A study on contextual influences on students attitudes toward english language learning at viet hung industrial college

The model proposes that integrativeness and attitudes toward the learningsituation are two correlated variables that support the individual‟s motivation to learn asecond language, but th

Department of Postgraduate

KHUONG THI THU HAI

A study on CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING

AT VIET - HUNG Industrial college.

(Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của hoàn cảnh đến thái độ của sinh viên đối với việc học tiếng Anh ở trường cao đẳng công nghiệp Việt - Hung)

MA MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY

CODE: 601410

Hanoi,2009

1.1.Rationale of the study

1.2 Purpose of the study

1.3 Scope of the study

1.4 Research questions

1.5 Method of study

1.6 Significance of the study

1.7 Organization of the thesis

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 What is attitude?

2.2 Definition of Motivation

2.3 Distinction between Attitude and Motivation

2.4 Role of Attitudes in Foreign Language Learning

2.5 Role of Motivation in Foreign Language Learning

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APPENDIX 1

APPENDIX 2

APPENDIX 3

Second Language Learning

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Target LanguageViet Hung Industrial College

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

Attitudes and motivation are two important learner factors in second or foreignlanguage learning Although English has been taught to vocational students as acompulsory subject, there has yet been a study on the students‟ attitudes to, and motivationfor learning English This study is an initial attempt in this regard This chapter presents therationale, scope, research questions, research methods and design of the study

1.1 Rational

Nowadays, English is considered as an international language, which is spoken bymillions of people all over the world English has a dominant position in science,technology, medicine, and computers; in research, books, periodicals, and software; intransnational business, trade, shipping, and aviation; in diplomacy and internationalorganizations; in mass media entertainment, news agencies and journalism; in youthculture and sport; in education systems, as the most widely learnt foreign language…It isobvious that mastering English helps the country not only have more contacts with morenations in the world but also enrich its people‟s knowledge

Language learning is a complex activity for many reasons Firstly, it is closelyrelated with linguistics Most activities in the realm of language learning concern with thelearner receiving linguistic input of some form and use the acquired input for the sake ofcommunication in the form of linguistic output Linguistics provides the answer to thequestion of what people learn; either it is grammar, vocabulary or the language skills.Secondly, language learning is social, as it occurs in a certain social context This contextoften imposes conditions for both learning behaviors and language use In this waylanguage learning correlates with sociology Finally, language learning is individual.Personal characteristics such as experience, gender and age, attitude and aptitude,motivation, belief, self-confidence and anxiety are very influential in language learning.Insights in this field of learning are psychology

In his socioeducational model, Gardner‟s (1985a,2000), has made a distinctionbetween two classes of attitudes, integrativeness and attitudes toward the learning

situation The model proposes that integrativeness and attitudes toward the learningsituation are two correlated variables that support the individual‟s motivation to learn asecond language, but that motivation is responsible for achievement in the second languagelearning In other words, integrativeness and attitudes toward the learning situation arerelated to achievement in the second language learning, but that effect is indirect, actingthrough motivation.

There are a variety of factors affecting learner‟s motivation and attitudes Amongthese factors are their learning purposes, instructional content and teaching methods Goodlearning environment tends to render in the learner proper motivation so that learningbecomes a self-directed process However, many learners come into class without well-defined set of motivation and attitudes They are not clear about how and why languagesshould be learnt for personal pursuits Moreover, motivation can be treated as a dependantvariable in a research Operating on motivation is supposed to improve achievement andchances of success

In Vietnam in general and at Viet Hung Industrial College (VIC) in particular,English has an overwhelming position as a foreign language It has been a compulsorysubject in curricular In many schools such as VIC , teachers have been facing problems oflarge size, prescribed textbooks, limited time for formal instruction and low proficiencystudents Many students learn English just as to pass the exams, and a lot of teachers‟attempts to try out communicative activities fail at large classes The matter ofheterogeneity also considerably limits the chance of success of communicative tasks.Therefore, few students can use English to communicate in common real-life situations,and they tend to „forget‟ English upon leaving school Attaining the ability to producelinguistic outcomes and maintaining interest in continuous learning seem to be a difficulttask for many students

To sum up, there are many factors leading to successful foreign language learning

In the extent of this study, the researcher wants to find out “contextual influences on

students’ attitudes toward English language learning at Viet Hung Industrial College” The study was conducted with the hope that, the empirical evidence on students‟

preferences towards English language learning will help language teachers find the bestpossible solution to improve their teaching performance in term of effectiveness

