English Language Proficiency of Bangladeshi Students: A Social Psychological Study (M Phil Thesis)

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English Language Proficiency of Bangladeshi Students:

A Social Psychological Study

Thesis Submitted to the University of Delhi for the Degree of

Master of Philosophy

Md. Kamrul Hasan

Department of Linguistics University of Delhi

Delhi 110007 March 2005

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Certificate

This is to certify that the present work ‘English Language Proficiency of

Bangladeshi Students: A Social Psychological Study’ is original and has been done

by Md. Kamrul Hasan under my supervision and guidance. This work has not been

submitted, in part or full, for any other degree or diploma in this or any other

universities. This thesis conforms to the standards of the University of Delhi.

Professor R.K. Agnihotri Professor R.C. Sharma Supervisor Head

Department of Linguistics Department of Linguistics University of Delhi University of Delhi Delhi 110007 Delhi 110007

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Certificate

The research work embodied in this thesis has been carried out at the

Department of Linguistics, Delhi, under the guidance of Professor

R.K.Agnihotri. The work is original and has not been submitted in part or

full, for any other degree or diploma of this on any other universities.

Md. Kamrul Hasan

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Acknowledgements I would like to express my heart-felt sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof.

Rama Kant Agnihotri for his constant guidance and help which enabled me to

complete my thesis. I am totally indebted to him for his help, advice and

encouragement. Without his patience, guidance and inspiration my work would have

never completed in due time. Despite the pressure of his busy schedule, he has

managed time for the discussion of my work; I like to acknowledge my gratitude very

deeply for that. Not only at the academic but also at a personal level he has taught

manifold life-enriching lessons for the overall growth of my personality. Theses

lessons would stay with me forever.

My sincere thanks are due to my respected teacher Prof. Ravinder Gargesh for

his timely advice, guidance and comments on my work. No words are enough to

thank the wonderful gesture showered on me by Prof. R.C. Sharma, the head of the

Department of Linguistics. I will always remember his help, encouragement and

noble thoughts. I would like to take this an opportunity to express my sincere

gratitude to Dr. Tista Bagchi who advised and guided me in best possible way during

the tough phase of my life. I am indeed indebted to all of my teachers, Prof. K.V.

Subbarao, Dr. Tanmoy Bhattacharya, Dr. Pradeep Kumar Das and Dr. Shobha

Satyanath for their support, help and encouragement.

I profoundly thank the heads of the institutions in Bangladesh as they are

extremely cooperative and sincere by providing me all necessary assistance during

my data collection. I am truly and immensely grateful to my parents. Both of them

had years of sleepless nights for my career-making and I wish I could fulfill their

dreams and would get opportunity to alleviate the insecurity, pains and sufferings

they had to undergo for my absence from their company. I wish that God would bless

the departed souls of my grandparents in heaven. I was away from my home for my

present work while they left us forever.

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Words definitely would not be adequate to express my genuine heart-felt

gratitude to my elder brother the way he persuaded my parents to let me pursue my M

Phil in the University of Delhi and helped me in every aspect of my career-building

with his visionary outlook. He is my ‘maker’ all the way and all credit goes to him.

He sincerely takes pride in my work as if it is his own work; I am really proud to be a

part of such a family tradition. The pressure was on me to complete my MPhil soon

as my younger sister was going to get married. To be true, I was really buckling

down under pressure and the whole situation taught me humane qualities like

equanimity, fighting spirit against all odds and also balancing act in the time of life’s

hardest ordeal. I am proud of my younger sister who is caring and supportive as ever.

My sincere gratitude goes to my relatives for their encouragement, moral support and

advice in all aspects who are now part and parcel of our nuclear family. I would like

to thank my cousin Manir who has been taking care of our parents all these years.

I would like to sincerely thank Kaccayana Bhikkhu who has inspired me not

to give up during the time of my financial strain. I am indebted to the teachers of my

college, Dr. Sanjoy Shrma, Madam Madhbi Zutschi and Dr. Raina. I owe a lot to

college friends during my graduation, Geetu, Aarti, Gaurav Bangia, Pooja; they all

are wonderful human beings. My friend Manoj Kumar Behera needs special mention

here for his help, advice and moral support. Where I stand today-it is because of

Mani who guided, helped and travelled all these difficult years of my life with me. I

like to thank my seniors, Anupam dada, Kakoli di and others who have always helped

me whenever I have approached them. I also thank all of my friends and well-

wishers, Bikram, Zin, Angam, Latta, Asean, Mojtoba, Ibrahim (Maldives), Issac,

Malik, Muthanna, Prioyojoti Bhante, William, Phramaha Pheeranuwat and Phramaha

Singkon for their constant help, support and advice.

