The Computerized Mini-AMTB

Volume 21 Number 2 245

Jeff Tennant and R. C. Gardner

The Computerized Mini-AMTB*

JEFF TENNANT

R. C. GARDNER

The University of Western Ontario

ABSTRACTThis study investigated a computerized version of the mini-AMTB, a brief form of the Attitude Motivation Test Battery, in CALL. Students in first-year French classes participating in a 10-session independent-study multimedia lab completed the com-puterized mini-AMTB at the beginning of the fifth and tenth sessions and evaluated their state motivation and anxiety at these times. Results demonstrated that the relationships among the components of integrative motivation (i.e., integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, and motivation) during both sessions mirrored those obtained in other studies using the standard AMTB, that these components correlated predictably with the state measures, and that the measures showed high levels of reliability over the interval between the fifth and tenth session. Other re-sults indicated that achievement on the lab exercises in the fifth session correlated significantly with attitudes toward the learning situation during the fifth session and with an instrumental orientation in the tenth session, while achievement in the tenth session correlated significantly with motivation, integrativeness, and attitudes toward the learning situation in the fifth session and with motivation, integrativeness, and an instrumental orientation assessed during the tenth session. The utility of the mini-AMTB, which requires less than 3 minutes to complete, is discussed.

KEYWORDS

Attitudes, Motivation, French as a Second-Language, Anxiety, CALL

INTRODUCTION

A considerable number of studies carried out over the last 40 years have investi-gated the role of attitudes, motivation and anxiety in classroom second language learning. Gardner (1985, 1996, 2000) gives useful overviews of the findings of

CALICO Journal, 21 (2), p-p 245-263. © 2004 CALICO Journal

*This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Standard Research grant #410-99-0147). Thanks to Vicki Galbraith for her assistance with the statistical analysis and to Rick Harley for his programming help, as well as Annick Deakin for administrative assistance in running the study in the University of Western Ontario’s Language Learning Centre. Finally, thanks to the instructors and students of French 021 for their cooperation. This article is based on a presentation made at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics (CAAL) in Sherbrooke Quebec in May 1999. We would like to thank the following people for their comments on a previous version of this paper: Patsy Lightbown, Robert Papen, Marc Lafontaine, and Karen Woodman.

246 CALICO Journal

The Computerized Mini-AMTB

this research. The accumulated empirical results have uncovered some clear rela-tionships among these individual difference variables as well as to their tendency to correlate with achievement in the second language. Recent publications concerned with attitudes and motivation in learning another language reflect a move to build on the knowledge base in this area by arguing for an expansion of the motivation construct as well as for a better articulation of research findings with what goes on in the classroom. In this regard, we can note the articles by Crookes and Schmidt (1991), Dörnyei (1994b), Oxford and Shearin (1994), as well as Gardner and Tremblay (1994, 1995), Oxford (1994), and Tremblay and Gardner (1995). While a number of authors have pointed to what they perceive as limitations in Gardner’s socioeducational model, Gardner and his colleagues have argued that there is nothing in the model that prevents its extension to other dimensions of motivation. In fact, Tremblay and Gardner (1995) have empirically demonstrated that other motivational constructs are easily integrated into Gardner’s socioeducational model. The goal of this study is to contribute to the discussion by presenting a new way of gathering empiri-cal data which could help researchers and teachers test hypotheses concerning the relationship between affective variables and specific learning activities. The measurement instrument proposed here is a brief questionnaire administered on computer during a session in the multimedia lab. There is no need to dwell here on the importance of the role that computers have taken on in language teaching and learning over the past decade or so. Nor is it necessary to discuss at length the hopes that many language instructors have placed in these tools as a means of promoting autonomous learning, providing immediate feedback, and tailoring learning activities to individual students’ needs and learning styles. Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has the potential to provide a more effective environment for some aspects of language learning, while freeing up classroom time for those learning activities which are done most effectively in the context of direct interaction between student and instructor. Many of us hope that computers will thus help stimulate and sustain motivation in students. The hypothesis that CALL activities play a role in mo-tivating students is certainly appealing from an intuitive standpoint. However, unless we can find support for it in empirical research findings, it does not go beyond the level of optimistic speculation. It is not difficult to find, in the second language acquisition literature, tools that can be used to test hypotheses concerning the motivational role of CALL. Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) has shown its reliability and validity in numerous investigations. One could, for example, quite easily conceive of a research design in which the AMTB would be administered to groups of students participating in CALL activities in a class in order to assess possible changes in attitudes and motivation throughout the course. However, such in-class testing sessions have the disadvantage of being rather time consum-ing. We have observed that students taking courses at the university level can be demanding about how class time is used and can come to resent having research