1.2 Purpose of the study

With the above-presented rationale, the study aims at:

• Investigating students‟ attitudes toward the learning situation at VietHung Industrial College (VIC) It includes evaluation of the course and evaluation of theteacher

• Investigating integrativeness of the students at VIC It means to findout students‟ attitudes toward the target language group, interest in foreign languages andintegrativeness orientation

• Proposing some recommendations and suggestions for language teachers to teachEnglish more effectively

1.3 Scope of the study

As it has been stated above, the study aims at investigating how contexts influences

on students‟ attitudes toward English language learning at VIC in order to come up withsome methodological recommendations It is, therefore, explorative by nature Because oftime limitation, the study only focuses on group of students of mechanical engineering asthe participants

1.4 Research questions:

The study was intended to answer the following questions:

1. What are students‟ attitudes towards learning situation at VIC?

2. What are integrative motivation of students at VIC?

3. What are the methodologies of teaching to motivate students to learn

English successfully?

1.5 Methods of study

The study has been conducted in the form of survey research with its technique ofquestionnaire with informants of three classes of 176 students third-year non major ofEnglish at VIC

1.6 Significance of the study

The significance role of context in teaching and learning English can hardly denied.The study is designed to find attitudes of students toward learning English beyond context

at VIC Some suggestions will be given for language teachers to make teaching proceduremore convenient and effective

1.7 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is divided into four chapters:

 Chapter I: Introduction

 Chapter II: Literature review

 Chapter III: The study

 Chapter IV: Recommendation and conclusion

The first chapter provides all information about the rationale, purpose, scope,method and significance of the study

The second chapter presents the theoretical background: the theories and conceptsrelated to attitudes and integrativeness in learning English

Chapter 3 is devoted to a detail description of data analysis and a discussion on thefindings of the study

And the last chapter, chapter 4, present summary of the findings and draws outsome pedagogical suggestions in relation to the question of how to motivate students tolearn English more effectively

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

Motivation and attitudes are the key factors to gain language learning achievement Positive attitudes and motivation are related to succeed in second language learning Thischapter will find out the literature of attitudes and motivation as well as their relevance

2.1 What is attitude?

The term „attitude‟ is commonly used in everyday conversation – this shows notonly that it is, as Baker comments, „part of the terminology system of many individuals‟(1992: 9), but also shows that attitude plays an important role in various (if not all) aspects

of our lives, including our level of success in first and second language learning

Attitude can be defined as a set of beliefs developed in a due course of time in agiven sociocultural setting Although it necessarily so not determine behaviour but canhave some impact on it It is studied that positive attitude facilitates learning If the learner

is reluctant to learn or he/she does not have a positive attitude, he/she does not produce anyresult Language learning is effected by the attitude and motivation Motivated,demotivated and motivated students have different perceptions of their class, teacher andcurriculum Their perceptions are responsible to for their attitudes An individual‟sperception of the class, perception of the teacher, peer group, syllabus and his/herawareness for future needs effect hi/her attitude to language learning

Learning a language is closely related to the attitudes towards the languages (Starks

& Paltridge 1996: 218) In the Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (1992:199)

„language attitudes‟ are defined as follows:

The attitude which speakers of different languages or language varieties have towards each others‟ languages or to their own language Expressions of positive or negative feelings towards a language may reflect impressions of linguistic difficulty or simplicity, ease or difficulty of learning, degree of importance, elegance, social status, etc Attitudes towards a language may also show what people feel about the speakers of that language.

Gardner (1985: 10) sees attitudes as components of motivation in languagelearning According to him, „motivation refers to the combination of effort plus desire toachieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes toward learning thelanguage‟ He believes the motivation to learn a foreign language is determined by basicpredispositions and personality characteristics such as the learner‟s attitudes towardsforeign people in general, and the target group and language in particular, motives forlearning, and generalized attitudes (Gardner 1985) Wenden (1991) sees attitudes asincluding three components: First, attitudes tend to have a cognitive component This couldinvolve beliefs or perceptions about the objects or situations related to the attitude Second,attitudes have an evaluative component This means that the objects or situations related tothe attitude may generate like or dislike Third, attitudes have a behavioral component, i.e.certain attitudes tend to prompt learners to adopt particular learning behaviours Bernat andGvozdenko (2005) discuss the current issues, pedagogical implications and new directions

in beliefs about language learning including social, cultural, contextual, cognitive,affective, and personal factors among which attitudes have an important place Similarly,Csizér and Dörnyei (2005) conclude attitude as an important factor in language learning intheir study on the internal structure of language learning motivation and its relationshipwith language choice and learning effort, which was put forward previously as the ProcessModel of L2 Motivation (Dörnyei and Ottó 1999) Moreover, Dörnyei (2000) proposes aprocess-oriented approach to the understanding of student motivation which broke downthe motivational process

