Defining the motivational basis of second and foreign language acquisi
tion has been at the center of much research and controversy for many
years. The present study applied social psychological constructs to th
e acquisition of English in the unicultural Hungarian setting. A total
of 301 Grade 11 students from the region of Budapest answered a quest
ionnaire assessing their attitude, anxiety, and motivation toward lear
ning English, as well as their perception of classroom atmosphere and
cohesion. In addition, their teachers rated each of the students on pr
oficiency and a number of classroom behaviors and evaluated the relati
ve cohesion of each class group. Factor and correlational analyses of
the results revealed that xenophilic (M=4.22 on a 1-6 scale), sociocul
tural (M=3.96), instrumental (M=3.78), and media-use reasons (M=3.79)
were most strongly endorsed by the students whereas an identification
orientation (M=1.81) was rejected. Factor analysis of the attitude, an
xiety, and motivation scales confirmed the existence of attitude-based
(integrative motive) and self-confidence motivational subprocesses an
d revealed the presence of a relatively independent classroom based su
bprocess, characterized by classroom cohesion and evaluation. Correlat
ional analyses of these clusters further revealed that, while all subp
rocesses were associated with achievement, self-confidence and anxiety
showed no relationship to classroom atmosphere. We discuss these find
ings in the context of current theories of second and foreign language
acquisition and with reference to their applied implications.