surveys take up time that ought to be spent on learning activities. Furthermore, if we are interested in assessments which are directly associated with CALL activities, we will want students to respond to the items during their computer lab sessions. Since these sessions do not always take place at regularly scheduled times, but rather at times that can be chosen by students to fit their own schedules, the coordination of testing sessions can be problematic. In order to circumvent this problem, we decided to make use of an 11-item mini-AMTB that has been used in other studies to assess the same attributes as the larger form of the AMTB. The mini-AMTB makes use of a scaling format suggested by Guilford (1954), in which each item corresponds to one of the 11 scales in the larger battery. Previous research with versions of the mini-AMTB has demonstrated highly acceptable levels of convergent and discriminant validity. For example, in one study, Gardner, Lalonde, and Moorcroft (1985) tested volun-teers from an introductory Psychology course on 8 scales from a regular form of the AMTB and the corresponding mini-AMTB items. Correlations between the regular scales and their corresponding mini-AMTB items were significant with a median value of .575. At the same time, correlations between the scales within each measuring format were comparable to each other, with medians of .220 for the mini-AMTB and .375 for the regular AMTB format. A later study (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993), employing students registered in an introductory French course, and using all 11 scales, yielded similar results. The correlations between corresponding scales using a Likert format (the regular format in recent years) and the mini-AMTB were all significant and reasonably high with a median of .720. Furthermore, correlations between the 11 scales within each format were comparable with medians of .160 for the mini-AMTB and .195 for the Likert form. In this study, correlations between measures of French achievement and four aggregate scores often used in this research were calculated. The four ag-gregate scores were for Integrativeness, Attitudes toward the Learning Situation, Motivation, and Language Anxiety. These scores were obtained for both the Likert and mini-AMTB formats, and their correlations with five measures of French achievement were comparable, with medians of .250 (p < .05) for the regular AMTB, and .215 (p < .05) for the mini-AMTB. Recently, research has evaluated a children’s form of the mini-AMTB (Masgoret, Bernaus, & Gardner, 2001). Although the format was of necessity slightly different from previous versions of the mini-AMTB, the intent was to assess the same attributes with relatively few items. Participants in this in-vestigation were 499 Spanish children in Spain, ranging in age from 10 to 15 years, who were taking part in a 4-week summer program in English. A 17-item mini-AMTB was constructed to measure the major aggregate constructs from the AMTB: Integrativeness (4 items), Attitudes toward the Learning Situation (4 items), Motivation (5 items), and Language Anxiety (2 items). Two other measures were Instrumental Orientation (1 item) and Parental Encouragement (1 item). The relationship between each of the aggregate measures and an objec-tive measure of English achievement demonstrated significant correlations with

248 CALICO Journal


Integrativeness (r = .13, p < .01), Attitudes toward the Learning Situation (r = .13, p < .01), Motivation (r = .25, p < .0001), and Language Anxiety (r = -.28, p < .0001). These results are comparable, taking into account the large sample size, to results obtained with the AMTB (e.g., see Gardner et al., 1985). We were also interested in assessing levels of anxiety and motivation that stu-dents were experiencing at the very moment they were beginning the CALL task. Such in situ reactions have been referred to as states. For example, Spielberger (1983) proposed that it was possible to distinguish between trait anxiety, which was conceived as a general predisposition to be anxious in all situations, and state anxiety, which was the anxiety aroused in any given situation at any given time. Similarly, Julkunen (1989) has argued that state motivation could play an important role in our understanding of motivation in general. Concepts like states would appear to be valuable to investigate claims about the role teachers play in motivating students or reducing their anxiety. In the area of second language acquisition, Crookes and Schmidt (1991), Dörnyei (1994a, 1994b), and Oxford and Shearin (1994), for example, have suggested that aspects of motivation, other than integrative motivation, should be investigated, and one obvious aspect is that of state motivation. Some research has been conducted in the area of second language acquisition on measures of state anxiety. MacIntyre and Gardner (1989) conducted a laboratory study in which participants learned English-French word pairs and completed a number of measures of anxiety. A factor analysis of the anxiety measures obtained two factors. An assessment of state anxiety administered three times through the learning task of the study (using a scale developed by Spielberger, 1983) shared a factor in common with a number of other measures of anxiety. This factor was identified as General Anxiety and was independent of the other factor, identified as Communicative Anxiety. Measures of achievement in learning the French-Eng-lish word pairs on each trial were primarily associated with measures of French language anxiety and the assessments of State Anxiety particularly in the middle learning trials. In a subsequent study, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) again used the Spielberger (1983) assessments of State Anxiety and also introduced another measure of state anxiety, the anxometer. This study investigated processing in the native (English) and second (French) languages. The Spielberger measures were taken at three times during the study, and the anxometer measure was presented at the end of the study on which the respondents were asked to indicate how anxious they had been at four different times during the study. A factor analysis of the relationships among the anxiety measures indicated that a State Anxiety factor was independent of two other factors, General Anxiety and Language Anxiety. A French Language Anxiety score correlated significantly with measures of achievement on the French tasks, while two Anxometer scores referring to times when language tasks were being performed correlated significantly with scores on those tasks. The Spielberger scores did not correlate significantly with any of the measures of achievement to which they referred. Other research has investigated the roles played by both state motivation



