Cognitive, Affective, Personality, and Demographic … Affective, Personality, and Demographic...

Cognitive, Affective, Personality, and Demographic Predictors of Foreign-LanguageAchievementAuthor(s): Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Phillip Bailey, Christine E. DaleySource: The Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 94, No. 1 (Sep. - Oct., 2000), pp. 3-15Published by: Heldref PublicationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27542298Accessed: 26/02/2010 19:45

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Cognitive, Affective, Personality,

and Demographic Predictors

of Foreign-Language Achievement

ANTHONY J. ONWUEGBUZIE PHILLIP BAILEY CHRISTINE E. DALEY Valdosta State University University of Central Arkansas Muscogee County School District, Georgia

ABSTRACT The ability of cognitive, affective, personality, and demographic variables to predict second-language acqui sition among college students was investigated. An all possible subsets regression analysis was used to compare the propor tion of variance in foreign-language achievement explained by each variable. The analysis revealed that variables from each

of the 4 domains were important predictors of foreign-lan

guage achievement. Overall, academic achievement, as mea

sured by GPA average, was the best predictor, explaining 11.5% of the variance in foreign-language achievement. For

eign-language anxiety, the next best predictor, explained 10.5% of the variance. The educational implications of these

findings for understanding foreign-language achievement are

discussed, along with suggestions for future research.

Foreign-language

instructors are accustomed to observ

ing a wide range of performance in their courses.

Whereas some students excel in learning a foreign lan

guage, many students underachieve, or do not achieve their

desired level of proficiency. In an attempt to understand that

phenomenon, researchers have investigated a multitude of

factors that may affect language learning. Although Ehrman

and Oxford (1995) noted that the majority of those studies

focused on cognitive variables (e.g., language aptitude,

cognitive ability, study habits), affective (e.g., anxiety, self

perceptions), personality (e.g., locus of control, individual

ism), and demographic (e.g., age, number of previous for

eign languages studied) variables also seem to be related to

foreign-language achievement (Ehrman & Oxford, 1995;

Gardner, Tremblay, & Masgoret, 1997).

Only a few studies have examined the role of cognitive, affective, personality, and demographic variables concur

rently. Gardner et al. (1997) stated that "there is a lack of

research examining the relationships among all those vari

ables simultaneously" (p. 344). Two studies that investigat ed the relationships of several classes of variables to for

eign-language achievement are Gardner et al. (1997) and Ehrman and Oxford (1995). Specifically, Gardner et al.

(1997) found substantial relationships between foreign-Ian

guage achievement and noncognitive variables. Those

authors noted that when foreign-language achievement in

French classes is assessed using relatively objective mea

sures that are administered at the same time as other mea

sures, foreign-language anxiety, self-confidence, and per

ceived foreign-language ability are most highly related to

achievement. Unfortunately, Gardner et al. tested 34 vari

ables simultaneously with only 102 participants. Because

the subject-to-variable ratio was only slightly more than

3:1, less than the 5:1 minimum recommended for multivari

ate analyses (Thompson, 1990), the subsequent path coeffi

cients likely were unstable.

Ehrman and Oxford (1995), whose students comprised a

large sample of adults enrolled in intensive training lan

guage courses at the Foreign Service Institute, reported that

cognitive variables exhibited the strongest correlations with

foreign-language achievement, followed by affective fac

tors, then personality variables. However, because those

authors reported only zero-order correlation coefficients,

the impact of each variable was considered in isolation. As

such, it is not clear how each of the variables relates to for

eign-language achievement in the presence of other factors.

Moreover, no comparisons were made with respect to the

proportion of variance explained in foreign-language achievement. That consideration is potentially important because, as Pedhazur (1982) noted, "Inspection of zero

order correlations is not sufficient to reveal the potential usefulness of variables when they are used simultaneously to predict or explain a dependent variable" (p. 104).

Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine

further the role of various cognitive, affective, personality, and demographic variables in foreign-language achieve

ment. That is, we investigated which variable domains best

predict second-language acquisition among college stu

dents by comparing the proportion of variance in foreign

Address correspondence to Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Depart ment of Educational Leadership, College of Education, Valdosta

State University, Valdosta, GA 31698. (E-mail: TONWUEGB

@VALDOSTA.EDU)

3

4 The Journal of Educational Research

language achievement explained by each possible combina

tion of factors. Proportion of variance explained is the mea

sure of effect size recommended for regression analyses by research methodologists and statisticians (Cohen, 1988).

We used the following three cognitive variables: overall

academic achievement (as measured by GPA), study habits, and students' expectations of their performance in a for

eign-language course. In addition, we used four affective

variables; namely, foreign-language anxiety, perceived

intellectual ability, perceived scholastic competence, and

perceived self-worth. The four personality variables com

prised levels of cooperativeness, competitiveness, individu

alism, and locus of control. Finally, we considered the fol

lowing seven demographic factors: gender, age, semester

course load, number of countries visited, number of high school foreign-language courses taken, status of present

foreign-language course (i.e., required or elective), and for

eign-language proficiency of immediate family members.

Thus, 18 independent variables were selected to keep the

ratio of participants to variables greater than 10 to 1 (i.e., 184 students to 18 variables), which exceeds the minimum

recommended ratio in multiple-regression analyses for

obtaining reasonably stable effect-size estimates (Tabach

nick & Fidell, 1989). An extensive review of the literature

revealed that the majority of studies published in the area of

foreign-language achievement reported an inappropriate

subject-vari able ratio.

Literature Review

Cognitive Variables

According to Sparks and Ganschow (1991, 1993a,

1993b), the acquisition of a foreign language is impeded

primarily by native-language learning difficulties in master

ing the phonological, syntactic, and semantic codes of lan

guage. As such, those authors contend that affective vari

ables (e.g., anxiety) are not causes of foreign-language

learning problems but are side effects of having difficulties

coding the native language (Sparks & Ganschow, 1991,

1995). Sparks and Ganschow first termed that theory the

Linguistic Coding Deficit Hypothesis (Sparks & Ganschow,

1991, 1993a, 1993b) before renaming it the Linguistic Cod

ing Differences Hypothesis (LCDH; Sparks & Ganschow,

1995). Apparently, the LCDH is based on the work of Vel

lutino and Scanlon (1986), who found that poor readers

have difficulties processing the formal and the structural

characteristics of written and spoken words.