Social psychologists like Krech, Crutchfield & Ballachey (1962) define attitudes as

„enduring systems of positive or negative evaluations, emotional feelings, and pro or conaction techniques with respect to social objects‟ (p 29) Rokeach (1979) also takesendurance to be characteristic, defining attitude to be „a relatively enduring organization ofbeliefs around an object or situation predisposing one to respond in some preferentialmanner‟ (p 105) Ajzen (1988), focusing more on attitudes as explaining humanbehaviour, holds that „an attitude is a disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to anobject, person, institution, or event‟ (p 4) Likewise, Baker (1992) describes attitude as „ahypothetical construct used to explain the direction and persistence of human behaviour‟(p.10)

Similarly, Klausmeier (1985), an educational psychologist, holds that attitudes „arelearned, emotionally toned predispositions to behave in a consistent way toward persons,objects, and ideas Attitudes have both an affective component and an informationalcomponent‟ (p 403) This learning need not be conscious or consciously directed –similarly, the attitude itself need not be conscious.

All the above definitions of attitudes share some common characteristics In thebroadest sense, attitudes are enduring evaluative constructs that exert a directive influence

on behaviour – that is, a lack of neutrality in evaluating an object, a psychological tendency

to be for or against an object These constructs have both affective (I like the taste of greentea) and informational components (I believe that green tea is good for me) combining into

an attitude (I am pro green tea, and ceteris paribus will buy and drink it)

Attitudes are internal dispositions that cannot be directly observed, but (since theyexert a directive influence on behaviour) can be inferred from external, habitual ways ofbehaviour (see for example Ajzen, 1988; Baker, 1992) They are then used when explainingbehaviour – people act in accordance with their attitudes (Indeed, a similar process ofinference is arguably followed to determine ones‟ own subconscious attitudes) Inferringattitudes is made yet more difficult by the fact that people may hold multiple andcontradictory attitudes towards the same object (or the same object under differentdescriptions)

According to Gardener (1985) the term „motivation’ means „referring to the extent

to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do soand the satisfaction experienced in this activity (p.10)

Humanistic theorists intend not so much to manipulate human behaviour as tounderstand it Because humanistic theories are concerned with the normal aspects of

human behaviour, they seem to attract broader interest Maslow (1970), one of the mainproponents of humanistic theory, proposes that motivation itself implies need-satisfyingbehaviour, with the hierarchy of needs-motives as follows; 1) physiological needs (thelowest rank in his hierarchy); followed by 2) safety needs, 3) belongingness and loveneeds, 4) esteem needs, 5) self-actualization needs, 6) desires to know and understand, and

7) aesthetic needs Higher level needs come into effect (cause, or explain) only when level needs have been gratified Maslow suggests a kind of cut-off for „higher-level‟,

lower-around level five, self-actualization needs Self-actualization refers to people‟s desire forself-fulfillment, namely, the tendency for them to become actualized in what they arepotentially‟ (Maslow, 1970: 22) Rivers (1983) interprets Maslow‟s theory as follows:

“all human beings have a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied before they can reach the stage where the achievement of their potential as individuals becomes their chief concern- the stage where they seek to develop their powers and increase their knowledge and experience” (p.148)

Rivers goes on to argue that Maslow‟s hierarchical needs theory can be adapted tosecond language learning, especially to bilingual settings When language students are notperforming to their teachers expectations, „the reasons may be traceable to unsatisfy lowerlevels of Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs‟ (p 148)

Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can bedefined in terms of two factors: learner‟s communicative needs and their attitudes towardsthe second language community If learners need to speak the second in a wide range ofsocial situations or to fulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicativevalue of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it