and state anxiety. Tremblay, Goldberg, and Gardner (1995) made use of a task involving the learning of English-Hebrew word pairs. That study demonstrated that trait motivation had an influence on state motivation and that state motiva-tion influenced the rate of learning the word pairs. State anxiety also was related to the relative success in learning the word pairs. In another study, Gardner and Tremblay (1998) investigated whether state motivation and state anxiety mea-sures were specific to the language material that was being learned or whether individuals varied in state anxiety and motivation in general. They made use of two learning tasks, one involving the learning of English-French word pairs and the other of English-Persian (Farsi) word pairs. They found that both the trait and state measures of motivation were language specific. That is, trait measures of the motivation to learn French were related to the rate with which English-French word pairs were learned but not to the rate at which English-Persian word pairs were learned, and state motivation mediated the relationship between trait motivation and achievement in learning French. All of these studies were run in laboratory contexts in which student volunteers from introductory psychology classes were given tasks associated with learning second-language vocabulary or performing tasks involving the second language and did not involve students actually enrolled in second language courses. One purpose of the present investigation is to study the use of state measures of mo-tivation and anxiety with language students in an environment where they are being evaluated. The goal of this paper is to present a means of gathering data on individual difference variables affecting second language learning which does not place excessive demands on the teacher’s and the students’ time and which is adminis-tered by computer. The items in the mini-AMTB, as well as the state motivation and state anxiety tests, are filled out as the student begins a CALL task. We will present the results of an application of this online assessment of students in a first-year university-level French course. In analyzing the results, we will assess the validity and reliability of the 11-item mini-AMTB by comparing the observed relationships among variables to those found in numerous studies which made use of the larger AMTB, as well as those using a pencil and paper form of the mini-AMTB. We will also investigate the relation of the mini-AMTB assessments to the state measures. Finally, we will discuss how a survey instrument of this type can be used for further investigations by researchers and teachers.

CALL MATERIALS AND METHOD

Students enrolled in a first-year French language course at the University of Western Ontario were asked to participate in the study during their sessions in the independent-study multimedia lab during the 1997-98 academic year. For this part of the course, students prepared at home by reading chapters of a Quebecois novel, Les grandes marées, by Jacques Poulin. When the students went to the computer lab, they were able to consult grammar and vocabulary an-notations related to the novel. These annotations were prepared using Annotext, a

250 CALICO Journal


text annotation package for the Macintosh, which incorporates a built-in bilingual dictionary. Annotations focused on glossing lexical items and idiomatic expres-sions that were not contained in the dictionary, as well as explaining grammati-cal structures that were perhaps unfamiliar to students or could otherwise pose obstacles to reading comprehension. Annotext presents these annotated items on the screen to students with underlining; students click on the underlined item to open the annotation in a separate small window (see Figure 1).

Figure 1Annotext Annotations for Les grandes marées Novel

Once students had finished resolving, through their work with Annotext, all uncertainties they might have had about passages in the assigned chapters for the lesson, they completed a series of comprehension questions (mainly multiple choice and Cloze items) based on the novel. These exercises were developed using the CourseBuilder instructional design package for the Macintosh, which allows for the scoring of student responses. The CourseBuilder lessons tested reading comprehension using true-false, multiple-choice and column-matching items based on the content of the novel. Figures 2 and 3 give an example of a true-false question based on the first chap-ter. Figure 2 shows the screen presented to the students, and Figure 3 shows the feedback screen that provides the correct answer after the students have entered a response. Each lesson consisted of four sets of 10 to 15 questions.



