DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i04.012

Pages: 357-367

The study investigated Iteso students’ attitudes towards the Ateso language in Kumi district. It had been observed that Ateso was not widely taught as it should have been as only eight schools out of 76 embraced the teaching of Ateso in secondary schools. Many stakeholders blamed such a trend to young peoples’ attitudes towards Ateso language. The objective of the study was to establish the attitudes of Iteso students towards the Ateso language. The researchers mainly used the qualitative research approach with a survey design. Instruments of data collection were the questionnaire and interviews. Four schools were selected and a total of 320 respondents were sampled from 480 using simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. The study found out that students are attached to Ateso language mainly because it is their mother tongue and they highly favour it for patriotic or integrative reasons. The study unveiled the prevailing attitude of the students towards Ateso language and so will help policy makers in planning for its better teaching. The study has also added to the knowledge bulk, especially in the disciplines of sociolinguistics and social psychology of language, particularly in the field of attitude studies.