In summary, motivation refers to goal-directed behaviors and when one isattempting to measure motivation, attention, can be directed toward a number of features ofthe individual The motivated individual expends effort, is persistent and attentive to thetask at hand, has goals, desires and aspirations, enjoys the activity, experiencesreinforcement from success and disappointment from failure, makes attributionsconcerning success and/or failure, is aroused, and make use of strategies to aid in achievinggoals That is, the motivated individual exhibits many behaviors, feelings, cognitions, etc.,that the individual who is unmotivated does not

The relationship between motivation and learning is connected and motivation andlearning are mutually causal That is, those students, “who are more motivated learn more

…those who learn more become more motivated.” (Richmond, 1990, p 194)

In this study the motivations in education in general and in second or foreignlanguage learning in particular discussed above will shed a light on the analysis of themotivation of English learning of students at VIC

2.3 Distinction between Attitude and Motivation

In his series of studies on language achievement, Gardner (1977) found that greatermotivation and attitudes lead to better learning A uni-directional causal relationshipbetween motivation and learning was established

Baker (1992), discussing the distinction between „attitude‟ and „motivation‟ inforeign language education, notes that these two terms „often appear without discussion ofthe extent of over-lap and difference‟ (p 14) Gardner & Lambert (1972) define

„motivation‟ as the second-language learner‟s overall goal and orientation, and „attitude‟

as the learner‟s persistence in striving to the goal However, „motivation‟ and „attitude‟are not thereby clearly delineated from one another, in that „the learner‟s motivation forlanguage study would be determined by his attitudes and readiness to identify and by hisorientation to the whole process of learning a foreign language‟ (1972: 132)

Indeed, as Mitchell and Myles‟ (1998) note, research on L2 language attitudes haslargely been conducted within the framework of broader research on motivation, of whichattitudes form one part (p 19) Ellis (1985) discusses the difficulty of separating attitudesand motivation, noting that both are only derived from the behaviour of language learners,and are never directly observed He goes on to say that it is clear that there is no generalagreement about what precisely “motivation” or “attitudes” consist of, nor of therelationship between the two‟ (p.117)

However, it is widely accepted that attitudes are object specific, and motivation hasparticular actions as its goals (Newcomb, 1950; Gardner & Lambert, 1972; Baker, 1992).Johnstone (1989), for example, writes that attitudes have objects as their points ofreference, e.g a positive attitude to school, a negative attitude to mathematics‟ and

continues that motivation has goals rather than objectives as its point of reference‟ (p.:120).

Therefore, individuals are assessed on whether they have negative or positiveattitudes to a certain object On the other hand, motivation is either present (at somestrength) or absent, rather than negative or positive

Ellis (1994: 198) states that

Learners manifest different attitudes toward (1) the target language, (2) language speakers, (3) the target-language culture, (4) the social value of learning the L2, (5) particular uses of the target language, and (6) themselves as members of their own culture These attitudes are likely to reflect the particular social settings in which learners find themselves Learner attitudes have an impact on the level of L2 proficiency achieved

target-by individual learners and are themselves influenced target-by this success Thus, learners with positive attitudes, who experience success, will have these attitudes reinforced Similarly, learners‟ negative attitudes may be strengthened by lack of success We will also find cases

of learners who begin with positive attitudes but who, for one reason or another, experience inadequate learning opportunities, fail to progress as they expected, and consequently, become more negative in their outlook.

In this study, I will adopt Ellis‟s above attitudinal theory to explore the attitudes ofthe students at VIC towards English language learning

2.4 Role of Attitudes in Foreign Language Learning

In educational psychology, attitudes are considered to be strongly determinative ofacademic achievement (this is of course simply a special case of the conclusion reached insection 3.1 above, that „affective variables are thus expected to be greatly determinative ofsuccess in learning English‟) For example, Klausmeier (1985) notes that „attitudesinfluence how well students learn and how they behave‟ (p 375) and goes on to give anexample – high school students with positive attitudes toward mathematics take optionalcourses in mathematics, whereas those with negative attitudes take only the requiredcourses Furthermore, he insists on the importance of teachers' attitudes towards students infacilitating learning Finocchiaro (1989) suggests even more broadly that „the attitudes ofstudents, teachers, community members, peers, and others with whom the student comesinto contact‟ all are causal factors for motivation (p 48)

The term „attitude‟ in foreign language learning is generally used to refer to theattitude of the learners towards the TL society (Lightbown & Spada, 1999; Littlewood,1984; McLaughlin, 1987; Brown, 1994) This attitude towards the target society is „afactor of learners attitudes toward their own native culture, their degree of ethnocentrism,and the extent to which they prefer their own language over the one they are learning as asecond language‟ (Brown, 1994: 168) In terms that concern us here, then, we areinterested in students‟ attitude at VIC towards learning English.