Figure 2CourseBuilder True-false Item

Figure 3CourseBuilder Feedback Display

faux

252 CALICO Journal


Students were allowed to make as many attempts as necessary to obtain a score of at least 80% for each of 10 sets of exercises in the CourseBuilder mate-rial. They were required to submit printouts of the scores of these exercises on a weekly basis in the first semester, beginning in the third week of classes. At the beginning of the fifth and tenth sets of exercises, when students began the set of comprehension exercises for the first time, they were also asked to answer the mini-AMTB items presented on the computer (see Figure 4). Students were given the option of answering these items or of proceeding directly to the exercises. A total of 121 students volunteered to participate in the study: 77 did both assess-ments, and 44 did only the first one.

Figure 4Sample Item from the Computerized Mini-AMTB

The first set of items presented to the students was the mini-AMTB, a series of 11 items designed to measure traits related to attitudes, motivation, and anxiety associated with learning French. (Table 1 below lists the 11 items, and the ap-pendix to this article contains the entire text of the survey.) Figure 4 illustrates how the items were presented on the screen in CourseBuilder. Aggregate scores were derived from 10 of the items as follows: Integrativeness (INTEG = IO + IFL + AFC), Attitudes toward the Learning Situation (ALSIT = PROF + COURSE), Motivation (MOTIV = MI + D + ALF) and Language Anxiety (ANX = FUA + FCA). One item (INST) was used to assess instrumental orientation.



Table 1Survey Items in the Mini-AMTB Online Questionnaire (7-point scales)

The second set of items contained two graphic representations of thermometers: one for measuring motivation (called a motometer) and the other for measuring anxiety (called an anxometer). As the instructions in Figure 5 (see also Appendix) and the illustration in Figure 6 demonstrate, participants were asked to click on the level of each thermometer that corresponded to their level of motivation or anxiety at the time they completed the survey. A further variable, (ACH—Achieve-ment), representing participants’ scores on the comprehension exercises from that session, was also included in the analysis.

metI tnetnoC

OI)noitatneirOevitargetnI(

redronihcnerFgninraeltuobasgnileefymetaroterewIfIyehtyasotevahdluowI,snaidanaChcnerFhtiwtcaretniot

:eragnortS>—<kaeW

CFA)snaidanaChcnerFdrawotedutittA(

:sisnaidanaChcnerFdrawotedutittayMelbarovaF>—<elbarovafnU

LFI)segaugnaLngieroFnitseretnI(

:sihsilgnEdnahcnerFnahtrehtosegaugnalnitseretniyMhgiHyreV>—<woLyreV

D)hcnerFnraeLoteriseD(

:sihcnerFnraeloterisedyMgnortS>—<kaeW

FLA)hcnerFgninraeLdrawotedutittA(

:sihcnerFgninraeldrawotedutittayMelbarovaF>—<elbarovafnU

FORP)rotcurtsnIhcnerFdrawotedutittA(

:sirosseforphcnerFymdrawotedutittayMelbarovaF>—<elbarovafnU

TSNI)noitatneirolatnemurtsnI(

rofhcnerFgninraeltuobasgnileefymetaroterewIfIlanoitapuccoymevorpmiotsahcussesopruplacitcarp

:erayehtyasotevahdluowI,seitinutroppognortS>—<kaeW

AUF)yteixnAesUhcnerF(

:sissalcfoedistuohcnerFgnikaepsniyteixnayMhgiHyreV>—<woLyreV

ESRUOC)esruoChcnerFdrawotedutittA(

:sisessalchcnerFymdrawotedutittayMelbarovaF>—<elbarovafnU

ACF)yteixnAesruoChcnerF(

:sisessalchcnerFymnilevelyteixnayMhgiHyreV>—<woLyreV

IM)ytisnetnIlanoitavitoM(

:sahcnerFgninraeltakrowIdrahwoheziretcarahcdluowIhcuMyreV>—<elttiLyreV

254 CALICO Journal


Figure 5Instructions Presented on Screen to Introduce Motivation Thermometer Mea-surement Item

Figure 6Thermometer for Measuring State Variables (10 Levels Measured by Mouse Click): STM (State Motivation) Motometer and STA (State Anxiety) Anxom-eter



