ON THE VALIDITY OF AFFECTIVE VARIABLES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: CONCEPTUAL, CONTEXTUAL, AND STATISTICAL CONSIDERATIONS ¹

Abstract

This article reviews the proposition that achievement in a second language is related to attitudinallrnotivational characteristics of the students. It uses as its starting point articles by Oller and Perkins, and demonstrates that their generalizations that such relationships are weak, and that they are due to the spurious effects of verbal intelligence and language proficiency are not founded in fact. Statistical, contextual, and conceptual issues relevant to their criticisms of this research area are reviewed, as are much more parsimonious interpretations of socalled "strange" findings. It is recommended that rather than argue over hypothetical relationships, we direct our research attention to unravelling the mysteries of second language acquisition, to the benefit of students and teachers alike.

Ethnic Minority Children Acquiring Literacy

“…They pointed to three potential sources of extraneous variance in such measures: approval motive, self-flattery and response set. Gardner (1980) considered statistical, contextual and conceptual arguments in order to explain the inconsistencies of previous research, which had been brought forward by Perkins & Oller. Another controversial aspect concerns the Ultimate character of the relationship between cultural orientation and language proficiency. Both Gardner & Lambert (1972) and Schumann (1976Schumann ( , 1978 implicitly stated that there is a causal relationship between attitudes and language proficiency.…”

EFL Learners’ Attitudes toward Writing Instruction Based on Critical Language Awareness

“…Gardner (1980) has classified attitude into specificity, generality, social and educational. The first two categories, as the terms are self-explanatory, were exemplified by attitude toward learning French or learning a foreign language which is a good indicator of the construct to be investigated.…”

“…Williams and Burden (1997), in a comprehensive book on social constructivism, designed their framework via four interrelated concepts of teacher, learner, task, and context, in which, constructs such as motivation and attitude were argued to have a direct influence on teacher and learner. Among the aforementioned constructs, attitude has been defined by Gardner (1980) as "the sum total of a man's instinctions and feelings, prejudice or bias, preconceived notions, fears, threats, and convictions about any specified topic" (p.267); hence, this specified topic can be the mother tongue or other languages (Crystal, 1997).…”

Attitude Factors Affecting Teachers’ Use of Short Stories in the Teaching of Kiswahili Grammar in Secondary Schools in Nandi North Sub-County, Kenya

“…Gardner (1980) defines attitude as the sum total of a man's instincts, feelings, prejudice or brains, preconceived notions, fear, threats and convictions about any specified topic. Ajzan (1988) views attitude as a disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object, person, institution or event.…”