STUDENT'S ATTITUDE AND INTEREST TOWARDS LEARNING TULU SCRIPT

Tulu language is the mother tongue of people in Karavali (costal) Karnataka. The inscriptions started that land from Neeleshwara to Ankola as Tulu Rajya; hence there is a need to recognize the Tulu language. Languages are also prime vehicles of cultural expressions and intangible cultural heritage, essential to the identity of individuals and groups; safeguarding endangered tongues were crucial in maintaining cultural diversity worldwide. People who are well educated will have an interest in learning new and challenging things. Paper made an earnest attempt to know the students’ interest in learning Tulu script, Level of Awareness, and Attitude towards learning Tulu script. The study was carried out in Karnataka by taking 400 students on a random basis. It found that there is a positive relation between Interest, Awareness, and Attitude.


INTRODUCTION
Tulunadu is a region of coastal Karnataka made up of three major districts: Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada in Karnataka, as well as Kasaragod in Kerala, collectively and unofficially known as Tulunadu. The people of Tulunadu speak their native language, called as Tulu language Malli (2021). Tulu is indeed one of the five South Indian Dravidian languages; others are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. The four key languages spoken currently (Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala) are predominant in their respective states Hebbar (2021). While Tulu is spoken by 18,46,427 native Tulu speakers in India and 3 to 5 million native speakers worldwide, they are popularly known as Tuluvas Office of the Regisrtrar General and Cencesus Commissioner, India (2021). Regardless of Tulu's strength in Tulu Nadu -its situation as the most widely used language and status as the most normal primary language of the district's occupants -the language has not been given official status in its homeland. This is best shown by the fact that Mangalore's official name, Mangaluru, is the city's Kannada name, rather than Kudla, the city's Tulu name, which has a much stronger emotional resonance for many Tuluvas because it is their mother tongue. Malli (2019) Even though Tulu Lipi is currently popular, the voice towards Tulu script and language is not new; it was initiated long back but did not get much popularity.
Students and others who want to learn Tulu script, Tulu Lipi Akshara Mala,' a book on Tulu script edited by litterateur Venkataraja Puninchithaya were released in 2011.
The book published by Tulunada Samskrirti Vedike Trust contains all letters of ancient Tulu script with illustrations to represent corresponding words used in addition to vowels and consonants; the book also contains a chart of Tulu numerals The Times of India (2021). Bale Tulu Kalpuga', a program that was also imitated in 2014 to encourage outsiders to learn Tulu, organized by the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy, was inaugurated by Janaki Brahmavar, the president of the Tulu Academy. However, it has not achieved popularity Daijiworld Media Network (2021). over the period, more than 2000 people have learned the Tulu script. They are preparing for the Tulu script exam through the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy and Jai Tulunad's collaborative online Tulu script learning scheme, 'Bale Tulu Lipi Kalpuga.' Along with online courses, these organizations are holding Tulu script classes at different locations in Tulunad, with the help of local organizations. These free Tulu script learning courses have got much positive feedback from all over the world.
Recently N Shashi Kumar, the Mangaluru city police commissioner, has used the Tulu Lipi in his name board, making him the first city police commissioner to do so Team Udayavani (2021), and also The Shri Mariyamma Temple in Urwa has become the first temple in Mangaluru city to hoist its name board bearing the Tulu Lipi. Many citizens expressed an eagerness to learn the language as well as the Lipi or script News Karnataka.com. (2021)

