Abstract:

This study investigated a computerized version of the mini-AMTB, a brief form of the Attitude Motivation Test Battery, in CALL. Students in first-year French classes participating in a 10-session independent-study multimedia lab completed the computerized mini-AMTB at the beginning of the fifth and tenth sessions and evaluated their state motivation and anxiety at these times. Results demonstrated that the relationships among the components of integrative motivation (i.e., integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, and motivation) during both sessions mirrored those obtained in other studies using the standard AMTB, that these components correlated predictably with the state measures, and that the measures showed high levels of reliability over the interval between the fifth and tenth session. Other results indicated that achievement on the lab exercises in the fifth session correlated significantly with attitudes toward the learning situation during the fifth session and with an instrumental orientation in the tenth session, while achievement in the tenth session correlated significantly with motivation, integrativeness, and attitudes toward the learning situation in the fifth session and with motivation, integrativeness, and an instrumental orientation assessed during the tenth session. The utility of the mini-AMTB, which requires less than 3 minutes to complete, is discussed.

Author: Jeff Tennant, R. C. Gardner