The present study investigated the behaviour of first year state middle school
students in Banda Aceh (Indonesia) toward learning English as a foreign language, as
the dependent variable, in the context of differences in gender and school types
(bilingual/monolingual schools), as part of a control/experimental group,
pretest/posttest study. A Behaviour Questionnaire towards learning English as a foreign
language containing 11 Items was designed especially for the Indonesian students and
pilot tested in Indonesia. The test was conducted within 40 minutes. Seven hundred and
eighty male and female first-year middle school students (12-13 years old), consisting of
394 students taught in bilingual schools and 386 students taught in monolingual
schools, were selected from a number of schools with bilingual and monolingual
teaching programs in Aceh. Data were collected during 2011 and a linear,
unidimensional scale of Behaviour was created using Rasch Measurement with the
Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Model (RUMM2030) computer program. The
construct validity of the data was tested by designing the items in ordered patterns of
item difficulty which were then compared with their Rasch-measured item difficulties
for different groups for females and males. A Mixed Method ANOVA was conducted to
make comparisons between groups and between genders; and Two-Way
ANCOVA was used to test for main and interaction effects with SPSS to compare
bilingually-taught students with monolingually-taught students. The results are
discussed.