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective behind this study is to understand the students' Attitude and Interest in learning the Tulu script and the difficulties faced by them.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Since each language has its phonological structure, there has been a need to establish language-specific articulatory ability acquisition norms in a multilingual country like India. While data in some of the major Indian state languages, such as Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Bengali, have been collected, there have been very few studies on regional non-official languages spoken by a significant number of people in India Shetty and Prabhu (2015). The emergence of competing languages, primarily Tulu and Kannada, raised long-term dilemmas for the Basel Mission in the south coastal Karnataka region in the nineteenth century. Their language was critical to their evangelical work, which was facilitated by important language-related activities such as dictionary development, grammar writing, and translations. Since language use was intertwined with caste hierarchy, this raised 176 concerns about the status of lower castes, especially Billavas, concerning the native elites and upper castes Koudur (2020).
Tulu is the dominant spoken language in the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, with 48. 6% and 31.4 %,respectively,and Kerala's Manjeshwaram and Kasargod (16.2% combined). Tulu Nadu also has a large number of groups that speak languages other than Tulu, such as Byari, Konkani, and coastal dialects of Kannada Malli (2019). Tulu is not currently an official language in India or any other region. Tulu is being considered for inclusion in the Constitution's Eighth Schedule. Tulu would be recognized by the Sahitya Akademi if it is included in the Eighth Schedule; as a result, Books written in Tulu will be translated into other recognized Indian languages Unnithan Rajmohan (2021). The prioritization of Kannada, and relegation of Tulu to a secondary position, was an outcome not only of missionary perceptions of the larger Kannada context but also, more importantly, can be traced back to elite representations regarding the subaltern Tulu culture and life world as missionary intervention in education and native language use challenged the status quo of social hierarchy among local communities, this sparked efforts by the native elites to reclaim and restore the earlier hierarchy. In the process, the native elite representations of the Tulu language and culture became, at the same time, an effort at dismissal and appropriationKoudur (2020).
There has been a severe shortage of research into the Tulu language and script. With his monumental work, "A Comparative Grammar of Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages," published in 1856, Robert Caldwell embarked on a systematic study of the Tulu language. Tulu, according to Caldwell, is one of the most evolved Dravidian languages. Tulu's status as a major language has dwindled. A lack of serious literature has also undermined Tulu's argument to be a language to be learned in educational institutions. At the same time, it is clear that most of the literature has perished due to the difficulty of saving palm leaf scrolls Hebbar (2021). A new trend has occurred in the Tulu language, which has been popular since being included in the SSLC syllabus. In place of the western alphabetical style keyboard, the Tulu script keyboard is now being produced. This will come in handy when it comes to typing the Tulu script on the screen Daijiworld Media Network (2021).
Many Tulu manuscripts and inscriptions can be found in Tulu Nadu households, especially in Brahmin homes. Many have perished as a result of a lack of concern in maintaining them. Even though most of these are Sanskrit mantras written in Tulu script, their number must be significant. The language of Tulu Nadu and its distinctive script need a significant amount of effort and resources. Hebbar (2021). Tulu scripts are rich in patterns, with many variations of related characters, and there are several Tulu historical records available in handwritten type. Preserving old files with readable and editable structures allows people to gain more experience Antony and Savitha (2016). Following that, future study directions on recognition and interpretation of the Tulu script are given. Because of the wide range of uses, handwriting recognition and identification are among the most intriguing topics in current research. It has leveraged its potential in reducing the manual work of converting the documents containing handwritten characters to machine-readable texts. Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have been successfully introduced for character recognition in various languages. So, there was a suggestion for DCNN-based architecture for character classification in the Tulu language also. This model was created primarily to aid in the character identification of Tulu texts Bhat and Seshikala (2021). With the help of artificial intelligence, Shallow and deep machine learning techniques for recognizing offline handwritten characters of south Dravidian Tulu scripts are also used. It was found that Deep CNN outperforms shallow learning methods for isolated Tulu characters from modern texts, with a productivity of 98.49 % and 80.49% for isolated Tulu characters from Tulu palm leaf manuscripts Antony and Savitha (2016).
According to the survey conducted by UNESCO, many languages may vanish due to the fast dwindling of a number of its users and also has cautioned that unless the concerned authorities take immediate steps, "these languages may vanish by the end of this century." Supporting that, around 18,46,427 Tulu speakers are identified as per the 2011 census, compared to 19,49,000 in the 1997 census, so efforts should be made by communities, which speak these languages to preserve them to maintain cultural diversity.

METHODOLOGY
This research is being carried out to understand better the student's mindset and curiosity in studying the Tulu script. A descriptive quantitative design is used to elicit Respondents' opinions. Students from different schools and colleges from various parts of Karnataka served as Respondents for this report. Based on the random system, students were selected for this study, and these students belong to a variety of academic disciplines, including Arts, Scientific, and Commerce. This research assessed various assessment levels, including Awareness, Attitude, and interest in learning Tulu script. The questionnaire was designed in two sections, the first asking for demographic information and the second asking questions about Awareness, Attitude, and interest in studying Tulu script. Each Level was measured separately by asking questions on a five-point Likert scale and creating a questionnaire with literature assistance. Questionnaires were distributed randomly to the respondents. A total of 437 responses were gathered, and after data cleaning, the researcher kept only 400 of them to examine the data. The answers are inserted into SPSS 20 after the data has been cleaned and screened. Secondary data sources like Websites, Blogs, Newspapers, and Magazines are used to revise the idea and support the results.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 5.1. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF THE RESPONDENTS'
The Respondents' demographic information was deemed necessary because the Respondents' ability to provide adequate information on the research variables depended heavily on their Gender, Age, Education qualification, Area of specialization, and Location. The demographic background of the Respondents'" are given in Table 1  The student's demographic details were collected to know their backgrounds, such as Gender, Age, Education qualification, Area of specialization, and Location. Table 1 shows that the majority (59%) of the Respondents were female as associated with the male Respondents' so we can say that the female student's ratio is more in numbers. 60% of the Respondents' falling under the age category of 21-25 years showcases that most Respondents were college students. Responses were collected from various students belonging to different educational qualifications. Undergraduate students have a majority (213) in numbers, followed by postgraduation students, and 89.8 % of the students belong to commerce when it comes to their Area of specialization. Out of 400 students who are participated in the survey, most (61.0%) of them are from Karavali (coastal) Karnataka

