Attitudes and motivation, language learning strategies and achievement in French in Kenya: a correlational analysis and an experiment

Abstract

This is a two-part study involving an enquiry and an experiment into the role of attitudes and motivation, on the one hand, and into the learning strategies of the foreign language learner, on the other hand. Tests were· carried out to determine the relationship between these factors and achievement in French and an attempt was made to discover the possible effects of these factors on achievement, by conducting an experiment in the teaching of motivation and learning strategies, using instructional materials only. The population was: a stratified random sample of intact groups drawn from seven national and non-national schools; the 2.51subjects were Form I children of approximately 13 years, begInning French in state secondary schools, from rural and urban homes, from a wide range of linguistic communi ties and socio-economic backgrounds. They were divided into three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. At the outset of the investigation it was considered important to study the total multicultural context of the learner in order to appreciate his attitudes towards the French Language; Therefore an analysis was made of the learner's attitudes towards his first language, towards Kiswahili, tow.ards English and finally towards French. Learners, were,'also questioned on their attitudes towards familiar' and foreign peoples and towards Francophones and French people. Motivational orientation, attitudes towards the teacher', levels of ethnocentrism and various other .factors wexeincluded in the study. An important feature of this investigation was the development of French achievement tests for Kenya (cloze tests) and the designing of instructional materials on motivation and Learning strategies. These materials consisted of eight booklets which were given to the two experimental groups in the absence of the researcher. The effects of these materials were then measured. It.was found that significant (p.<.01) relationships existed between motivation, learning strategies and achievement; in French; that, specifically, attitudes towards the teacher,overall academic achievement, achievement in English, sex, area of origin (rural/urban), primary and secondary school environments and achievement in French were positively correlated (girls, and students from rural homes and low-cost. primary schools generaly did best in French in secondary school); that there was a tendency towards a negative correlation between achievement in French and favourable attitudes towards the first language and Kiswahili. Attitudes towards African languages became more positive during the first year of French but the entering attitude profile nevertheless pointed to some cultural conflict at the outset of learning. • The. results of the experiment showed that strategy teaching, thr.ough instructional materials, can be effective in French learning in Form I in Kenya. The outcome of motivation teaching was however more ambiguous: favourable attitudes towards French were increased significant antly in the relevant experimental group , but the in crease did not automatically produce better learning. It was concluded that without the intervention of strategies teaching and or the teacher, increasingly motivated learn, ers. do not necessarily become more successful learners, since (a) they may need attitude reinforcement from the teacher and since (b) they do not necessarily know of or practise appropriate learning strategies. Having taken into consideration the results of similar studies in other parts of the world, careful interpretation of the findings of this study, together with the aid of a.theoretical model developed here, resulted in the conclusion that. successful motivational orientation type can be :gredicted from a description of the socio-cultural context. A third motivational type was added to the now classic. integrative and instrumental types: patriotic type. These findings emphasize the cultural complexity of the language learning task in Kenya and produce fresh evidence: to support the now wide literature: on education in Africa which indicates that the learning environment, the school, would seem to be,the most important determinant in learning outcomes.