowledgeability of people who can speak more than one language. On the other hand, over 55% of the respondents have strongly disagreed and disagreed with the 3 negative statements, which sought information about the purpose of studying English, applying English knowledge in real life and satisfaction with English course performance. However, around 53% of the subjects have strongly agreed and agreed that English is difficult and complicated to learn. It thus can be concluded that the participants have a positive cognitive attitude towards learning English.

The affective aspect of attitude
The second 10 questionnaire items aimed to elicit the participants' affective (emotional) attitude towards learning English. As demonstrated in Table 4, the affective aspect has the lowest mean score (M = 3.7515, SD = 061,494). As Table 6 shows, over 50% of the participants strongly agreed and agreed that they felt proud and excited when learning and communicating with others in English. More than 70% of the respondents strongly agreed and agreed with the statements that sought information about the joy of learning English, interest in learning English and the desire to have fluency in English. Moreover, most of the participants (83%) stated that learning English was an important goal in their life. Almost 42% of the respondents strongly disagreed and disagreed with the idea of studying in their mother tongue; they prefer to study in a foreign language most likely in English. Forty-five percent of the participants stated that they did not get anxious when they had to answer a question in their English class while it was almost 40% for those who strongly agreed and agreed with it. Hence, students have a positive affective attitude towards learning English.

The behavioral aspect of attitude
The last 10 questionnaire items elicited the behavioral attitudes of students towards learning English. As can be seen in Table 4, the behavioral attitude represents the highest mean score (M = 3.8574, SD = 0.57370). In addition, over 75% of the participants have strongly agreed and agreed with the 5 positive statements, which sought information about giving opinion in English class, practicing English with a student fluent in English, English improving their personality and the desire to have many English-speaking friends (Table 7). Moreover, over 50% of the respondents strongly disagreed and disagreed with the negative statements that elicited information about their nervousness when speaking English, procrastinating English homework, and feeling unrelaxed when obliged to speak English in the class. Furthermore, almost 81% of the participants have indicated that they are enthusiastic to go to the class when English is being taught. This analysis shows that students have a positive behavioral attitude towards learning English.

Attitudes and the respondents' demographic profile
The author discusses in what ways the demographic factors influence the respondents' attitudes towards learning English. They are gender, age, first language, field of study, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers.

Language attitudes and gender
To determine whether female and male participants have different attitudes towards learning English, inferential statistical analysis was carried out. As can be seen in Table 8, the overall mean score of female students' attitudes is 3.8060 (SD = 0.46424) while it is 3.7844 (SD = 0.53061) for male students. The difference in mean score is 0.0216. It indicates that there is not a significant difference. Moreover, the results of independent sample T-test (Table 9) show that the p-value in both Levene's test (1.475) and t-test (0.314) is greater than the alpha level (0.05). Therefore, it is concluded that there is not a statistically significant difference between females and males' attitudes towards learning English.

Language attitudes and age
Descriptive statistics were conducted to find out whether the age affected the attitudes of participants towards learning English. Table 10 indicates that the overall mean score of age group (15-20) is 3.8366 (SD = 0.47963) and that of the age group (21-25) is 3.7659 (SD = 0.50958). The mean score difference is 0.0707, which is not assumed significant. In addition, the independent sample T-test was carried out to explore the differences in the attitudes of two age groups (15-20 and 21-25) towards learning English. Table 11 shows Levene's test for equality of variances and t-test for equality of means. The p-value (0.550, 0.311) in both Levene's test and t-test is greater than the alpha level (0.05). Hence, there is not a statistically significant difference between attitudes of two age groups towards learning English. Table 12 shows the mean score of three major linguistic groups. Since the number of speakers of other languages (n = 3) is very small compared to three languages, it is not taken into consideration. As Table 12 shows, Dari-speaking participants have the highest mean score of 3.8068 (SD = 0.49750) followed by Uzbek-speaking participants with a mean score of 3.7708 (SD = 0.51147). The Pashto-speaking participants have the lowest mean score of 3.7381 (SD = 0.49641). Moreover, one-way ANOVA test was conducted to investigate the differences in attitudes of participants by their linguistic background. As Table 13 indicates, the p-value of three linguistic groups is 0.555 (F = 0.696), which is greater than the alpha level (0.05). These analyses demonstrate that there is not a statistically significant difference in the attitudes of students with different first language.

Language attitudes and field of study
As Table 14 indicates, the mean score of Sharia students is the highest 3.9007 (SD = 0.42120) followed by education students with a mean score of 3.8967 (SD = 0.42404). The mean score of agriculture is the lowest 3.6014 (SD = 0.72862). The mean score of other fields is between 3.8139 (SD = 0.41401) and 3.7688 (SD = 0.42655). The result of One-way ANOVA test (Table 15) shows that the p-value (0.247) is greater than the alpha level (0.05), which does not show any significant difference. Therefore, it can be concluded that students' attitudes towards learning English are not statistically different by their field of study.

Language attitude and access to the Internet
Inferential statistical analysis was employed to explore the differences in the participants' attitudes towards learning English by their access to the Internet. Table 16 reveals the mean scores of participants with access to the Internet and without access to the Internet. It is 3.8525 (SD = 0.48794) for the participants with access to the Internet, and 3.6196 (SD = 0.49037) for the respondents without access to the Internet. The difference between mean scores is 0.23196. Moreover, the results of the t-test for equality of means (Table 17) show that the p-value is 0.004 (t = 2.951), which is less than the alpha level (0.05). Thus, it is concluded that access to the Internet has a significant impact on students' attitudes towards learning English.

