Attitude, Motivation and English Language Learning in a Mexican College Context

Abstract

This dissertation examined the relationship between attitude and motivation with English language achievement among Mexican university students across three undergraduate academic programs. This study also aimed at enhancing theoretical knowledge about students' motivation and attitudes towards learning English as a second language through the use of quantitative (a survey and an adapted version of the AMTB) as well as qualitative research instruments and techniques (interviews, class observations, and a questionnaire). The major results in this dissertation are: 1) Student participants display positive motivation and attitudes toward learning English as a second language in general, but these motivation and attitudes towards the English classes they receive in the University of Aztlán (fictitious name for the research site of this dissertation) are lower. 2) These attitudes and motivations can be affected by the way in which the English language program is structured. 3) Students' interest in foreign languages, motivational intensity to learn English and teacher evaluation can impact students' scores in their English exams when they are first assessed, but that scores improve once students understand the assessment process, discover what information is evaluated in the exams, and focus on the areas to be assessed. 4) Students with more previous English contact before enrolling the university, obtain higher scores than students with limited previous contact with the language. 5) Interviews and class observations proved to be the most effective research techniques to identify the actual activities that are performed in the research site, which suggests that continuous and accurate English program evaluation is necessary in Mexican universities for the benefit of students, teachers and society in general.