Motivation, Attitudes, and Achievement in the English Conversation Class : A Descriptive Analysis

In order to measure motivational and attitudinal norms of Japanese public university students, an anonymous course evaluation was administered to six sections (221 students, representing freshmen and sophomores from all faculties of study at Shimane University) of English conversation classes after one year of study. The course emphasized interaction and oral communication, despite the oft cited drawbacks to such an approach due to a perceived low threshold of motivation among students. The evaluation was designed to measure attitudes toward the importance of the course, materials, techniques, other students, the teacher, and the course in general. Results show a very positive evaluation from all groups for all of the attitudes being measured, thus, supporting the hypothesis that an interactionbased oral communication course can be successful from the students' point of view. In addition, when the data was grouped according to two fields of study −Arts vs. Sciences − some differences in attitude toward "other students" were revealed, indicating differences among sub-groups of students, which may be important for learning and teaching. Still another finding shows the students' rating of the importance of learning English conversation to be a significant predictor of their rating of the course in general. Although this research was primarily aimed at establishing norms, analysis of data also indicates some differences among sub-groups in their course achievement, which can be related to their differences in attitudes. Other analyses of the data corroborate motivational and attitudinal factors that have been reported elsewhere as important for language learning.