The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of needs, attitudes and motivation in developing achievement in English as a foreign language for specific purposes. In order to set the stage, however, it is first necessary to review the research literature concerned with the influence of language aptitude and intelligence in the second/foreign language process. This introduction. is necessary because language aptitude and intelligence are the two learner variables which have been considered of prime importance for Language learning other than attitude and motivation The first chapter,which is an introduction, states the need for the study, reviews the literature on intelligence and aptitude as predictors of success in foreign language learning and presents the purpose for the study. The second chapter considers affective variables. It is divided into two parts. Part One focuses attention on affective factors, their importance to second language acquisition, their definition and their classification. Attention is directed mainly to two major classes of attitudes, external attitudes which are either educationally or socially relevant and internal attitudes which are idiosyncratic and result in self-esteem and anxiety. This classification leads to consideration of the specific role of attitudes and their importance as a source of motivation. In Part Two attention is directed to attitudes as they relate to linguistic achievement in second language learning and to other aspects of behaviour such as the drop-out phenomenon, class participation and inter-ethnic contact. The last section of this chapter is concerned with three representative and current models of second language acquisition which have incorporated a wide range of attitudes in their account of the language process. The third chapter is a review of empirical studies which investigate attitude/motivational variables and second language proficiency or achievement. It considers studies which deal with the impact of integrative and instrumental orientation on language proficiency or achievement and studies which show how a composite of the two orientations contributes to achievement in second language learning. Also, attention is directed to factors which might have led to these conflicting results and to findings which suggest, contrary to previous studies, that achievement variables are more powerful determinants of attitudes than attitudinal variables are of achievement. In the light of the literature reviewed in this chapter and in the preceding chapter the model suggested for the present study, reported in chapter 5, and the research hypotheses are presented. The fourth chapter reports a pilot run of a questionnaire constructed to be used in the main study. The data obtained through the questionnaire is presented, discussed and tabulated. Then recommendations regarding the main study were made and the five hypotheses addressed in Chapter 3 were restated with the expected outcomes of each. The fifth chapter is concerned with the Kuwait University Study. It first deals with the subjects and the data gathering instruments: the student questionnaire, the professor questionnaire and achievement measures. Each instrument is discussed as to content, form and administration and the procedures for data collection are given. Second, the results of the structured interview administered to the subjects' professors and the students' questionnaire are analysed and discussed. Thirdly, means and standard deviations of the dependent and independent variables according to college, course level, nationality and sex for each college separately and for the entire population are tabulated, presented and discussed. Fourthly, the correlation between each mean scale and subscale raw scores and GPA and final grade mean scores and multiple regression and a factor analysis run and rotated to a varimax solution are presented, tabulated and discussed. Finally, the five hypotheses addressed in Chapter 3 are listed with a description of each in a form of summary. The sixth chapter is devoted to summary, conclusions, implications and recommendations. It is divided into three sections. The first section summarizes the steps of the study and presents the conclusions that can be drawn from the results of the study. The second section is concerned with the implications of the results of the study for both future research and language instruction at Kuwait University. The third section concludes chapter six by making some recommendations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:315893 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Al-Busairi, Muhammad |
| Publisher | Lancaster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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