STUDENT'S AWARENESS ABOUT TULU SCRIPT
Awareness means knowledge and understanding that something is happening or exists or the quality or state of being aware. Here researcher has made an attempt to understand the Level of Awareness among students about the Tulu script and the result represented in Table 2 Table 2 explains that the Respondents are moderately aware of the separate script for Tulu (3.50± 1.384), but the Respondents are slightly aware of the Tulu script apps (2.49±1.319). The Respondents also disagree with the Awareness about Tulu Wikipedia (2.68±1.420) and Tulu calendar 'Kaala Konde' with words and numerals in Tulu script (2.36±1.324). Respondents' also slightly aware of the fact that Tulu is now an optional language in the schools and colleges

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DEMOGRAPHIC AND AWARENESS
Tulu script knowledge is spread through different demographic information such as gender, age, education qualification, Area of specialization, and Location. As a result, an effort has been made to determine whether there is any relationship between demographic factors and Awareness. The outcome of the analysis shown in Table 3

TEST RESULT OF LEVEL OF AWARENESS
Based on the condition required by the test and the form of variables, the chisquare was used to assess the relationship between Demographic Factors and Level of Awareness. The test results are shown in Table 4.  Table 4 explains the association between the Level of Awareness and demographic variables, which indicates that there is a significant difference in the Level of Awareness among gender (P =.000< 0.01), Education Qualification (P=.006< 0.01), Area of specialization (P=.001< 0.01) and Location (P=.012< 0.05). In addition to this, the test result showed that there is no significant difference in the Level of Awareness and Age (P= .038> 0.05). Hence based on the result, it can be concluded that there a significant difference in the Level of Awareness and the demographic variables except for age.

STUDENTS INTEREST IN TULU SCRIPT
Interest means a desire to learn or hear more about somebody or something. Here researcher made an attempt to understand the student's interest in learning Tulu script and the result depicted in Table 5 Table 5  Table 5 exhibit that Respondents' are agreed that they are interested to learn Tulu script 3.64±1.276, but on the contrary, they have not tried to read the Tulu script (2.98±1.345), and also they agreed that studying Tulu script is important because it makes them skilful(3.62±1.206) Respondents' of the study agreed that the script is a challenging one(3.57± 1.161)and also agreed that by learning Tulu script they would get more knowledge(3.54± 1.236)along with that they also agreed that Tulu script would give utmost pleasure and satisfaction(3.53± 1.210) if they learn properly. Respondents also agreed that most of the people who speak Tulu do not know the script (3.80± 1.289) and agreed that Tulu script usage has increased in recent days (3.50±1.119). Respondents opined that there is a lack of government support towards the development of Tulu script (2.99±1.102)

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DEMOGRAPHIC AND LEVEL OF INTEREST
The interest in learning Tulu script is spread through different demographic information such as gender, age, education qualification, Area of specialization, and Location. As a result, an effort has been made to determine whether there is any relationship between demographic factors and the Level of Interest. The outcome of the analysis shown in Table 6 Table 6

TEST RESULT OF LEVEL OF INTEREST
Based on the condition required by the test and the form of variables, the chisquare was used to assess the relationship between Demographic Factors and Level of interest. The test results are shown in Table 7 Table 7  Table 7 demonstrates the association between the Level of interest and demographic variables. This indicates that there is a significant difference in the Level of interest among Education qualifications (P=.002< 0.01) and Location (P=.002< 0.01). In addition, the research results revealed there is no significant difference in the Level of interest among gender (P =.154), Age (P= .206), and Area of specialization (P=.599). Hence based on the result, it can be concluded that there a no significant difference in the Level of interest and the demographic variables.

STUDENTS ATTITUDE TOWARDS TULU SCRIPT
A positive, negative, or mixed assessment of an object articulated at any degree of severity is referred to as an attitude. It expresses a positive or negative assessment of an individual, location, object, or activity. Here researcher made an attempt to understand the student's Attitude towards learning Tulu script and the result depicted in Table 8 Table 8 shows that the Respondents agree that understanding the Tulu script is easy(2.99±1.109), and also disagree that finding the Tulu script experts is easy, one respondent agree that they can learn the Tulu script on their own effort (3.02± 1.208), and also they are agreed that they are interested in practicing the Tulu script whenever they have the chance to learn (3.19±1.241), but along with that, they are also agreed that they are afraid of making mistakes(3.08±1.167)