According to Sparks and Ganschow (1995), support for

the LCDH stems from comparisons of low- and high

achieving foreign-language learners, which have revealed

consistently that the former have significantly lower levels

of native-language ability and foreign-language aptitude.

Because college students with native-language deficits (i.e.,

differences) tend to have lower levels of overall academic

achievement than do their counterparts, one may reasonably

assume that, to the extent that the LCDH prevails, students'

overall GPA would be related to foreign-language perform ance. That is, students with overall high academic achieve

ment also tend to have the native-language aptitudes that

were found by Sparks and Ganschow (1991, 1993a, 1993b,

1995) to predict high levels of foreign-language achieve

ment. One would expect that finding to be true especially at

universities like the one in the current study, where the vast

majority of foreign-language students are enrolled to fulfill a bachelor of arts degree requirement for majors that tradi

tionally require stronger verbal skills. Positive relationships between mathematics proficiency and foreign-language

achievement and between reading performance and foreign

language achievement have been reported (Hart, 1993). Yet,

surprisingly, to date no study appears to have used GPA to

investigate the relationship between second-language

acquisition and academic achievement at the college level.

Research has shown repeatedly that the most successful

learners are those who use learning strategies that tend to be

the most optimal for second-language acquisition (Ehrman,

1989; Ehrman & Oxford, 1990; Oxford, 1989; Oxford &

Crookhall, 1989; Skehan, 1989). Because learning strategy use is a component of study habits, it is likely that the latter

would be related to foreign-language achievement. Oxford

(1989) noted that "language learning strategy research has

suffered from an overemphasis on metacognitive and cog

nitive strategies, which are admittedly very important, at the

expense of other strategy types that are also very useful"

(p. 2). Thus, the inclusion of study skills in the present

investigation represents an attempt to use a more global

measure of learning strategies to respond to that concern. A

positive relationship between study skills and academic per formance has been reported consistently in the literature

(Al-Hilawani & Sartawi, 1997; Blustein et al, 1986; Jones

& Slate, 1992). Moreover, Jones, Slate, Perez, and Marini

(1996) concluded on the basis of a series of studies con

ducted by Jones and Slate (1992) that study skills account

for approximately 15% of the variance in undergraduate students' grades. Onwuegbuzie, Slate, Paterson, Watson,

and Schwartz (2000) documented that study habits explain

approximately 5% of the variance in achievement in

research methodology courses. We hypothesized that study habits would be related to foreign-language achievement.

Ganschow and Sparks (1991) noted that students' per

ceptions of the ease of learning foreign languages are the

foremost indicators of their propensity to experience for

eign-language learning difficulties. According to Horwitz

(1990), students enroll in foreign-language classes with pre conceived beliefs about how to learn a language, together

with expectations as to their ability to accomplish the task.

Apparently those beliefs and expectations can affect stu

dents' foreign-language performance. Ganschow et al.

(1994) theorized that negative beliefs and expectations pos sessed by some students enrolled in foreign-language class

es have been acquired because their written and oral native

language skills have prevented them from attaining the

September/October 2000 [Vol. 94(No. 1)] 5

same levels of academic achievement as their counterparts

who competently use their native language. Furthermore,

the low expectations of many foreign-language students

make them unreceptive to language input, thereby debilitat

ing the learning process (Krashen, 1980). Students' expec tations of their final grades1 also are likely a measure of

their confidence in learning foreign languages, which Cl?

ment and his colleagues (Cl?ment, 1980; Cl?ment &

Kruidenier, 1985; Cl?ment, D?rnyei, & Noels, 1994) have

shown is related positively to achievement. Onwuegbuzie,

Bailey, and Daley (1999) found that students' expectations of their future performance is the best predictor of their lev

els of language anxiety. Thus, we hypothesized that stu

dents' expectations of their achievement in foreign-lan

guage courses may be related positively to their ultimate

performance.

Affective Variables

A myriad of studies have documented that language anx

iety is one of the primary predictors of second-language

acquisition (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; Maclntyre & Gardner, 1989, 1991a, 1991b). Specifically, a moderate

negative relationship between language anxiety and vari

ous measures of foreign-language achievement consistent

ly has been found (Gardner, Lalonde, Moorcroft, & Evers,

1987; Gardner & Maclntyre, 1993; Gardner, Moorcroft, &

Maclntyre, 1987; Gardner, Smythe, & Lalonde, 1984; Hor

witz et al, 1986; Maclntyre & Gardner, 1991c; Mettler,

1987; Phillips, 1992; Price, 1991; Trylong, 1987; Young, 1986). Moreover, Gardner and Maclntyre (1993) found

that language anxiety is the best single correlate of

achievement. Foreign-language anxiety has been related to

performance in oral examinations (Phillips, 1992; Scott,

1986), to the production of vocabulary (Gardner, Moor

croft, & Maclntyre, 1987), and to teachers' ratings of

achievement (Trylong, 1987). Because foreign-language

anxiety appears to be one of the best predictors of foreign

language achievement (Gardner, 1985), any model that

seeks to predict foreign-language achievement that does not include a measure of foreign-language anxiety likely would be underspecified.

Horwitz et al. (1986) contended that perhaps no other

field of study poses as much of a threat to students' self

concept as does language study. Cl?ment and his associates

(Cl?ment, D?rnyei, & Noels, 1994; Cl?ment, Gardner, &

Smythe, 1977, 1980; Cl?ment & Kruidenier, 1985) found

that self-confidence is related to proficiency in second-lan

guage acquisition, perhaps because students with low levels

of self-confidence tend to have lower motivation to learn a

foreign language (Cl?ment, 1980). Because perceptions of

self-confidence with respect to foreign-language learning also have been found to be related to foreign-language achievement (Cl?ment et al., 1994), other self-perception dimensions may play a role in foreign-language classes. In

particular, we hypothesized that perceived intellectual abil

ity, perceived scholastic competence, and perceived self

worth may be predictors of foreign-language achievement.