Attitudes, as enduring or persistent, are particularly important „determinant ofacademic achievement‟ in foreign language education, because learning a foreign languagerequires such long-term endeavour Attitudes, of both the learner and other people in thelearners‟ social environment, play a crucial role in determining the degree and persistence

of the learners‟ motivation

2.5 Role of Motivation in Foreign Language Learning

Given the widespread acceptance that motivation is a key to success in mastering aforeign language, it is no surprise that a substantial body of research into motivation andboth 2LL and FLL exists The social psychological approach and extensiveexperimentation of Gardner & Lambert (1959, 1972) won them particular favour withlinguists They identify two types of motivation; instrumental motivation or „a desire togain social recognition or economic advantages through knowledge of a foreign language‟,and integrative motivation or „a desire to be representative members of the other languagecommunity‟ (Gardner & Lambert, 1972: 14)

In their first study (1959), a twelve-year study of English-speaking high schoolstudents who were studying French in Montreal, Gardner & Lambert used a measure ofmotivational intensity similar to Jones‟ (1950) index of interest in learning a language

In this research, they found that students with integrative motivation were moresuccessful in learning a second language that those with instrumental motivation Thestudents‟ parents‟ attitudes also affected their motivation That is, the studentsintegratively oriented to learn French had „the parents who also were integrative in outlookand sympathetic to the French community‟ (Gardner & Lambert, 1972: 5)

Results such as these led the researchers to conclude that integrative motivation canlast longer and create more positive results than instrumental motivation, because theformer is more deeply concerned with the personality of the learner.

Meaningful involvement in language learning happens only when learners find theirneeds to be met Thus it is assumed that motivation is one of the major factors contributing

to one‟s success in learning a second or foreign language Oxford & Shearan (1994) statethat:

“Many researchers consider motivation as one of the main elements that determine success in developing a second or foreign language; it determines the extent of active, personal involvement in L2 learning.”(Page 78)

Herman (1980) and Skehan (1989) argue that it is also possible for motivation to bethe result of learning Learners who achieve success tend to persevere motivation, andthose who don‟t succeed become discouraged and gain less success In such circumstances

a vicious circle can evolve, with low motivation resulting in low achievement, lowachievement creating low motivation and so on

Spolsky (1997) presents a model of language learning which involve,4 factors.According to her, linguistic outcome K is the summary of KP (knowledge and skills at themoment), A (a symbol to represent various components of ability including physiological,biological, intellectual and cognitive skills), M (a symbol to include various affectivefactors such as personality, attitude, motivation and anxiety), and O (opportunity forlearning a language) Simply stated Future knowledge and skills K = KP + A + M + O, but

if any one part is absent, there can be no learning Although this seems to beoversimplification of a complicated matter of learning, it does represent key componentsthat can contribute to success Unlike factors such as KP and A, which are hard to bechanged, motivation is both social and personal and possesses potential for achievementimprovement

In a teaching/learning environment, it is important to assist the learner to develop aself-attribution explanation of effort (internal, control) If the person has an attribution ofability (internal, no control) as soon as the individual experiences some difficulties in thelearning process, he or she will decrease appropriate learning behavior If the person has anexternal attribution, then he will not rely on himself for success Consequently, learning

becomes passive process In this case, there is nothing to be done by the learner whenlearning problems occur The teacher‟s task is then to focus students on the control aspect

of learning by asking learners to try their best on the one hand, and design tasks ofappropriate difficulty level on the other hand

Motivating students using reward one way of satisfying learners‟ needs Rewardsmean two things: it is a physical incentive, also it is recognition of good job to be done.Robert Harris (2001) identifies 5 students‟ basic needs as survival, love, power, fun andfreedom He suggests that in the classroom context, rather than always avoiding orsuppressing these needs, teachers should design an educational activity to fulfill them Thiswill even lead to students overcoming substantial immediate unpleasantness to completedifficult learning tasks

To sum up, different theories have provided us varied views of motivation.However, these theories all treat motivation as either internal or external drive of humanbehaviors Motivation explains for man‟s action

2.6 Models of motivation

Derived from different theoretical psychological theories, models of motivation arealso diversified in number and nature In fact, there is no unique model applied in allsituations because models can be different in popular Instead, researchers often seek tobuild up their own model to fit in their social context of study There are some of importantmodels the researcher have found in the literature as follow:

