An Instrumental Motivation In Language Study: Who Says It Isn't Effective?

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of integrative motivation and instrumental motivation on the learning of French/English vocabulary. Integrative motivation was defined in terms of a median split on scores obtained on subtests from the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, while instrumental motivation was situationally determined in terms of monetary reward for doing well. The results demonstrated that both integrative motivation and instrumental motivation facilitated learning. Other results indicated that instrumentally motivated students studied longer than noninstrumentally motivated students when there was an opportunity to profit from learning, but this distinction disappeared when the incentive was removed. Both integratively and instrumentally motivated students spent more time thinking about the correct answer than those not so motivated, suggesting that both elements have an energizing effect. A secondary purpose of this study was to assess the consequences of computer administration of the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery. In this respect the results were most encouraging. Computer administration appeared not to detract from the internal consistency reliability of the subscales used, and moreover there was an indication that an index of reaction time to individual items might provide a way of identifying social desirability responding