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DEMOGRAPHIC AND LEVEL OF ATTITUDE
The Level of Attitude towards learning the Tulu script is spread through different demographic information such as gender, age, education qualification, Area of specialization, and Location. As a result, an effort has been made to determine whether there is any relationship between demographic factors and the Level of Interest. The outcome of the analysis shown in Table 9 Table 9  Table 9 exhibits that compared with the male Respondents' female Respondents' having a positive attitude towards Tulu script and the respondent falling under the age group of 21 to 25 years showed a positive attitude towards Tulu script. When it comes to the education qualification, post-graduation students have a positive attitude towards the Tulu script followed by Undergraduate students. Most of the Respondents' from Karavali (coastal) Karnataka having an optimistic attitude towards the Tulu script, but the majority of the South Karnataka people are having an adverse attitude towards the Tulu script

TEST RESULT OF LEVEL OF ATTITUDE
Based on the condition required by the test and the form of variables, the chisquare was used to assess the relationship between Demographic Factors and Level of Attitude. The test results are shown in Table 10 Table 10 illustrate the association between the Level of Attitude and demographic variables. This indicates that there is a significant difference in the Level of Attitude among Education qualifications (P=.001< 0.01) and Location (P=.000< 0.01). Aside from that, the test result also showed there is no significant difference in the Level of Attitude among gender (P =.345), Age (P= .119), and Area of specialization (P=.689). Hence based on the result, it can be concluded that there a no significant difference in the Level of Attitude and the demographic variables.

CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTEREST, AWARENESS, AND ATTITUDE IN TULU SCRIPT
Literature proved that interest in learning any new language motivates one to acquire more knowledge, and later it helps create an Attitude towards learned language. To test these statements, hypotheses are developed and depicted in the path analysis model (Figure 1 ). Table 11 explains the hypothesis test results and the author's decision based on the result.    Table 11 exhibits that Level of Interest has a significant relation with Awareness, and it showed that for 1% changes in Interest level, 0.49% changes in Awareness level. It also showed a positive relationship between Awareness and Attitude which indicates that 1% changes in Awareness influence 0.35% of changes in Attitude. From this analysis, it can conclude that students with a high level of interest in learning the Tulu language showed a high level of Awareness, and students with a higher level of Awareness showed a positive Attitude towards Tulu scripts and vice versa. The model fit indices, GFI (0.912), AGFI (0.902), CFI (0.973), and RMSEA (0.039), showed the goodness of the model.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The study identified that female Respondents outnumber male Respondents', and Respondents aged 21 to 25 years surpass male Respondents', with most Respondents' being college students. The Respondents represent a variety of educational backgrounds, out of which undergraduate students have a majority in numbers, and commerce specialized students are more in numbers. Out of 400 Respondents' 61% of the Respondents' from Karavali (coastal) Karnataka The study revealed that Respondents are interested in studying the Tulu script, but they have not attempted to read and understand the Tulu script, indicating a lack of effort on their part. It was also discovered that respondents believe learning the Tulu script is necessary because it improves their skills and allows them to learn expertise, allowing them to experience the greatest pleasure and satisfaction. Respondents also considered that the Tulu script is challenging because most of the people who speak Tulu do not know the script. It was also discovered that the use of Tulu script has increased in recent days, but there is a shortage of government support for Tulu script and culture growth.
The study has also found the Respondents' having an interest in learning Tulu script, so they consider that they can learn script on their own, but it is not an easy task to understand Tulu script. It was also found that identifying the Tulu script expert is not an easy task. The study discloses that Respondents are interested in practicing Tulu script whenever they are free, but they are afraid of making mistakes Based on the research, the majority of respondents are aware of the separate Tulu script, but there is a lack of knowledge about other issues such as the existence of Tulu script learning apps, Tulu Wikipedia, and Tulu calendar. Aside from that, Tulu is now an optional language in many schools and universities, but respondents are not aware of this, so there is a need to raise consciousness in people's minds.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Even though the Tulu script and culture have a long history, it is not widely known, especially among Karavali (coastal) Karnataka people. There is a great need to raise the Tulu script's consciousness since most people who understand Tulu are unaware of it. As a result, it is proposed that the Tulu script be taught to children as an optional language from the start of their schooling, at least in the Karavali (coastal) Karnataka. Tulu language may vanish due to the fast dwindling of many of its users, so there is a need for government support and some immediate steps to preserve them for the future generation. Many people and organizations are constantly improving the Tulu script, and those individuals and organizations must be recognized. As a result, more people will be inspired and will step up to take action.
Based on the study, it is identified that Tulu speakers believe their mother tongue has been left to flounder reduced to a secondary status within Tulu Nadu itself due to the lack of official protections in place to ensure the language's continued survival. Tulu activists have been fighting for the language's inclusion in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution to bring attention to the subject and effect political reform. Ordinary Tuluva people are also getting involved and doing their best to help their mother tongue to develop.
Finally, the state and people bear common responsibility for preserving a people's unique language, script, and heritage. Respecting every language and culture is essential as we belong to a country like India to see unity in diversity.