The relation among college student attitudes, motivation and aptitude to foreign language achievement: A test of Gardner's model

Research in foreign language education rarely examines two different ethnic groups within the same learning context. By focusing on two different ethnic groups, this study examines the relation among motivation, attitudes, aptitude, ethnic membership and foreign language achievement. As a partial replication of R. C. Gardner's socio-educational model (1985), this study uses regression analysis in order to discover how attitudes, aptitude and motivation relate to second language achievement. However, the study extends Gardner's model by including the demographic variable of Ethnic Membership.;The total sample for the study included 135 college students (87 European Americans and 48 Hispanic Americans) enrolled in second semester Spanish at three community college campuses in Southeast Texas. All subjects took the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) developed by Gardner and Smythe (1981), the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) (Carroll and Sapon, 1959), and the Language Achievement Test from the DANTES Subject Standardized Test (DSSTs) (Educational Testing Service, 1992).;The investigation addressed the following research question using the following procedures: How do motivation, attitude, aptitude and ethnic membership contribute to Spanish achievement among community college students? The correlation coefficient and regression procedures were used to describe the relation between variables, to predict language achievement, and to discover how variations in the dependent variable corresponds to variations in the independent variables.;The primary findings of the study demonstrated that the proposed model (a version of Gardner's model with the inclusion of ethnic membership) had a reasonable fit. This model produced a multiple correlation coefficient of 0.74, which is significantly different from zero. Setwise multiple regression analysis showed that Aptitude (Beta =.43), Motivation (Beta =.41) and Ethnic Membership (Beta =.14) explained more than half of the variance in Language Achievement (Adjusted R;The proposed model supports Gardner's socio-educational model which assumes that attitudes act as supports for motivation. Gardner's original model also found aptitude a powerful predictor of achievement. The inclusion of ethnicity as a predictor had a small but significant effect on achievement (Hispanic Americans did slightly better on the achievement test).;Although the proposed model proved to be acceptable, the inclusion of the approach of second language instruction to the model may improve prediction of academic achievement. Pedagogical implications of the study are also discussed.