Abstract:
The main purpose of this study was to examine whether there is significant relationship among students' grade
level, attitudes and use of Tigrigna language in English classroom. In this study attitudes of four grade level
students toward Tigrigna language use in EFL classroom was also investigated. The study was Co-relational
rese~ch which involves quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis. The participants of the study were
gr!des nine, ten, eleven and twelve students of Suhul Michael Secondary School. The sample size was 250
students. Those samples were selected using different sampling methods. To reach the study on the intended
stage, different data gathering and analysis tools were used. To gather data from the intended group
questionnaire, observation and interview were used. The quantitative data obtained from the questionnaire was
analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16.0. The primarily statistical analysis
utilized were descriptive statistics, one sample t-test, one way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and
percentage. The result.of the study indicated that grades nine, ten and eleven students tend to have high attitudes
toward'the implementation of Tigrigna language in English session. But grade twelve students seemed to have
low attitudes toward Tigrigna language use. The findings also showed that there was significant negative
relationship between the students' grade level and attitudes toward Tigrigna language use in English lesson. But
there was medium positive relationship between the students' attitudes and perceived use of Tigrigna language in
English class. The output of the study also revealed that grades nine and ten students tend to use Tigrigna
~ language much frequentiy'in English class whereas grades eleven and twelve students use it less frequently in
English session for different purposes. The results of the study indicated that high percentage of first language
was used in.grade nine English class, followed in grades ten, eleven and twelve English lessons. Similarly, much
time was devoted to utter first language words in grade nine English class compared to other grade levels.
Therefore, these students should be provided a training like ( EL/P) English Language Improvement Program to
enrich their usage of the target language.