Finally, my special thanks are due to the Indian Council of Cultural Relations

(ICCR) for the financial assistance I have received during my graduation which

ultimately opens up avenues for higher studies in India. (Md.Kamrul Hasan)

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Contents

Pages

Acknowledgements iv

Contents vi

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

Chapter 2: Theoretical Background 8

2.0 Introduction 8

2.1 Retrospect of the Literature 8

2.2 Cloze Procedure 17

Chapter 3: Methodology 30

3.1 Introduction 30

3.2 Sample 30

3.3 Tools 31

3.4 Procedure 32

Chapter 4: Analysis 41

Chapter 5: Conclusion 71

Appendices Appendix A: The Cloze Test 75

Appendix B: The Questionnaire 77

Appendix C: Variable, Mean and Coding 82

Appendix D: Mean, Standard Deviation and

Correlation Matrix 83

Bibliography 85

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Introduction

In the last three decades or so, the research work in second language learning

has brought out the significance of socio psychological aspects of second language

learning. In the context of successful foreign/second language learning, several

researchers have stressed on the significance of learner variables such as attitudes,

aptitude, motivation (motivational intensity/motivational orientation),

authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, etc. This work shows that achievement in a second

language is related to measures of attitudes and motivation. Two questions come to

the fore in spite of these relations. One of them concerns the validity of the

measurement of attitudes and motivation. The other concerns the precise meaning of

the correlation between measures of attitudes and motivation on the one hand and

second language achievement on the other. Though the nature of analysis has

generally been correlation implication which prompts the obtained relationships to

indicate that attitudes and motivation contribute to determine achievement in the

second language or that proficiency in the second language influences attitudes and

motivation.

The study of attitudinal and motivational variables is gaining in significance as

can be seen from some recent publications in the field. The pioneering research work

in this field was established by the contributions of Canadian scholars such as W.E

Lambert, R.C. Gardner and their associates. Lambert and their associates conducted a

series of studies over a period of twelve years in the U.S.A, Canada and Philippines.

Several of their studies were in Canada (e.g. Gardner and Lambert 1959, Gardner

1966, Anisfeld and Lambert 1961, Lambert, Gardner, Barik and Tunstall 1962 and

Feenstra and Gardner1968). Their findings show that along with verbal intelligence

and language aptitude, attitudes and motivation play considerable importance as

variables in second language proficiency. Gardner and Lambert tested their initial

hypothesis outside Canada in three American settings (Louisiana, Maine and

Connecticut). They were quite successful in establishing that a friendly outlook

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towards the other group whose language is being learned can ‘differentially sensitize

the learner to the audio-lingual features of the language, making him more perceptive

to pronunciation and accent than is the case for a learner without this open and

friendly disposition’. (Gardner and Lambert 1972: 134). It is also their belief that the

learner’s motivation of learning a foreign/second language will depend on his

attitudes and willingness in order to identify with the linguistic and non-linguistic

features which generally typify the speakers of the target (T) language. According to

Gardner and Lambert (1972) and others, motivational orientation can be divided into

four different types: integrative, instrumental, resentment and manipulative. They

made a distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation. A motivational

orientation is said to be integrative if a person learns a foreign /second language in

order to enter into an active interaction with the target language speakers, that is,

socially and culturally he wishes to become a part of the target language community.

It is instrumental if one learns the target language to get a job, etc., that is a person

learns a second /foreign language with utilitarian objectives, such as obtaining

admission in a particular course or for trade purpose. They do not explore the last two

motivations in detail. Gardner and Lambert (1972) emphasize the role of integrative

motivation in second language learning situations. Their French-American studies

show that positive attitudes towards French-American culture along with favorable

stereotypes of the European French are associated with certain expressive skills in

French. Lambert and Gardner made a very significant distinction between integrative

and instrumental motivation and in most of their studies conducted in Canada and

America claimed that higher achievement in foreign language learning correlated

significantly with the motivation to integrate with the target language. Gardner’s

(1985) socio-educational model envisaged integrative motive as a hypothetical

construct comprising motivation, positive attitudes to the learning situation (i.e.

attitudes to the language teacher and the course) and integrative (i.e. attitudes to the

other community or communities, integrative orientation and interest in foreign

languages). They conclude that success in foreign language learning would be less if

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the underlying motivation is instrumental rather than integrative. Many studies

provided considerable support for Gardner and Lambert’s hypothesis that language

proficiency will increase directly in proportion to the intensity of integrative

motivation (see Gardner 1985, Gardner and Clément 1990 for reviews). It is

interesting to note from the Philippines study that (reported in Gardner and Lambert

1972) they considerably distanced themselves from their original position and

thought that in settings where there was an urgency about mastering a second

language for utilitarian ends, the integrative orientation won’t be prevailing. But, they

found that the instrumental approach to language study was extremely effective in the

context of Philippines.