Once participants had responded to the survey items, which took a total of about 3 minutes to complete, they began the comprehension exercises. When the participants had finished this work, they were given the option of printing their score, which was to be submitted to their instructor, as well as generating a second printout of their score along with their responses to the mini-AMTB and state measures, which was to be given to the researchers.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 2 below presents the correlations obtained among the measures taken in the first assessment. It can be seen that Motivation is strongly correlated with Integrativeness and Attitudes toward the Learning Situation. There is also a strong correlation between these latter two aggregate variables. This strong relationship among Motivation, Integrativeness and Attitudes toward the Learning Situation provides some initial confirmation regarding the validity of the measurement instrument. Studies carried out using the complete scales of the AMTB have re-peatedly demonstrated the existence of such a relationship among these variables (e.g., see Gardner, 1985), which together comprise what Gardner has termed the “integrative motive” (Gardner, 2000). Comparable results were also obtained by Masgoret et al. (2001) with the children’s form of the AMTB. The fact that the results obtained using this short questionnaire show such a pattern suggests that the questionnaire indeed measures what it was intended to measure and provides some reassurance concerning its psychometric validity.

Table 2Correlations Among the Measures Taken at Time 1

Note. ns in individual correlations vary from 65 to 72.*p < .05. **p < .01.

Another strong relationship we can observe in these data is that which holds between Trait Motivation and State Motivation. Let us recall that Trait Motiva-tion was measured through the questionnaire items Attitudes toward Learning French, Desire to Learn French and Motivational Intensity, while State Motivation was measured using the location of a mouse click on a thermometer displayed on the screen. Since the students responded to both of these items in the same

1GETNI 1TISLA 1VITOM 1TSNI 1XNA 1MTS 1ATS 1HCA

1GETNI 00.1

1TISLA **35. 00.1

1VITOM **05. **07. 00.11TSNI 41. *52. **83. 00.11XNA 31.- 51.- 70.- **83.- 00.11MTS 11. **43. **64. 61. *82.- 00.11ATS 61.- 10.- 40.- 02.- **05. 10. 00.1

1HCA 21. *52. 40.- 70. 91.- 80.- 30. 00.1

256 CALICO Journal


session, it became difficult to distinguish between trait and state motivation in this context. Consequently, this correlation is not particularly surprising. Gardner & Tennant (1998) observed a similar strong relationship between trait motiva-tion, as assessed by the AMTB at the beginning of the academic year, and state motivation measured at different moments during the year. It is also somewhat predictable from these relationships among the variables that state motivation should be correlated with attitudes toward the learning situation. A similar observation can be made regarding the strong correlation between Trait Anxiety and State Anxiety. It is not surprising that students who consider themselves to be generally apprehensive in French class and in situations where they communicate in French outside the classroom would feel anxiety when beginning a reading comprehension task in French. A weaker and negative cor-relation is found between State Motivation and Trait Anxiety. Although Anxiety is assumed in Gardner’s model to be independent of motivation, here students who tended to experience higher levels of anxiety felt a lower level of motiva-tion at the time of testing. Note, however, that there is no correlation between the measures of State Motivation and State Anxiety or between those of Trait Motivation and State Anxiety. Finally, at Time 1, Instrumental Orientation is positively correlated with Motivation and Attitudes toward the Learning Situation and negatively correlated with Trait Anxiety, but not State Anxiety. The only variable found to be correlated significantly with Achievement (as measured by scores on the comprehension exercises) is Attitudes toward the Learning Situation. Students who viewed their French course and instructor favorably tended to score higher on the first attempt at doing the exercises for a given lesson than those who report less favorable attitudes on these items. When we turn our attention to the data in Table 3 from the second assessment performed 5 weeks later, we find very strong correlations among Integrativeness, Attitudes toward the Learning Situation, and Motivation similar to those at Time 1.

Table 3Correlations Among the Measures Taken at Time 2

Note. ns in individual correlations vary from 70 to 74.*p < .05 **p < .01


2GETNI 00.1

2TISLA **94. 00.1

2VITOM **45. **76. 00.12TSNI **34. **03. **74. 00.12XNA 51.- 31.- 70.- *62.- 00.12MTS **73. **34. **74. **03. 02.- 00.12ATS 30.- 21.- 40.- 51.- **05. 01. 00.1

