MOTIVATION, SELF-CONFIDENCE, AND GROUP COHESION IN THE FOREIGN-LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

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.