Personality Variables

A review of the literature examining personality variables

and foreign-language achievement yielded reductive and

oversimplified theoretical frameworks that resulted in mea

ger results (Dunkel, 1947; Kawczynski, 1951). However, even studies that included many potential personality fac

tors have generated few significant findings. Lalonde and

Gardner (1984), for example, examined 18 personality mea

sures taken from the Jackson Personality Inventory (Jack son, 1974) and found that the only significant relationship

was a negative one between innovation, a characteristic of

persons who value new ideas, and achievement. This study

may have suffered from lack of a situation-specific focus in some of the measures, suggesting that Lalonde and Gardner

may have been premature in their conclusion that personal

ity plays no direct role in foreign-language achievement.

Other researchers since Lalonde and Gardner have high

lighted some significant relationships. For example, social

interdependence has been found to play a role in the foreign

language learning context. Specifically, Reid (1987) report ed that foreign-language students typically do not report

being engaged in cooperative learning activities. Oxford

(1989) contended that that lack of opportunity may stem

from the fact that many foreign-language instructors, con

sciously or unconsciously, incorporate instructional method

ologies that promote competition and deemphasize coopera tion. Limited research (Gunderson & Johnson, 1980; Jacob

& Mattson, 1987; Sharan et al., 1985) has shown that when

students are taught specifically to be cooperative, their for

eign-language skills tend to improve, as do their motivation

levels, altruism, and attitudes toward their peers.

Furthermore, the fact that foreign language may be the

subject that most necessitates continual evaluation by the

instructor, as well as regular and overt peer evaluation

because of its emphasis on public speaking, may often give

students the impression that their foreign-language compe

tence is being rated against that of their peers (Horwitz et

al., 1986). Thus, it is likely that level of social interdepen dence may play a role in determining levels of foreign-lan guage achievement. Because no prior research has exam

ined the roles of individualism, competitiveness, and

cooperation within the same study, we investigated their

simultaneous contributions to student performance. Oxford

(1990) indicated that the three components "deserve far

greater attention than they have received from researchers

and teachers" (p. 44). Locus of control is considered to be a primary factor in

determining levels of academic achievement among college students (Linder & Janus, 1997), high school students

(Sterbin & Rakow, 1996), and even at-risk students (Whil hite, 1990). That phenomenon is defined as a polar con

struct in which individuals attribute their successes and fail


ures either to their own behaviors (i.e., internal locus of

control) or to external factors that they cannot control (i.e.,

external locus of control; Tomlinson, 1987). In her qualita tive analysis of student interviews, Price (1991) found that

the "discrepancy between effort and results" led even some

high-achieving students "to feel less in control in language classes than in other courses" (p. 105). Thus, we hypothe sized that locus of control may be a predictor of foreign-lan guage achievement.

Demographic Variables

Oxford (1993) reported that gender differences exist with

respect to language learning strategies. Specifically, women

tend to use more conscious strategies. In particular, women

are more apt to use strategies that are metacognitive (i.e.,

planning, evaluating, or organizing); affective (i.e., emo

tional and motivational); and social (Oxford, 1993). Women

also have been found to possess better listening skills than men (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991); however, few studies at the college level have compared the foreign-language

performance of men and women. Gender comparisons con

ducted on the language development of first-language learners have led to evidence that women have a greater

propensity for native-language learning than do men.

Among the explanations provided to explain the gender dif

ferences, the neurolingusitic and socialization theories

appear to be the most popular. With respect to the former

theory, some researchers (Kimura, 1987) contended that the

advantage that women have over men regarding native-lan

guage development results from men's brains being more

lateralized than those of women. According to those theo

rists, the language centers of men are more concentrated in

the left hemisphere, whereas, for women, they are more

globally represented.

Regarding socialization, Chambers (1995) and Tannen

(1991) posited that the superiority of women over men in

language development stems from their greater motivation

and determination to conform to social structures and

norms through language. Those authors argued that women

are more socially sensitive in their language use. Chambers

(1995), who reviewed the literature in that area, concluded

that women tend to use "fewer stigmatized and non-stan

dard variants than do men of the same social group in the same circumstances" (p. 103). Those theories of native-lan

guage learning, coupled with the limited research on learn

ing strategies on second-language learning, led us to

hypothesize that women may have higher levels of foreign

language achievement than men do.

Scarcella and Oxford (1992), Schleppegrell (1987), and

Singleton (1989) found that age is related to second-lan

guage acquisition. According to Ehrman and Oxford

(1995), younger students are more likely to attain fluency

learning a foreign language, whereas older individuals are

more able to comprehend and to apply grammatical rules

and to bring their extensive life experiences into the for

eign-language learning context. Oxford (1992) theorized that the relationship between age and foreign-language achievement depends on the stage at which the language is

being learned, the prior experience of the student, the level of cognitive maturity, and the mode in which the language is being received, as well as various other social-psycho

logical factors.

Lieberman (1984) and Newport (1986) reported that the

ability to acquire mastery of the fine points of language, such as phonology and morphology, as well as the capacity to speak a second language without an accent, deteriorates

severely with age. Moreover, it is possible that older adults

perform more poorly than do their younger counterparts on

a variety of cognitive tasks in which a quick response is

needed?as is often the case when learning a foreign lan

guage?in part because of situational and motivational vari

ables that are extraneous to ability. According to Onwueg

buzie, Bailey, and Daley (1999), cautiousness is one such

extraneous-ability variable, in which lower levels of second

language performance reflect, in part, students' reluctance to

pronounce, to translate, or to write words in the target lan

guage about which they are uncertain. Research suggests a

positive relationship between cautiousness and age past

adulthood (Schaie & Gribbin, 1975). In addition, ex

perimental studies indicate that older adults tend to make more errors of omission than commission (Okun, 1976;

Okun, Siegler, & George, 1978). Given those findings, to

gether with the result of Onwuegbuzie et al. (1999) that

older students tend to have higher levels of foreign-language

anxiety, we hypothesized that there may be a negative rela

tionship between age and foreign-language achievement.

Because foreign-language courses often are rated by stu

dents as being among the most difficult in their degree pro

grams (Onwuegbuzie et al., 1999), those who carry a heavy semester course load while enrolled in foreign-language classes likely will have insufficient time to learn the target

language. It is logical to expect that the more courses that

students take overall, the more likely they will be to under

achieve in foreign-language courses because of competing

demands for study time. Thus, semester course load was

included in the study as a potential predictor of foreign-lan guage achievement. Also, we hypothesized that elective sta

tus of the course may be related positively to foreign

language achievement.