Language attitude and English learning experience
Descriptive statistics were conducted to find out whether students' English learning experiences in English language centers affected their attitudes towards learning English. As seen in Table 18, the mean score for the participants with English learning experience is 3.8602 (SD = 0.47772) while it is 3.6348 (SD = 0.51554) for the participants with no English learning experience. The difference between two mean scores is 0.22539. Additionally, the t-test for equality of means (Table 19) demonstrates that p-value is 0.003 (t = 3.029), which represents a statistically significant difference. Therefore, it can be concluded that English learning experience in English language centers has influenced students' attitudes towards learning English.

Discussion
A number of studies reported a correlation between attitude and learning, in particular, learning English. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes of Afghan undergraduate students towards learning English, and it also attempted to find out whether factors such as gender, age, first language, field of study, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers influenced the respondents' attitudes. The analyses of the data revealed that the overall attitudes of Afghan undergraduate students towards learning English were positive. This result is similar with the findings of the studies carried out by Alkaff (2013) Moreover, the findings revealed that the respondents had a positive attitude in in terms of three aspects, i.e., cognitive, affective, and behavioral. This finding is in line with the results reported by Eshghinejad (2016) who studied cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes of Iranian EFL students towards learning English. She reported that students had a positive cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitude. However, the findings contradict those of the study conducted by Abidin et al. (2012) who studied the attitudes of students of secondary school students towards learning English. They reported that their respondents had a negative attitude in all three aspects .
The study also revealed that there were not any statistically significant differences in the attitudes of the respondents by their gender. It supported the results of the studies conducted by Fakeye (2010), Ababneh (2016), Malekmahmudi and Malekmahmudi (2019) and Abofazli and Sadeghi (2019). However, it is contrary to the findings of studies carried out by Abidin et al. (2012) and Eshghinejad (2016) who reported that female and male respondents were different in their attitudes towards learning English. That is, female students had a higher positive attitude than male students did. In addition, the results did not show any significant differences in the attitudes of the respondents by their age, field of study, and first language. This finding supported the findings of Akay and Toraman (2015), Elkilic (2016) and Abofazli and Sadeghi (2019) who studied whether age had any significant impact on the attitudes of students. The findings with respect to field of study are similar to the reports given by Abu-Snoubar (2017), Ababneh (2016), Abofazli and Sadeghi (2019) and Nduwimana (2019) who examined whether the field of study of their respondents influenced their attitudes. They reported that it did not affect the students' attitudes towards learning English.
On the other hand, the findings of the research revealed that Afghan undergraduate students were statistically significantly different in their attitudes by their access to the Internet. That is, students with access to the Internet had a higher positive attitude than those with no access to the Internet. Unfortunately, the author could not find any studies in the literature either to support or to contradict this finding. The writer believes that Afghan students with access to the Internet can have more sources of information available for them and they can surf the Internet more easily and comfortably if they have some proficiency in English. They appreciate English for enabling them to have access to a wide variety of sources of information on the Internet. This might be the reason why Afghan undergraduate students' attitudes towards learning English are higher than those without access to the Internet.
The results also showed that Afghan undergraduate students with English learning experience in English language centers carried more positive attitudes than those who only studied English at school and at the university. Two reasons account for the difference. Students who studied English in English language centers spent more time on learning English than those who studied English only at school and at the university. The former group has a higher positive attitude towards learning English than the latter one since they spent more time on learning English. This conclusion supports the findings of the study conducted by Yu (2010) who examined the attitude of Chinese students in relation to a number of variables one of which was the amount of time students spent on learning English. He reported that the attitude of students who spent more time learning English was more positive than that of those who spent less time learning English. In addition, the quality of English education at Afghan public schools and universities is very poor. Students are not exposed to enough English input and culture of English-speaking countries. However, students are exposed to sufficient English input and cultures of English-speaking countries in particular American and English ones through reading, listening, discussion, and watching in English language centers, where Oxford and Cambridge published English textbooks are taught (e.g., Headway, American File). This might be the reason why students who studied English in English language centers have a more positive attitude than those who studied English only at school and at the university.

Conclusion
The main goal of the study was to investigate the attitudes of Afghan undergraduate students towards learning English. It also aimed to explore the differences in the attitudes of students towards learning English by their age, gender, first language, field of study, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers. The findings show that the overall attitude of Afghan students towards learning English is positive. Moreover, the respondents are not statistically significantly different in their attitudes towards learning English by their gender age, first language and field of study. However, they are statistically significantly different in their attitudes towards learning English by access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers. Students with usual access to the Internet have a more positive attitude than students with no access to the Internet. Furthermore, the attitude of students with English learning experience in English language centers is more positive than that of the students with no English learning experience.
The study has a number of implications for the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education and public universities of Afghanistan. Although the quality of English education is very poor at Afghan public universities, students have strong positive attitudes towards learning English. As the study revealed, learning English is a major goal of most of the participants. Ministry of Higher Education should work with all public universities to design an English curriculum for each field of study that meets the career needs of students. Moreover, the English curriculum should be in harmony with the English curriculum of Ministry of Education for Afghan public schools. In addition, Afghan language planners and policymakers should consider the fact that English plays a vital role in institutions in Afghanistan ranging from education to business to government. The Afghan government should make a policy to regulate the role and status of English language along with official languages in the country.