- Title
- English language attitudes and motivation among adult migrants in Australia
- Creator
- Ratcheva, Silvia
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2007
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The present investigation is a project in applied linguistics which looks at second language acquisition (SLA) from a social psychological perspective. The study is cross-sectional correlational by design and draws on two social psychological models of SLA, namely: Gardner's (1985) socio-educational model and Schumann's (1978) acculturation model of SLA. The structured interview and survey methods were used to elicit the attitudes toward the speakers of Australian English and motivation for learning English among first generation non-English speaking adult migrants who were permanent settlers in, or citizens of, Australia. The Australian Second Language Proficiency Ratings (ASLPR) scale was used as a global and unobtrusive measure of English language proficiency. The study situates the socio-educational and acculturation models within recent developments of attitude, acculturation, motivation, and SLA theory; explores the differences in attitudes and motivation as a function of respondents' ethnic background and length of residence; and examines the relationship among the various acculturation, motivation and English language proficiency measures.The recurring themes are those of conceptual complexity, of integrativeness which is usually understood in SLA as the learners' social integration and psychological identification with the speakers of the target language, and the impossibility to separate the social from the individual level of analysis in SLA research. The results help to understand the evaluations and stereotype that migrants hold of Anglo-Australians and the values that underlie them. The results also lend support to the proposition (e.g. Dornyei, 2005) that an alternative interpretation of integrativeness in SLA is possible. The findings could be informative to those involved in policy making and in delivering education to migrants.
- Subject
- SLA; immigrants; attitudes; motivation; acculturation; second language acquisition
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/31417
- Identifier
- uon:2749
- Rights
- Copyright 2007 Silvia Ratcheva
- Language
- eng
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