Inspired by the work of Gardner, Lambert and their associates, research in the

social psychological aspects of second language acquisition gets intensified in several

other parts of the world (e.g. Lukmani 1972, Oller and Hudson and Liu1977). These

studies demonstrate that the measures of proficiency in second language learning are

significantly related to measures of attitudes and motivation. However, several other

research studies failed to find support for their hypothesis and raised several

questions. For instance, Burstall (1975) working with the teaching of French in

primary schools finds that although pupil’s attitude and achievement prove to be

closely associated, motivational characteristics of individual pupil’s appear to be

neither exclusively integrative now instrumental. Lyczak, Fu and Ho (1976), Khanna

and Agnihotri (1982,1984); Khanna (1983), Au (1988), Oller, Hudson and Liu (1977)

and Young and Gardner (1990) showed that the theoretical claims of Gardner and

Lambert lacked generality as the variance in second language proficiency was not

explained not so much by motivational or attitudinal variables as by some social

variables. Lyczak, Fu and Ho (1976) found no significant correlation between

achievement and attitudinal variables. Wong (1982) obtained motivational orientation

of Chinese students learning English did not pose any correlation with their

achievement. Au (1988) found desire to learn English correlate negatively with

English proficiency measures. Au (1988) provided substantial evidence against the

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hypothesis that integrative motive was positively related to second language

achievement. Agnihotri, Khanna and Mukherjee (1982,1988) measured proficiency

in the use of English tenses of 356 undergraduates of University of Delhi and

correlated it with 19 sociopsychological variables such as sex, socioeconomic status,

schooling, exposure to English, pattern of language use, attitudes, claimed control on

English etc. They found that the proficiency of the undergraduate students in their use

of English tenses correlates significantly with their schooling, patterns of language

use and stereotypes of English. From their study, schooling came up as the most

significant predictor of achievement in the use of tenses in English. Khanna, Verma,

Agnihotri and Sinha (1990) found that proficiency in English of the adult immigrants

learning English as a second language in Britain correlates significantly with claimed

control, patterns of language use, exposure to English, use of English in the family,

motivational orientation and desire to learn English. Mathur (1991) worked with

twenty-nine students learning German in Delhi and found that educational

background; self-image and exposure to German were most closely associated with

proficiency in German.

From the above, it is easy to draw the conclusion that second/foreign language

learning is an extremely complex process including the contributions of the learner

and his environment. Gardner's (1985) socio-educational model is more

comprehensive as along with individual differences, it also includes the social milieu,

the formal and informal language acquisition contexts and the linguistic and non-

linguistic outcomes as important ingredients of the model. Although Gardner’s socio-

educational model includes ‘social milieu’ as an important component, his firm belief

is that second language learning is essentially a social psychological phenomenon.

Gardner (1988) says that social variables which reflect the complexity and dynamism

of a given social situation can in fact prove to be confounding variables.

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Earlier, we have mentioned that the hypothesis put forward by Gardner and

Lambert (1972) is not beyond question. Several studies like Khanna and Agnihotri

(1982) and Khanna (1983) have provided substantial empirical evidence against

Gardner and Lambert’s theory. Khanna (1983) found that achievement in English

was influenced more by schooling, claimed control of English, exposure to English,

use of English among friends, family, etc. than by attitudes and motivation. Attitudes

were found to have significant correlations only with variable of exposure and

language use suggesting thereby that attitudinal variables have only indirect bearing

on achievement in English in India. Similar result was reported in Khanna and

Agnihotri (1982). Sahgal (1983) working with educated Indians found that the

prestigious variants of different phonological variables correlated far more strongly

with schooling, socio-economic status than with such social psychological variables

as integrative motivation, linguistic stereotypes and ethnocentrism. According to

them, the people of India learn English for a variety of reasons but all of them have

an unmistakable instrumental colour: some are integratively instrumental, some

instrumentally instrumental, some manipulatively instrumental and some

instrumental despite resentment. They conclude that the different types of

motivational orientation show a high degree of overlap. It is clear from their study

that there is a substantial overlap between different types of motivational orientation

and that different types of informants are characterized by different elements of

motivations than exclusively by a given individual motivational orientation. It is

possible that the same informant may be influenced equally by instrumental or

resentment motivation. The main point which Khanna and Agnihotri attempt to make

is that the fundamental reasons for learning English in India are instrumental rather

than integrative if we regard manipulative and resentment motivation as essentially

instrumental in nature. Some work has already been initiated in the attitude towards