Research has shown repeatedly that language aptitude is

positively related to foreign-language achievement (Gard ner et al, 1997). Sparks and Ganschow (1991) and Sparks, Ganschow, and Patton (1995) argued that language aptitude is the foremost predictor of foreign-language achievement.

Thus, because it is reasonable to assume that the more high school foreign-language courses a student takes, the greater

her or his language aptitude, we hypothesized that the for mer also may be a predictor of second-language acquisition.

Motivation refers to a student's attitude, interest, and

effort to learn a foreign language (Gardner et al., 1997).

According to Gardner and his colleagues (Gardner, 1985;


Gardner et al., 1997), motivation plays a fundamental role

in foreign-language learning. Oxford and Shearin (1994) theorized that motivation levels will be high only if students

expect to succeed and to value that success. Because stu

dents who take foreign-language classes as an elective are

more likely to expect success or to value the learning con

text than are students who take these classes as a degree

requirement, the former will likely experience higher levels

of achievement.

Similarly, one may assume that students who have visit

ed many foreign countries and whose immediate family members speak one or more foreign languages proficiently are more inclined to appreciate the benefits of foreign-lan guage acquisition, and, consequently, are more motivated to

learn a language than are their counterparts. That is, it is

likely that the number of foreign countries visited by indi

viduals is an indication of levels of integrative motivation.

According to Cl?ment (1980), integrative motivation per tains to individuals' positive affective predispositions toward the second-language community. Cl?ment (1980) theorized that, provided that contact with members of the

target language is positive, the more frequent the contact, the more motivated an individual will be to learn the foreign

language and the more confident he or she will be to use it.

Thus, we hypothesized that the number of countries visited

and the foreign-language proficiency of immediate family members may be related positively to foreign-language achievement.

Method

Participants

The sample comprised 184 students enrolled in Spanish (60.3%), French (27.2%), German (9.8%), and Japanese (2.7%) introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses at a midsouthern university. Students participated voluntarily and were required to sign an informed consent document. A

Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)2 revealed no differences in foreign-language achievement

(p > .05) among students enrolled in the four language areas. In addition, ANOVA revealed no achievement differ ences (p > .05) with respect to level of course (i.e., intro

ductory, intermediate, and advanced). Therefore, the

responses of all participants were combined.

The ages of the respondents ranged from 18 to 71 (M =

22.5, SD = 6.4); 34.2% were men. The participants consist

ed of freshmen (16.4%), sophomores (18.6%), juniors (30.1%), seniors (31.7%), and graduate students (33%).

Those students represented more than 30 degree programs from the Colleges of Business Administration, Education, Fine Arts and Communication, Health and Applied Sci

ences, Liberal Arts, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics,

with a mean GPA of 3.1 (SD = 0.6). The majority of stu

dents (60.3%) were required to take the language course as

part of their degree program. The overall course load of the

participants ranged from 1 to 9 (M = 5.1, SD = 1.2). In addi

tion, 84.8% of the participants had studied a foreign lan

guage formally in high school, whereas 33.2% had done so

in college. The majority of students (56%) had never left the

United States; of those who had, the number of countries

visited ranged from 1 to 9. Approximately one fifth (18.5%) of the students had immediate family members whose

native language was not English.

Instruments and Procedures

A battery of instruments used in this study included the

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the

Self-Perception Profile for College Students (SPPCS), the

Social Interdependence Scale (SIS), the Academic Locus of

Control Scale (ALC), the Study Habits Inventory (SHI), and the Background Demographic Form (BDF). Partici

pants were given the questionnaire packet containing the six

instruments during the fourth week of the semester. They were instructed to complete the battery of instruments at

home and to return it within 2 weeks.

The FLCAS, developed by Horwitz et al. (1986), is a 33

item Likert-type questionnaire that assesses the degree to

which students feel anxious during language class. The

scale has been shown to be both reliable and valid, with an

alpha coefficient of .93 and an 8-week, test-retest coeffi

cient of .83 (Horwitz, 1991; Horwitz et al, 1986). Validity was established (Horwitz, 1991) via significant correlations

with communication apprehension, as measured by

McCroskey's (1970) Personal Report of Communication

Apprehension, and with test anxiety as measured by Sara

son's (1978) Test Anxiety Scale. Aida (1994), using a sam

ple of 96 students in a second-year Japanese course, report

ed a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .94.

The SPPCS is a 54-item scale comprising 13 subscales

(Neemann & Harter, 1986). Many of the subscales were not

considered relevant for this study (e.g., perceived athletic

competence, romantic relationships, close relationships,

parent relationships, and morality). Thus, we used the fol

lowing three subscales: (a) perceived intellectual ability, (b)

perceived scholastic competence, and (c) perceived self

worth. According to Neemann and Harter, the reliabilities

of the subscales, as assessed by coefficient alpha, range

from .84 to .86.

The SIS, developed by Johnson and Norem-Hebeisen

(1979), is a 22-item, 5-point Likert-type questionnaire mea

suring individuals' cooperative, competitive, and individu

alistic perceptions. Scores on the cooperative (7 items) and

individualistic (7 items) scales range from 7 to 35, whereas scores on the competitive scale (8 items) range from 7 to 40.

The higher the score on each scale, the more cooperative,

competitive, or individualistic the respondents consider

themselves to be. Scores on the scales are relatively inde

pendent so that a student conceivably could receive a high score on all three scales. Jones, Slate, and Marini (1995) found that reliability, as measured by coefficient alpha, is


.94 for the cooperative scale, .85 for the competitive scale,

and .73 for the individualistic scale.

The ALC, developed by Trice (1985), has 28 true-false

items related to personal control over academic outcomes.

Scores range from 1 (strongly internal locus) to 28 (strong

ly external locus). Coefficient alpha reliability has been

found to range from .68 (Agnew, Slate, Jones, & Agnew, 1993) to .70 (Trice, 1985).

The SHI, developed by Jones and Slate (1992), consists of

63 true-false items that assess the typical study behaviors of

college students. Thirty items describe effective study be

haviors and 33 items specify ineffective study behaviors.

