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Notes: Reviews of the literature on foreign-language anxiety show a considerable amount of ambiguity arising from the conflicting results of past studies. This study attempts to show that these difficulties can be resolved given an awareness of the theoretical perspective from which this research has developed. Specifically, it was predicted that anxiety based in the language environment would be associated with language learning whereas other types of anxiety would not show consistent relationships to performance. Eleven anxiety scales were factor analyzed yielding two orthogonal dimensions of anxiety which were labelled General Anxiety and Communicative Anxiety. It was found that only Communicative Anxiety is a factor in both the acquisition and production of French vocabulary. Analyses of the correlations between the anxiety scales and the measures of achievement show that scales of foreign-language anxiety and state anxiety are associated with performance. Scales of test anxiety, audience sensitivity, trait anxiety, and other types of anxiety did not correlate with any of the production measures. Finally, a model is proposed which describes the development of foreign-language anxiety.

Notes: Au criticizes the socio-educational model of second-language learning and argues that the research literature does not offer strong support for it. The present article responds to these criticisms, indicating where they are based on invalid assumptions and/or a simplistic interpretation of the model, and reviews research findings that attest to the validity of the model. It is argued that Au's criticisms are valuable, however, in that they highlight issues in this research area, and some of the ones that are believed to be most important are then reviewed.

Notes: The purpose of this investigation was to investigate the relation of a series of attitudinal/motivational variables to achievement in French of samples of Canadian and American adult students in an intensive French language program, and to assess the effects of the program on attitudes, motivation, and French proficiency. The results demonstrated an association between an attitudinal/motivational factor, referred to as an integrative motive, and French oral proficiency and reported satisfaction with the program for the sample of 89 Canadian students, but not for the 65 Americans, even though an integrative motive factor was obtained with both samples. Furthermore, both samples evidenced decreases in anxiety and attitudes toward bilingualism, and increases in French proficiency as a result of the program, while the American sample also demonstrated a decreased appreciation of the French Canadian community, and an increased desire to learn French. The results were interpreted as reflecting the role played by attitudes in the language learning situation, but attention was directed toward the significant influence the sociocultural background of the student can have on the nature of this role.

Notes: This study examined changes in students' attitudes, motivation and French achievement during a five-week, residential, summer program. Sixty-two students were administered a battery of attitude and motivation tests as well as a test of oral French proficiency prior to, and upon completion of the course. In addition, both teacher-ratings and self-ratings of French language skills were collected at several time periods during the course. Data were analysed across the various testings for three groupings of students (i.e., beginning, intermediate, or advanced). Changes in attitudes, motivation and French proficiency were observed and the course was particularly effective in increasing student motivation to learn French and in promoting a rather rapid improve- ment in oral/aural skills. The pattern of attitude changes was more complex as both positive and negative shifts were observed. Possible implications of these findings for similar programs are discussed.

Notes: This meta–analysis investigates the relationship of second language achievement to five attitude/motivation variables from Gardner's socioeducational model: integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, motivation, integrative orientation, and instrumental orientation. These relationships were examined in studies conducted by Gardner and associates using the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery and various measures of second language achievement including self–ratings, objective tests, and grades. In total, the meta–analysis examined 75 independent samples involving 10,489 individuals. Two additional variables, availability of the language in the community and age level of the students, were examined to assess their moderating effects on the relationships. The results clearly demonstrate that the correlations between achievement and motivation are uniformly higher than those between achievement and integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, integrative orientation, or instrumental orientation, and that the best estimates of the population correlations are greater than 0. Neither availability nor age had clear moderating effects.

