The Computerized Mini-AMTB

Authors

  • Jeff Tennant The University of Western Ontario
  • R. C. Gardner The University of Western Ontario

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v21i2.245-263

Keywords:

Attitudes, Motivation, French as a Second-Language, Anxiety, CALL

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 Biographies

  • Jeff Tennant, The University of Western Ontario

    Jeff Tennant (Ph.D., Toronto, 1994) is Associate Professor in the Department of French and Associate Dean (Academic) of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Western Ontario. He is former Secretary of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics (1995-1999) and former co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics (previously the Journal of the CAAL). He teaches French as a second language (FSL) and Linguistics and is the author of several articles on sociolinguistic and phonetic aspects of French, with a particular focus on Canadian French in minority settings. He has developed computer-based reading comprehension exercises for FSL and has recently been conducting research on learning strategies as well as attitudes and motivation in learning French at the university level.

  • R. C. Gardner, The University of Western Ontario

    Robert C. Gardner (Ph.D., McGill, 1960) is Professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, where he is continuing his research, teaching the graduate course in Research Design, and serving as statistical consultant in the Department of Psychology. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and in 1999 received their Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training. He has published 150 journal articles and book chapters, written three books, Attitudes and motivation in second language learning (with W. E. Lambert in 1972), Social psychology and second language learning:The role of attitudes and motivation (1985), and Psychological statistics using SPSS for Windows (2001), and co-edited (with Rudolf Kalin) A Canadian social psychology of ethnic relations (1981).

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Published

2013-01-14

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Articles

How to Cite

Tennant, J., & Gardner, R. (2013). The Computerized Mini-AMTB. CALICO Journal, 21(2), 245-263. https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v21i2.245-263

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