The latter items are key-reversed such that total scale scores

range from 0 to 63, with high scores indicating good study skills. The SHI has been found by its authors to be reliable, as measured by a mean alpha coefficient of .85 and a 2-week

test-retest coefficient of .82. Validity of the SHI has been

established through significant correlations with college stu

dents' grades (Jones & Slate, 1992). The BDF, developed

specifically for this study, extracted relevant demographic information such as age, sex, ethnicity, degree program, year

of study, native language, and countries visited.

Finally, foreign-language achievement was measured

using students' course averages. The global measure was

selected over isolated measures of specific skills to maxi

mize the external validity (i.e., generalizability) of the find

ings. Use of numerical averages according to the diverse

achievement measures reflected in the course grades of this

study is consistent with Gardner and Maclntyre's (1993) recommendation to include "many different measures of

second-language achievement in studies concerned with

affective correlates of achievement" (p. 182). To adjust for

differences in teacher characteristics (e.g., effectiveness,

experience, motivation, and testing and scoring standards),

we used standardized course averages instead of raw aver

ages. Standardized course averages (i.e., z scores) were

computed for each student by subtracting the average achievement score of the foreign-language class to which

the student belonged from the student's course average and

then dividing by the class standard deviation.

Data Analysis

Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients (i.e.,

zero-order correlation coefficients) were used to assess the

relationship between foreign-language achievement and

each of the 18 independent variables. Correlation coeffi

cients, which can vary from -1 to +1, help to determine

both the magnitude and direction of pairwise relationships. The sign of the magnitude verifies whether the relationship

is positive or negative, whereas the numerical part of the

correlation coefficient indicates the magnitude of the corre

lation. The closer the correlation coefficient is to 1 or -1,

the greater the relationship between the variables.

Unfortunately, although the correlation coefficient is per

haps the most common inferential statistic used by re

searchers, it is subject to a serious limitation. Specifically, because a correlational analysis can be viewed as assessing

the contribution of an independent variable in isolation to a

dependent variable, it typically does not honor, in the opti mal sense, the nature of reality that most researchers want

to study. The reason is because most phenomena involve

multiple effects. Tatsuoka (1973) asserted the following:

The often-heard argument, "I'm more interested in seeing how each variable, in its own right, affects the outcome"

overlooks the fact that any variable taken in isolation may affect the criterion differently from the way it will act in the

company of other variables. It also overlooks the fact that

multivariate analysis?precisely by considering all the vari

ables simultaneously?can throw light on how each one con

tributes to the relation, (p. 273)

Thus, multiple regression was the major analysis used in

the present study. Multiple regression is a statistical proce dure in which scores on one or more variables (i.e., inde

pendent variables) are used to predict scores on another

variable (i.e., dependent variable). Specifically, we used all

possible subsets (APS) multiple regression (Thompson, 1995) to identify an optimal combination of cognitive,

affective, personality, and demographic variables (i.e., inde

pendent variables) that predicted levels of foreign-language achievement (dependent variable). All possible models

involving some or all of the independent variables were

examined (Thompson, 1995). In APS regression, separate

regressions are computed for all independent variables

singly, all possible pairs of independent variables, all possi ble trios of independent variables, and so forth, until the

best subset of independent variables is identified according to some criterion. For this study, the criterion used was the

maximum proportion of variance explained (7?2), which pro vides an important measure of effect size (Cohen, 1988). That is, R2, which lies from 0% to 100%, measures the

extent to which the independent variables involved in the

model combine to predict the dependent variable. The util

ity of effect sizes is that they can be compared across stud

ies. According to Hocking (1976), APS regression leads to

an identification of the model with the largest R2 for each of

the number of variables considered. APS regression is dif

ferent from stepwise regression, in which the order of entry of variables is based solely on statistical criteria. Stepwise

regression is not guaranteed to find the model with the

largest R2 (Hocking 1976), and thus most statisticians do not recommend this type of analysis, preferring the use of

APS regression (Huberty, 1989; Thompson, Smith, Miller, & Thomson, 1991).3

We also used multiple regression techniques to assess the

relative contribution of each of the independent variables in

the prediction of foreign-language achievement (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989). Specifically, we used squared semipartial correlation coefficients and squared partial correlation coef

ficients to assess each variable's unique contribution.

Squared semipartial correlation coefficients, also known as

part correlations, represent the amount by which R2 is

September/October 2000 [Vol. 94(No. 1)1 9

reduced if a particular independent variable is removed from

the regression equation. That is, squared semipartial correla

tion coefficients express the unique contribution of the inde

pendent variable as a proportion of the total variance of the

dependent variable (Cohen, 1988). According to Tabachnick

& Fidell, (1989, p. 151), "the squared semi-partial correla

tion is a very useful measure of the importance of an inde

pendent variable." Similarly, squared partial correlation

coefficients express the unique contribution of the indepen dent variable as a proportion of R2. In this study, we used

squared partial correlation coefficients like R2 directly as

effect-size estimates (Cohen, 1988). We used Cohen's (1988) criteria to assess the contribu

tion of the independent variables. According to Cohen, for

multiple regression models in the behavioral sciences,

squared partial correlation values between 2% and 12.99%

suggest small effect sizes; values between 13% and 25.99%

indicate medium effect sizes; and values of 26% and greater

suggest large effect sizes. These same criteria were used to

assess whether the proportion of variance explained by the

independent variables, R2, was suggestive of a small, medi

um, or large effect.

Results

Table 1 reports the correlations between foreign-lan

guage achievement scores and each of the cognitive, affec

tive, personality, and demographic variables.

Correlations With Cognitive Variables

Of the three cognitive variables, two were significantly related to foreign-language achievement (see Table 1).

Those variables were academic achievement and a student's

expectation of her or his achievement in a foreign-language course. Specifically, students with the lowest levels of for

eign-language performance tended to have the lowest levels

of overall academic achievement and the lowest expecta

tions of their achievement in the foreign-language course.

Correlations With Affective Variables

Three of the four affective variables were significantly related to foreign-language achievement, namely, foreign

language anxiety, perceived intellectual ability, and per ceived scholastic competence. Only perceived self-worth

was not associated with foreign-language performance.

Those findings suggest that low foreign-language achievers

tended to have the highest levels of foreign-language anxi

ety and the lowest levels of perceived intellectual ability and

perceived scholastic competence.

