A study of the spread of English through the application of foreign language planning: a sociolinguistic survey of English-language attitudes, uses and needs among Brazilian university students
Description
Based upon a survey of 409 university-level students in 14 institutions in 5 areas of Brazil, this dissertation reassesses relationships among English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) proficiency, attitudes, uses and needs. Students in this study reported infrequent present use of spoken English, although verbal skills were those most desired. This inconsistency in reported uses and needs is supported by the observations of many educators who state that students want more practice with oral skills, while they most use and need English reading skills Factor analyses of students' responses to a 63-item questionnaire supported Fishman's (1977) findings that nonattitudinal factors correlate most highly with self-rated EFL proficiency. Complementary competence, use of English with native and non-native speakers, and number of languages spoken were more highly correlated with proficiency than were motivational or attitudinal variables. Attitudinal variables demonstrated a low correlation with proficiency. Implications are that attempts to boost motivation in ways unrelated to students' goals may have less effect than increasing the availability of meaningful opportunities to use the additional language Analyses of variance indicated that students from urban settings and those from private institutions reported higher proficiency than rural students and those from public institutions. Future teachers and private-school students reported more frequent use of English and higher native-speaker integrative motivation than non-teachers and public-school students. These findings supported the view (Hamp-Lyons 1983) that teachers may assume a native-speaker integrative motivation in their students, since they themselves seemed to identify more closely with native speakers and cultures Gardner and Lambert (1972) reported on the importance of integrative motivation in second language learning. In this study, reported motivation was most often instrumental rather than integrative, yet reported proficiency was high. The majority of students reported that they 'liked' English-speaking countries and native speakers of English less than they 'liked' or appreciated the usefulness of English in international communication, travel, business and study. It may be useful to describe 'integrative motivation' for the study of English in such sociolinguistic situations as Brazil as an identification with an international community of lingua franca speakers