Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

stay-ins appeared to be integrative: stay-ins showed more integrative motivation, as well
as overall motivation to learn French. Gardner et al. suggest that integrative motivation
"provides the student with the necessary motivation to persist in the second language
studies" (p. 200).
Integrative motivation also affects actual behavior in the classroom. Gardner et al. found
that those students whose test responses indicated the presence of integrative motivation
volunteered to answer questions more often, made more correct answers in class, and
received more positive reinforcement form their teacher. They were also perceived by
observers to be more "interested" in the French lesson.
Finally, Bialystok and Fröhlich (1977) reported that measures of integrative motivation
correlated with achievement in a test of reading comprehension for ninth- and tenthgrade
students of French in Toronto. This study also reported a positive and significant
correlation between integrative motivation and aptitude, which is counter to prediction
no. 1. To my knowledge, this result has not been reported elsewhere.
As mentioned above, integrative motivation has also been found to relate to proficiency
in English as a second language in the United States, another situation in which intake is
available outside the classroom. In this case, however, "indirect" methods of measuring
integrative motivation have been shown to be necessary. Spolsky (1969) defined
integrative motivation as the amount of agreement between a subject's view of himself
and his view of speakers of the target language on a variety of personality traits (e.g.
stubborn, lazy, kind). This indirect means of determining integrative motivation has
been successful, in that measures using this technique with ESL students show clear
positive correlations with English proficiency, while direct questionnaires, such as those
used in the Canadian studies, 4 did not show such relationships when used with ESL
students. Spolsky suggests that foreign students may not want to "admit to motives
which suggest they wish to leave their own country permanently" (p. 409).
In another American study, Oller, Hudson, and Liu (1977) studied educated Chinesespeaking
ESL students. While these students cited
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