Correlations With Personality Variables

Levels of cooperativeness and individualism were associ

ated with foreign-language achievement. Specifically, stu

Table 1.?Correlations Between Cognitive, Affective,

Personality, and Demographic Variables and

Foreign-Language Achievement

Foreign-language Variable achievement

Cognitive Academic achievement 37***

Study habits -.06

Expectation of foreign-language achievement .35***

Affective

Foreign-language anxiety -.33***

Perceived intellectual ability . 14*

Perceived scholastic competence 29***

Perceived self-worth .02

Personality

Cooperativeness -.22**

Competitiveness . 12

Individualism .15* Locus of control -.08

Demographic Gender .16*

Age -.07

Semester course load .03

Number of countries visited .04

Number of high school foreign-language courses taken .17*

Status of present foreign-language course -. 11

Foreign-language proficiency of immediate

family members -.04

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***/? < .001.

dents with the lowest levels of foreign-language achieve

ment tended not to be individualistic but were oriented

toward cooperativeness.

Correlations With Demographic Variables

Two of the seven demographic variables significantly correlated with foreign-language achievement: gender and

the number of high school foreign-language courses taken.

That is, low foreign-language achievers tended to be men

and to have taken the least number of high school foreign

language courses.

Multiple Regression Findings

The APS multiple regression analysis (Table 2) revealed

the following variables that contributed significantly (p <

.001) to the prediction of foreign-language achievement:

foreign-language anxiety, gender, academic achievement,

expected overall average for current language course, and

value placed on cooperative learning. The five items com

prised two cognitive variables (academic achievement, stu

dents' expected level of achievement in their foreign-lan guage courses), one affective variable (foreign-language

anxiety), one personality variable (cooperativeness), and

one demographic variable (gender), which combined to

explain 34.2% of the variation in foreign-language achieve

ment. We used Cohen's (1988) criteria to assess the predic


Table 2.?Selected Multiple Regression Model for Predicting Foreign-Language Achievement

Variable Regression coefficient

Standard

error t value

Standardized

regression coefficient

Squared

semipartial correlation

coefficients

(%)

Squared

partial correlation

coefficients

(%)

Intercept -0.64 0.89 -0.73 ? ? ?

Foreign-language anxiety -0.40 0.09 -4.28*** -0.29 10.5 13.8

Gender 0.34 0.12 2.82** 0.17 3.6 5.1

Academic achievement 0.50 0.10 5.08*** 0.32 11.5 14.9

Expectation of foreign-language achievement 0.02 0.01 2.39* 0.17 5.0 7.0

Cooperativeness -0.31 0.10 -3.11** -0.19 3.6 5.1

Note. Model R2 =

*p < .05. **p <

= .342,F(5, 178)= li

.01. ***/? < .001. .47; Adjusted R2 = .323.

tive power of a set of independent variables in a multiple

regression model; the proportion of variance explained indi cates a large effect size because it exceeded 26%.

The selected regression model suggests that students with

the lowest levels of foreign-language achievement tended to

have at least one of these characteristics: male, low-acade

mic achievers, high levels of foreign-language anxiety, low

expectations of their overall average for the current lan

guage course, and valued cooperative learning. The squared

semipartial correlation coefficients (Table 2) indicate that

overall academic achievement was the best predictor,

explaining 11.5% of the variance in foreign-language achievement. Foreign-language anxiety, the next best pre

dictor, explained 10.5% of the variance. Expectation of

overall average for the current language course explained

5% of the variance, followed by gender and value placed on

cooperative learning, each of which explained 3.6% of the

variance. Table 2 also reports the squared partial correlation

coefficients. As recommended by Cohen (1988), we used

the values to assess the effect sizes with respect to each of

the selected independent variables. The criteria set by Cohen (1988) for squared partial correlation coefficients

suggest that the effect sizes pertaining to academic achieve

ment and foreign-language anxiety approached moderate

levels, whereas those pertaining to expectation of overall

average for the current language course, gender, and value

placed on cooperative learning, were small.

Comparison of Findings From Correlational

and Multiple Regression Analyses

The correlational analyses revealed that the following nine

variables were significantly related to foreign-language

achievement: foreign-language anxiety, gender, academic

achievement, expected final foreign-language course aver

age, and cooperativeness; perceived scholastic competence,

perceived intellectual ability, individualism, and number of

high school foreign-language courses taken. The APS regres

sion analysis indicated that the following five variables pre dicted foreign-language performance: foreign-language anx

iety, gender, academic achievement, expected final foreign

language course average, and cooperativeness. A comparison

of the sets of variables indicates a high degree of similarity. Nevertheless, although perceived scholastic competence, per

ceived intellectual ability, individualism, and number of high school foreign-language courses taken were identified by the

correlation analysis, they did not appear in the multiple

regression model. That apparent inconsistency should not be

surprising because of the differences between correlational

and multiple regression analysis. In most cases,

univariate/bivariate and multivariate analyses of the same

data tend to yield results that differ with respect to statistical

significance and effect sizes (Fish, 1988). An analysis of the intercorrelations among the nine inde

pendent variables helps us explain why the four variables

that emerged as significant in the correlational analysis were no longer identified as important in the regression

analysis. Perceived scholastic competence was related to

three variables that were significant predictors of foreign

language achievement, namely: foreign-language anxiety,

academic achievement, and expected final foreign-language

course average (see Table 3). That finding suggests that, once the three variables are in the regression model, the pre

dictive power of perceived scholastic competence is dimin

ished. In other words, by itself, perceived scholastic com

petence is an important predictor of foreign-language achievement. However, in explaining second-language

acquisition, knowledge of students' perceived scholastic

competence does not appear to be as important as does

knowledge of their GPA, their expected final foreign-lan guage course average, and their level of foreign-language

anxiety. That result is not surprising, especially with respect to the latter two variables, because they are more directly

pertinent to foreign-language learning than is perceived scholastic competence, which is a more global construct.

Also, overall academic achievement is more important than


Table 3.?Intercorrelations Among Independent Variables With Significant Zero-Order Correlations

(With Foreign-Language Achievement)

1. Foreign-language anxiety 2. Gender .14*

3. Academic achievement -.03 .02

4. Expected final foreign-language course average -.46*** -.02

5. Cooperativeness -.11 -.01

6. Perceived scholastic competence _40*** -.10

7. Perceived intellectual ability _37*** _ 12

8. Individualism .16** .05

9. Number of high school foreign

language courses taken -.20** .23*

20**

03

06

08

.05

.06

.21*

.13*

-.09

.17**

.07

.07

-.64***

-.13*

62***

-.04

.01

-.08

-.04 .04

*/? < .05. **p < .01. ***/? < .001.

is perceived scholastic competence to predict foreign-lan

guage achievement, probably because performance is a

more reliable indicator than is self-perception.