2HCA *03. 31. **04. *42. 80. 70. 30. 00.1



State Motivation is once again correlated with Trait Motivation and Attitudes toward the Learning Situation, but this time it is also correlated with Integrative-ness. The strong correlation between State and Trait Anxiety is still present at Time 2. In addition, Instrumental Orientation is still correlated with Motivation, Attitudes toward the Learning Situation and Anxiety (negatively) but this time it correlates with both Integrativeness and State Motivation as well (positively). Finally, whereas achievement was correlated only with Attitudes toward the Learning Situation at Time 1, at Time 2 it is correlated with Integrativeness, Instrumental Orientation, and Motivation. Table 4 below shows the correlation coefficients between the measures from the first and second assessments. These data reflect a strong relationship between the measures at Time 1 and the same measures at Time 2, with the exception of the two assessments of achievement. From the perspective of potential changes in these affective variables, this result is not surprising, given the short interval of a few weeks between the two assessments. What these correlation coefficients do provide, however, is a good indication that the measures are reliable over this period of time.

Table 4Correlations Among the Measures Taken at Time 1 and Time 2

Note. ns in individual correlations vary from 62 to 77.*p < .05. **p < .01.

It is interesting to note that in these cross-time correlations Achievement at Time 1 is correlated only with Instrumental Orientation at Time 2 (recall it cor-related significantly only with Attitudes toward the Learning Situation at Time 1) but that Achievement at Time 2 is related to Integrativeness, Motivation, and Attitudes toward the Learning Situation at Time 1. Those students who evidenced high levels on the three components of integrative motivation at Time 1 tended to perform successfully at Time 2. Participation in this study was of course voluntary. This meant not only that not all students enrolled in the course chose to participate, but also that a certain number who completed the questionnaire at Time 1 chose not to do so at Time 2.


1GETNI **57. **34. **45. *92. *92.- *72. *82.- *82.

1TISLA **94. **38. **86. *92. 11.- **44. 10.- **03.

1VITOM **34. **95. **98. **44. 30.- **45. 50.- **93.1TSNI 02. *72. **44. **35. *53.- *72. 32.- 90.1XNA 10.- 01.- 60.- *52.- **58. 02.- **04. 20.1MTS 10. 32. *23. 30. 61.- **95. 80. 21.-1ATS 40.- 20.- 10. 90.- **84. 01. **17. 30.

1HCA 21. 71. 30. **23. 81.- 20.- 70.- 90.

258 CALICO Journal


We thought it would be interesting to compare these two groups, that is, those who did both assessments (N = 77) with those who only did the assessment at Time 1 (N = 44). The significant findings show that those who did both assessments had more favorable attitudes toward French Canadians in the first assessment than those who only did the assessment at Time 1 (t = 2.85, p < .01). In addition, those who did both assessments evaluated the learning situation (i.e., the course and the instructor) more favorably than those who only did the assessment at Time 1 (course: t = 2.73, p < .01; instructor: t = 2.21, p < .05). Finally, those who participated both times had higher levels of Motivational Intensity than those who only participated at Time 1 (t = 2.42, p < .05). It would therefore appear that students who are more highly motivated to learn French are also the ones who are most likely to persevere in their participation in this kind of research study. Such self-selection of participants on the basis of the affective variables under study is of course problematic but is difficult to avoid due to the ethical rules for recruiting research subjects.

CONCLUSION

As Lafontaine (1999) remarked, students are often less than enthusiastic about having to fill out a long questionnaire like Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (Gardner, 1985) or Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford, 1990). Empirical data gathered using such instruments are, however, indispensable to the progress of research on individual difference variables in second language learning. The goal of this paper has been to develop and test a less intrusive method for gathering data on such variables. The application of a quick computer-based survey of attitudes, motivation, and anxiety yielded results that are both comparable to those obtained using the long form of the AMTB and replicable across two assessments. Further studies will of course be needed in order to obtain a full confirmation of the validity and reliability of this measurement instrument. It should be stressed that this project represents a preliminary inquiry into the use of the computer for gathering this type of data. There are a number of ways in which the online questionnaire can be improved. The configuration of the server in use in the University of Western Ontario’s Language Learning Centre at the time of the study did not allow for easy storage and retrieval of student responses. For this reason, printouts of scores were used rather than a more efficient method of taking data from responses saved on the computer. A web-based system would lend itself well to a more efficient administration of the survey. It is also possible to improve on the way achievement is assessed. Since students were allowed to make multiple attempts on the comprehension items, we cannot be certain that in every case we got the results of their first attempt at completing them. The way these online quizzes counted in the students’ grades (submission of a score of at least 80% to obtain credit), even if multiple attempts were needed to attain this level, led to narrow range of achievement scores situated at the high end of the scale. These factors probably explain why the individual difference variables as-