Notes: The initial impetus for this investigation was a discussion between the two authors about comments and criticisms in the literature concerning the role of attitudes and motivation in second language learning. It was noted that some researchers seemed to feel that such variables were important, while others felt that they were not, and some even felt that the relationships reported in the literature were too inconsistent to draw any firm conclusions. The senior author suggested that someone should do a meta-analysis to see exactly what the empirical data revealed and challenged the junior author to do so. In the following weeks, the enormity of the task became apparent. There were many articles that were identified with many different conceptualizations and measurement strategies, many different cultural settings, many different ages, and so forth, and it was obvious that a multitude of decisions would have to be made.To make the task a bit simpler, it was decided to start with research conducted by Gardner and associates simply because it was readily available and used a fairly standard set of concepts and measurement operations. Much to our surprise, there were more data here than we initially supposed, and in the end it seemed prudent to limit one study to this data set and plan a second meta-analysis to consider research by other investigators. Such an approach, we felt, would permit greater flexibility than trying to organize all studies into one format. Meta-analyses are enormous undertakings, however, and to date we have only managed to complete this one. The second study is underway, delayed somewhat by the vast distance now separating the two authors, let alone a number of logistical issues that make it difficult to identify a common set of constructs in the relevant literature.A major purpose of this investigation was to estimate the magnitude of the contributions that motivation and attitudes make to achievement in the second language in the research conducted by Gardner and his associates. This meta-analysis investigates the relationship of second language achievement to the five attitude/motivation variables from Gardner's socioeducational model: integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, motivation, integrative orientation, and instrumental orientation. Over the years, some interesting questions have been raised in the literature concerning the socioeducational model of second language acquisition and the role played by attitudes, motivation, and orientations in second language achievement. For example, some researchers have proposed specific hypotheses speculating whether the role of attitudes and motivation in language achievement may vary as a function of certain qualities of the learning situation (Is the language available outside of the classroom?), and /or qualities of the learner (Do attitudes and motivation play a stronger role depending upon the age of the learner?). We soon realized that these questions could be answered by this meta-analysis, and thus the focus was expanded to include two questions: (a) What is the best estimate of the correlations in the population between various aspects of second language achievement and the five attitudinal/motivational characteristics in Gardner's model? and (b) Are there other variables, such as the availability of the language in the community or the age of the learners, that influence the magnitude of these associations?These relationships were examined in studies conducted by Gardner and associates using the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, and three achievement measures including self-ratings, objective tests, and grades. In total, the meta-analysis examined 75 independent samples involving 10,489 individuals. The results demonstrated that the correlations between achievement and motivation are uniformly higher than those between achievement and integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, integrative orientation, or instrumental orientation, and that clearly the population correlations are greater than 0. In general, neither the availability of the language nor age had clear moderating effects on these relationships. [The present article first appeared in Language Learning, 53(1), 2003, 123–163]

Notes: Previous research has shown language anxiety to be associated with broad-based indices of language achievement, such as course grades. This study examined some of the more specific cognitive processes that may be involved in language acquisition in terms of a three-stage model of learning: Input, Processing, and Output. These stages were represented in a set of nine tasks that were employed to isolate and measure the language acquisition stages. A new anxiety scale was also developed to measure anxiety at each of the stages. Generally, significant correlations were obtained between the stage-specific anxiety scales and stage-specific tasks (e.g., output anxiety with output tasks) suggesting that the effects of language anxiety may be both pervasive and subtle.

Notes: The socioeducational model of second Language acquisition postulates that Language learning is a dynamic process in which affective variable influence Language achievement and achievement and experiences in Language learning can influences some affective variables. Five classes of variable are emphasized: integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, motivation, Language anxiety, and instrumental orientation. The present study of a 1-year intermediate-level French course reveals that some affective characteristics are more amenable to change than others, and that patterns of change over time are moderated by achievement in the course. Related findings demonstrate very few differences on the affective measures from one class section to another, and that day-to-day levels of state motivation are largely invariant, whereas state anxiety might be influenced by environmental events.

Notes: Language anxiety is a prevalent phenomenon in second language learning. This experiment examines the arousal of anxiety caused by the introduction of a video camera at various points in a vocabulary learning task. Seventy-two students of 1st-year university French were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (a) one group who had anxiety aroused during their initial exposure to the stimuli, (b) a second group who had anxiety aroused when they began to learn the meanings of the words, (c) a third group who had anxiety aroused when they were asked to produce the French word (when prompted with the English), and (d) a control group who did not experience anxiety arousal. Significant increases in state anxiety were reported in all three groups when the video camera was introduced, and concomitant deficits in vocabulary acquisition were observed. It is concluded that the stage at which anxiety arises has implications for any remedial action taken to reduce the effects of language anxiety.

Notes: The study examines the effects of both integrative motivation and anxiety on computerized vocabulary acquisition using a laboratory analog procedure as a microcosm of second language learning. An attempt was made to induce anxiety in one group of subjects by videotaping them while learning. Individual differences in integrative motivation were measured by aggregating relevant scales. Subjects higher in integrative motivation showed superior vocabulary acquisition and tended to initiate a translation more quickly than did those lower in integrative motivation. The anxiety manipulation did not appear to influence behavior during the learning trials. A second set of analyses revealed that subjects with more positive attitudes tended to respond more quickly and consistently to the attitude items. The results are discussed in terms of the operational definition of integrative motivation and its relation to anxiety.