Similarly, failure for perceived intellectual ability to be

included in the regression model, despite being significant

ly correlated with foreign-language achievement, can be

explained by the fact that the variable was related to both

foreign-language anxiety and expected final foreign-lan guage course average (Table 3). That failure indicates that

perceived intellectual ability does not add to the prediction of foreign-language performance once the variables are in

the model.

Because individualism was related to foreign-language

anxiety and cooperativeness (Table 3), the latter two vari

ables, once in the regression model, likely made the inclu

sion of the former variable redundant. In particular, the high correlation between individualism and cooperativeness (r =

-.64) indicates a large degree of overlap between the vari

ables; cooperativeness appeared to dominate individualism

with respect to the prediction of foreign-language achievement.

Finally, the presence of foreign-language anxiety, gender,

expected final foreign-language course average, and coop

erativeness in the regression model apparently diminished

the role of number of high school foreign-language courses

taken. In particular, it is likely that little or no exposure to

high school foreign-language courses tends to induce low

expectations of one's ability to perform in foreign-language classes, in addition to relatively higher levels of foreign-lan guage anxiety. Consequently, once anxiety and course

expectation are modeled, knowledge of students' foreign language exposure in high school is no longer particularly informative in terms of foreign-language performance.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore the contribu tions of various cognitive, affective, personality, and demo

graphie variables with respect to the prediction of foreign

language achievement. This study is unique for the fol

lowing reasons: (a) Achievement at all levels in the college

foreign-language curriculum and in more than one foreign

language was studied, (b) a global measure of achievement was used, (c) raw scores were converted to standardized

scores to adjust for differences in teacher grading charac

teristics, and (d) an adequate subject-to-variable ratio was

maintained.

The major finding in this study is that each class of vari

ables was represented in the selected regression model. The

fact that a cognitive variable (academic achievement)

explains the greatest proportion of the variance in foreign

language achievement is consistent with Ehrman and

Oxford (1995), who found that this class of variables occu

pies the first tier regarding explanatory power. The finding that an affective variable (foreign-language anxiety) was the

next best predictor of foreign-language achievement also is

in accordance with those authors, because they concluded

that "affective factors ... are clearly the second echelon"

(Ehrman & Oxford, 1995, p. 82). Academic achievement

and foreign-language anxiety combined to explain approxi

mately 22% of the variance in foreign-language achieve

ment, which represents a medium to large effect size.

Two prior investigations in particular have reported that

foreign-language anxiety explains a greater proportion of

variance in foreign-language achievement than that found

in the present study. S?nchez-Herrero and Sanchez (1992)

reported that student anxiety in learning a foreign-language accounted for 38% of the variance in English achievement

among sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students in a pub

lic school in Madrid, Spain. However, those authors used

stepwise regression procedures and an anxiety instrument

with only modest internal-consistency reliabilities. Thus, their findings should be viewed with caution. Horwitz

(1991), after partialling out test anxiety, estimated that for

eign-language anxiety accounts for approximately 25% of

the variance in foreign-language performance. Because the


sample size in that study was extremely small (n = 29), however, the 10.5% of the variance explained by foreign

language anxiety in this study is likely a more accurate

reflection. Nevertheless, researchers should investigate the

predictive power of foreign-language anxiety in the pres

ence of other variables.

To the extent that overall GPA may be a global measure

of native-language aptitude, the finding that overall aca

demic achievement is the best predictor of foreign-language achievement is consistent with Sparks and Ganschow

(1991, 1993a, 1993b), who contended that native-language

learning difficulties in mastering the phonological, syntac tic, and semantic codes of language play the largest role in

impeding the acquisition of a foreign language (Sparks &

Ganschow, 1991, 1993a, 1993b). However, the fact that for

eign-language anxiety also is an important predictor

appears to contradict the additional claim of those authors

that affective variables are mere side effects of having diffi

culties in coding the native language (Sparks & Ganschow,

1991). Because the percentage of variance in achievement

explained by foreign-language anxiety in the present study remained large, even after controlling for academic achieve

ment (i.e., an indicator of native language problems), it is

unlikely that Sparks and Ganschow (1995, p. 240) are justi fied in their contention that "the problems of most FL learn ers will not be found by studying affective variables but by

investigating how language differences affect foreign-lan guage learning."

If foreign-language anxiety was solely a consequence of

native-language differences, then, after controlling for aca

demic achievement, anxiety would have had no, or at least

substantially lower, predictive power. It is possible that for some individuals, native-language learning problems are

the main reason for their low levels of foreign-language per

formance, whereas for other students, anxiety is a debilita

tive factor. Thus, researchers should continue to explore the

extent to which students with no diagnosable native-lan

guage learning differences suffer from the debilitative

effects of foreign-language anxiety.

The fact that both low-achieving and high-anxious stu

dents tend to have the lowest levels of foreign-language achievement also seems to contradict Onwuegbuzie et al.

(1999), who found that high academic achievers tend to

have higher levels of foreign-language anxiety than do their

low-achieving counterparts. On closer examination, howev

er, the two sets of findings suggest that instructors should not assume that students who have high levels of academic

achievement do not experience difficulties while learning

foreign languages. It is likely that, although many high aca

demic achievers are able to attain relatively high levels of

performance in foreign-language classes, they still experi ence high levels of foreign-language anxiety. In the last

year, an author of this study used several students' reports

of anxiety to ascertain that two of them were suffering from

partial hearing loss and a third from previously undiagnosed

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. The GPA of the

two students with hearing loss was 3.8 on a 4-point scale.

Those observations underscore the importance of determin

ing the anxiety levels of students with both low levels and

high levels of academic achievement. Also, our findings suggest that interventions focusing on anxiety management

and reduction may be helpful for both groups of students. In

any case, researchers should investigate the potential causal

relationships among academic achievement, foreign-lan

guage anxiety, and foreign-language performance.