sessed in this study did not relate as clearly to achievement as they had in previous studies. A more flexible authoring system could allow the instructor/researcher to design the exercise in such a way as to assure a distribution of scores for what we can be sure are students’ first attempts. It is easy to envision many uses of a computerized version of the mini-AMTB. We believe that this type of instrument has a definite potential to be useful in second language acquisition research. Furthermore, it can easily be extended to other variables such as strategy use and self-confidence and can be combined with online assessments of aptitude. Perhaps most importantly, however, the computer-ized mini-AMTB can allow teachers to gather data on their own students’ level of motivation and to test their own hypotheses about the motivational value of particular types of teaching methods and learning activities.

REFERENCESCrookes, G., & Schmidt, R. W. (1991). Motivation: Reopening the research agenda.

Language Learning, 41, 469-512.

Dörnyei, Z. (1994a). Motivation and motivating in the second language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 273-284.

Dörnyei, Z. (1994b). Understanding L2 motivation: On with the challenge. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 515-523.

Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of at-titudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.

Gardner, R. C. (1996). Motivation and second language acquisition: Perspectives. Revue de l’ACLA/Journal of the CAAL, 18, 19-42.

Gardner, R. C. (2000). Correlation, causation, motivation and second language acquisition. Canadian Psychology, 41, 10-24.

Gardner, R. C., Lalonde, R. N., & Moorcroft, R. (1985). The role of attitudes and motivation in second language learning: Correlational and experimental considerations. Language Learning, 35, 207-227.

Gardner, R. C., & MacIntyre, P. D. (1993). On the measurement of affective variables in second language learning. Language Learning, 43, 157-194.

Gardner, R. C. & Tennant, J. (1998, May). Attitudes, motivation and anxiety in learning French: Their relation to classroom experiences and achievement. Paper pre-sented at the Trends/Tendances 98 conference, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Gardner, R. C., & Tremblay, P. F. (1994). On motivation, research agendas, and theoretical frameworks. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 359-368.

Gardner, R. C., & Tremblay, P. F. (1995). On motivation: Measurement and conceptual considerations. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 524-527.

Gardner, R.C., & Tremblay, P. F. (1998). Specificity of affective variables and the trait/state conceptualization of motivation in second language acquisition. In R. Agnihotri, A. L. Khanna, & I. Sachdev (Eds.), Social psychological perspectives on second language learning (pp. 31-52). New Delhi, India: Sage.

260 CALICO Journal


Guilford, J. P. (1954). Psychometric Methods, New York: McGraw Hill.

Julkunen, K. (1989). Situation- and task-specific motivation in foreign-language learn-ing and teaching. University of Joensuu Publications in Education No. 6, Finland.

Lafontaine, M. (1999, May). Motivation, stratégies et réussite en langue seconde (L2). Paper presented at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Ap-plied Linguistics, Sherbrooke Quebec, Canada.

MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1989). Anxiety and second-language learning: Toward a theoretical clarification. Language Learning, 39, 251-275.

MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1991). Language anxiety: Its relationship to other anxieties and to processing in native and second languages. Language Learn-ing, 41, 513-534.

Masgoret, A.-M., Bernaus, M., & Gardner, R. C. (2001). Examining the role of attitudes and motivation outside of the formal classroom: A test of the mini-AMTB for children. In Z. Dörnyei & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Motivation and second language acquisition (pp. 281-295). Honolulu, HI: The University of Hawaii Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Rowley, MA.: Newbury House.

Oxford, R., & Shearin, J. (1994). Language learning motivation: Expanding the theoretical framework. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 12-28.

Oxford, R. L. (1994). Where are we regarding language learning motivation? Modern Language Journal, 78, 512-514.

Spielberger, C. D. (1983). Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory (Form Y). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Tremblay, P. F., & Gardner, R. C. (1995). Expanding the motivation construct in language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 79, 505-520.

Tremblay, P. F., Goldberg, M. P., & Gardner, R. C. (1995). Trait and state motivation and the acquisition of Hebrew vocabulary. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 27, 356- 370.