Of the models of motivation in language learning, the most notable is Gardner andLambert‟s (1972) socio-educational models This model incorporate four variablessummarizing individual differences: intelligence, language aptitude, motivation andsituational anxiety These psychologist researchers insist that the primary factor in themodel is motivation He defines motivation as a combination of attitudes towards learningthe language, desire to learn the language, and effort made to learn the language All these

3 components determine success if the students is truly motivated According to Gardner, ahighly motivated individual will enjoy learning the language, want to learn the languageand strive to learn the language Achievement can influence attitude, but the primary causalrelationship is that achievement is the result of attitude and motivation

Gardner‟s (1972) studies have led to an introduction of integrative and instrumentalmotivation Integrative motivation occurs when the learner is studying a language becausehe/she wishes to assimilate and identify with the culture of speakers of that language Aninstrumental motivation describes a group of factors concerned with motivation arisingfrom external goals such as passing exams, increasing chances of getting a good job, orgaining promotion Initially, Gardner stated that integrative motivation contributed more tolanguage learning achievement than instrumental motivation Now he no longer holds thispoint, but insists that integrative motivated students tend to have more chances of successthan those who are not Later research has included that while integrative motivation isperhaps more important in a second language context, an instrumental motivation maybemore important in other situations where language is learnt as a foreign language (Clement

et al; Dornyei, 1994)

One avenue of research on the role of motivation in second language acquisition isthat conducted by R.C.Gardner and associates This research is driven by Gardner‟s(1985a, 2000) socioeducational model of second language acquisition and generally makesuse of the Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) to measure the major components ofthe model In the socioeducational model, a distinction between two classes of attitudes,

integrativeness and attitudes toward the learning situation, and a third component, motivation The model proposes that integrativeness and attitudes toward the learning

situation are two correlated variables that support the individual‟s motivation to learn asecond or foreign language, but that motivation is responsible for achievement in thesecond language This conceptualization implies that integrativeness and attitudes towardthe learning situation are related to achievement in the second language or foreignlanguage but that effect is indirect, acting through motivation

The AMTB consists of a series of self-reported questionnaires containing a battery

of questions to measure 11 different subscales which represent different aspect ofmotivation Eight of the subtests were designed to measure three primary concepts in the

socioeducational model: motivation, integrativeness, and attitudes toward the learning

situation Table 1 presents a listing of the constructs assessed in the AMTB, the subtest that

define each construct, and the number of items typically used in each subtest

is not one Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, but the items should be developed so that theyare suitable to the particular situation and context in question Thus some researcher havetried to broaden or narrow the spectrum of attitude and motivation to includes such issues

as interaction between person and situation, self-efficacy and anxiety as well as cognitiveaspects of learning motivation.

In the scope of this study, the researcher has applied 5 of the subtests whichinvolve context influence on students‟ attitude toward learning foreign language They are

designed to measure two primary concepts in the socioeducational model: integrativeness and attitudes toward learning situation.

Integrativeness

The concept of integrativeness refers to an openness to identify, at least in part, withanother language community This concept was hypothesized (cf.Gardner, 1985a) toinfluence second language acquisition because learning a second language requires theadoption of word sounds, pronunciations, word orders, and other behavioral and cognitivefeatures that are part of another culture Integrativeness implies openness on the part ofindividuals that would facilitate their motivation to learn material Individuals who want(or are willing) to identify with the other language group will be more motivated to learnthe language than individuals who do not

Three scales have been included in the AMTB to measure integrativeness One isAttitudes toward the Target Language Group, because it was expected that favorableattitudes toward the group would facilitate such openness, whereas negative attitudeswould impede it A second scale is Integrative Orientation It was hypothesized thatindividuals who expressed an interest in learning the language in order o interact, meet,socialize, become friends, etc., and with members of the other community would be moreopen than individuals who did not express such reasons The third scale is Interest inForeign Languages It was hypothesized that it was possible that some individuals may nothave a particular interest in the target language group, but may simply be open to allgroups

Attitudes toward the Learning Situation

Attitudes toward the learning situation refer to the individual‟s reaction to anythingassociated with the immediate context in which the language is taught As conceived in thesocioeducational model, these attitudes are considered relative to others in the class.Obviously, there would be differences in attitudes among classes because of the nature of