Level of expectation, the second cognitive variable, was

the third most important predictor of foreign-language achievement. The finding that students who have low

expectations of their foreign-language ability tend to have

low levels of foreign-language achievement might reflect

the fact that students have an accurate perception of their

foreign-language ability. However, that finding also sug

gests that a self-fulfilling prophecy prevails in which stu

dents who have low expectations of their foreign-language

ability exhibit behaviors that may lead to underachieve

ment. Onwuegbuzie et al. (1999) found that students with

low self-perceptions of academic competence and foreign

language performance were more anxious. Maclntyre,

Noels, and Cl?ment (1997) reported that, with actual lan

guage proficiency controlled, anxious students tended to

underestimate their competence relative to less anxious stu

dents. Researchers should continue to explore the relation

ship between student expectations and achievement.

Gender, a demographic variable, explained 3.6% of the

variance in foreign-language achievement. Men appear to

have lower levels of foreign-language achievement than do

women. That finding may reflect Oxford and Ehrman's

(1993) observation that women tend to use more conscious

learning strategies (e.g., metacognitive planning) than do men. However, further research is needed to determine the

generalizability of that finding. To the extent that that result

has high external validity, a female-oriented foreign-lan

guage culture, which is similar to the female-based "library culture" reported by Jiao, Onwuegbuzie, and Lichtenstein

(1996) and Jacobson (1991) may exist, in which men (a) are

less comfortable in the particular learning context, (b) may

perceive that the domain is more female based, and (c) act

in ways that do not maximize their ability to learn. Marsh

(1995) found that female middle school students had more

positive attitudes about foreign-language study than did

their male counterparts.

A personality variable, cooperativeness, was the final

factor that made an important contribution to foreign-lan

guage achievement. The finding that students who are ori

ented toward cooperative learning tend to underachieve in

their foreign-language classes suggests that instructors

might consider using cooperative learning groups to solve

in-class problems. Cooperative learning "refers to a partic

ular set of classroom techniques that foster learner interde

pendence as a route to cognitive and social development"

(Oxford, 1997, p. 443). Although no single method is like

ly to increase student achievement, instructors could con


sider emphasizing group work in a variety of formats (Koch & Terrel, 1991). As recommended by Foss and Reitzel

(1988), students could be asked to practice reading a script

orally to members of their group before reciting it in front

of the whole class. Cooperative groups also could be used

to practice any role-playing activities. Assigning roles such

as secretary or reporter to individual students may improve

self-esteem for some learners and increase effectiveness of

cooperative groups (Oxford, 1997). Use of such groups also

could reduce the need for instructors to call on students at

random, because that action appears to increase anxiety lev

els (Daly, 1991).

Conclusion

The findings from this study largely parallel those of

Ehrman and Oxford (1995) because, in this study, cognitive and affective factors appear to play the largest role in pre

dicting foreign-language achievement. Thus, the present

research represents a step nearer to determining the "degree

to which . . . [Ehrman and Oxford's results utilizing an] FSI

sample?older, well educated, exceptionally highly moti

vated, and with a fairly clear personality structure?can be

generalized to other, more common populations such as col

lege students" (Ehrman & Oxford, 1995, p. 84). The finding that all four classes of variables were represented in the

regression model highlights the complex nature of individ

ual differences in foreign-language achievement. Although

including factors such as motivation (Cl?ment et al., 1994;

Gardner, 1985; Gardner & Maclntyre, 1991; Tremblay &

Gardner, 1995) and more specific measures of native-lan

guage aptitude (Sparks & Ganschow, 1991; Sparks, Gan

schow, & Patton, 1995) possibly would have increased the

percentage of variance explained, by maintaining the rec

ommended subject-variable ratio we provide reliable evi

dence to account for more than one third of the variance in

foreign-language achievement at the college level. Using

Cohen's (1988) criteria, that proportion represents a large effect size. Nevertheless, more than 65% of the variance

remains unexplained. Thus, researchers should investigate

the contributions made by other cognitive, affective, per

sonality, and demographic variables to the prediction of for

eign-language achievement in college.

NOTES

The authors acknowledge the Research Council of the University of

Central Arkansas, which provided funding for this project. We also express our sincere appreciation to the faculty of the Department of Foreign Lan

guages, who assisted in data collection. The authors contributed equally to

this article.

1. Course grades were not constructed from letter grades, a potentially unstable approach, but rather, from overall percentages according to both achievement measures (quizzes and examinations) and proficiency mea

sures (oral interviews, compositions). Instructors in this study determined

final numeric percentages by averaging scores from items such as exami

nations, quizzes, dictations, oral interviews, homework, compositions, and

participation. Although some aspects of these grades are more subjective than others (participation), grades arrived at in this manner provide a real

istic measure of college-level foreign-language achievement.

2. The Kruskal-Wallis test is the most powerful nonparametric test for

examining three or more independent groups. It has 95% of the power of

the F statistic (ANOVA) to detect existing differences between groups. This technique tests the null hypothesis that all samples are from the same

population. In this study, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the

language groups instead of the parametric ANOVA because the number of

Japanese students (n = 5) was small; therefore, a normal distribution could

not be assumed for their anxiety scores. For a further discussion of use and

interpretation of partial t tests in multiple regression, the reader is referred

to Hollander and Wolfe (1973). 3. Although stepwise regresssion is used by many researchers in for

eign-language research, many statisticians (Beasley & Leitner, 1994;

Davidson, 1988; Edirisooriya, 1995; Lockridge, 1997; Moore, 1996;

Thompson, 1995; Welge, 1990) identified three problems associated with

this technique. First, at every step of the analysis, computer packages use

incorrect degrees of freedom to compute statistical significance. Unfortu

nately, these incorrect degrees of freedom tend to bias significance tests in

favor of declaring trivial effects as significant. Second, not only does

undertaking k steps of analysis not lead to the best predictor set of size k

but it is also possible that none of the predictors entered in the first k steps are even among the best predictor set of size k. Third, because the order in

which the independent variables are entered in the model is influenced by

sampling error, which at any step can lead to misspecification of the model

and because stepwise regression typically involves several steps, this tech

nique often produces results that are difficult to replicate (Thompson, 1995). For an extensive discussion of the major flaws associated with step

wise regression, see Huberty (1989) and Thompson, Smith, Miller, and

Thomson (1991).

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