APPENDIX

Online Survey Items for Attitudes, Motivation, and Anxiety Study

Screen 1:On the following screens, you will find a brief questionnaire and two thermom-eters.These survey items, which take 2 to 3 minutes to complete, are part of the Mo-tivation Study which was presented in your class at the beginning of the year. Please see posting on the bulletin board in the Language Learning Centre for more information.If you have consented to participate in the study, please follow the instructions given with the survey items.If you have chosen not to participate, you may quickly move through these screens by skipping each question.***

Screen 2:The purpose of the following items is to determine your feelings about a number of issues associated with learning French. You are asked to rate each of the 11 items to indicate how they apply to you. Do this by moving your cursor to the circle on the scale following each item that best indicates your feelings about that statement, and then clicking the mouse to record your feeling. If it is im-portant to you not to answer an item, you can select the option “I would like to skip this question.” We would appreciate it if you did not do this unless it is very important to you, because if you do we will not be able to use your information in our analyses.***

Screens 4 to 15:1. If I were to rate my feelings about learning French in order to interact with

French Canadians, I would have to say they are: Weak - - - - - Strong [I would like to skip this question]

2. My attitude toward French Canadians is: Unfavorable - - - - - Favorable3. My interest in languages other than French and English is: Very Low - - - -

- Very High4. My desire to learn French is: Weak - - - - - Strong5. My attitude toward learning French is: Unfavorable - - - - - Favorable6. My attitude toward my French professor is: Unfavorable - - - - - Favorable7. If I were to rate my feelings about learning French for practical purposes

such as to improve my occupational opportunities, I would say that they are: Weak - - - - - Strong

8. My anxiety in speaking French outside of class is: Very Low - - - - - Very High

262 CALICO Journal


9. My attitude toward my French classes is: Unfavorable - - - - - Favorable10. My anxiety level in my French classes is: Very Low - - - - - Very High11. I would characterize how hard I work at learning French as: Very little - - -

- - Very much***

Screen 16:Following is a “motivation thermometer.” Please think about how you are feel-ing right now as you begin this lesson. Consider how hard you think you will try to learn the material, how much you want to learn the material, and how much you will enjoy this session and then summarize your overall motivation by moving the cursor up or down the thermometer until you reach a point that you think best describes your level of motivation. Then click on the mouse to record your level.

Screen 17:[graphic]

Screen 18:Did you click where you intended to or would you like to do that again?- I clicked where I intended to- I would like to do that again- I would like to cancel my answer and skip this question***

Screen 19:Following is an “anxiety thermometer.” Please think about how you are feeling right now as you begin this lesson. Consider any feelings of apprehension, worry or nervousness you feel, and then summarize your overall anxiety by moving the cursor up or down the thermometer until you reach a point that you think best describes your level of anxiety. Then click on the mouse to record your level.

Screen 20:[graphic]

Screen 21:Did you click where you intended to or would you like to do that again?- I clicked where I intended to- I would like to do that again- I would like to cancel my answer and skip this question

Screen 22:Menu of lesson activities: student now begins reading comprehension tasks



AUTHORS’ BIODATA

Robert C. Gardner (Ph.D., McGill, 1960) is Professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, where he is continuing his research, teaching the graduate course in Research Design, and serving as statistical consultant in the Depart-ment of Psychology. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and in 1999 received their Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training. He has published 150 journal articles and book chapters, written three books, Attitudes and motivation in second language learning (with W. E. Lambert in 1972), Social psychology and second language learning:The role of attitudes and motivation (1985), and Psychological statistics using SPSS for Windows (2001), and co-edited (with Rudolf Kalin) A Canadian social psychol-ogy of ethnic relations (1981).

Jeff Tennant (Ph.D., Toronto, 1994) is Associate Professor in the Department of French and Associate Dean (Academic) of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Western Ontario. He is former Secretary of the Canadian Association of Ap-plied Linguistics (1995-1999) and former co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics (previously the Journal of the CAAL). He teaches French as a second language (FSL) and Linguistics and is the author of several articles on sociolinguistic and phonetic aspects of French, with a particular focus on Ca-nadian French in minority settings. He has developed computer-based reading comprehension exercises for FSL and has recently been conducting research on learning strategies as well as attitudes and motivation in learning French at the university level.

AUTHORS’ ADDRESSES

Jeff TennantDepartment of FrenchThe University of Western OntarioLondon ON Canada N6A 3K7Phone: 519/661-2111 (ext. 84599)Fax: 519/661-3640Email: [email protected]

R. C. GardnerDepartment of PsychologyThe University of Western OntarioLondon ON Canada N6A 5C2Phone: 519/661-3670Fax: 519/661-3961Email: [email protected]

The Computerized Mini-AMTB

Documents

Transcript of The Computerized Mini-AMTB