English in Bangladesh. In this connection, the work of Shahed (2001) can be

mentioned. He has concentrated for his data in some urban areas only leaving the vast

countryside out of his view. In this context, it seems that his study is a restricted one

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based solely on a questionnaire. His work reveals a largely negative attitude towards

English though its instrumental function is also well recognized. Since changes due

to globalization are occurring at a rapid pace in Bangladesh, it is felt that the attitudes

towards English in Bangladesh may have become more positive. In the present work,

an attempt will be made to study the attitudinal and motivational variables in the

context of English in Bangladesh. The model proposed by Gardner and Lambert will

be employed and the findings will be compared with those of Agnihotri and Khanna

in India and those of Shahed in Bangladesh.

English is taught as a compulsory foreign language in Bangladesh right

through school up to the end of pre-university level. The need for the knowledge of

English becomes apparent among Bangladeshis as it can give access to the advancing

knowledge of the world. Apart from this, there is need for many to interact

academically and socially for purposes of politics, economics, etc. with people

beyond the national borders. As competition in the employment sector increases the

urge of students to learn English to give them an edge over others understandably

increases too. The need becomes most real in the context of the job market. At this

point, many employers of organizations with international contacts often see

proficiency in spoken and written English as a desired requirement. Thus, proficiency

in English has become more sought-after for Bangladeshis. However, a large number

of people feel that Bangla should be given more prominence over English at all levels

of education, administration and other sectors. The people of Bangladesh have fought

and laid down their lives for their mother tongue. This carries a unique chapter in the

history of the country. After the inception of independence in the country, the

demand for Bangla at all levels intensified. As a result, the spread and establishment

of Bangla in education, administration and in other sphere of lives got approved by

the government as well as by the common people of our country. Now, within thirty

years of its independence the growing demand for learning English and dissemination

of English in all other institutions, organizations, administrations, etc. is also coming

to the fore. This whole spectrum can have the potential outlook of highlighting a

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change in the attitude towards English in Bangladesh. The general observations

which can be seen in Bangladesh are the following. English is not the language of

home. The number of programmes available in English has multiplied manifold with

the advent of cable TV. In the recent years, there has been a greater interest in

western music and plays in English among the young generation, particularly, in the

capital city of Bangladesh. The new youth wants to come out of the restrictions

imposed by their previous generations. The more ‘forward looking’ parents want

some amount of English to be used in teaching at all levels of education and

preferably want to send their children to English medium schools. On the other hand,

we also notice a concern for the greater use of mother tongue at the primary to higher

secondary level of education among academicians, researchers and the politicians

engaged in the race to increase their vote banks. It is often seen that the children of

the politicians who demand mother tongue education at all levels of instruction are

sent to study abroad or in English medium schools. English is primarily learnt for

higher education, career enhancement and to upgrade one’s prestige and personality.

It is seen that most educated people in the capital of Bangladesh are fully aware of

the importance of English in education, science and technology. The general

Bangladeshis are positively oriented towards English-speaking Bangladeshis. In the

context of motivational orientation, the relevance of resentment motivation can be

linked in the context of learning English in Bangladesh. Not everyone is willing to

learn English. For them, it is a compulsion imposed by the system of education;

others learn it because they are forced to do so by their parents/guardians as a means

of survival or for some other equally compelling reasons. The stereotype which can

be seen among educated Bangladeshis is that scientific knowledge is not complete

without learning English as well as without education through the English medium. It

would not be far from truth to say that the ruling class in Bangladesh wants to

continue to have English in administrations and other important sectors because it is

an important tool for keeping the underprivileged marginalized.

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II. Theoretical Background

2.1 Introduction

We observe a tremendous growth in the study of second language learning in

the last two decades or so. Krashen in the 1970s made a distinction between

acquisition and learning. To him, ‘acquisition’ is more of a subconscious, natural

process that leads to foreign language proficiency. On the other hand, ‘learning’ is a

conscious process that monitors or edits the process of acquisition. There is a

distinction to be maintained between ‘being interested’ and ‘being motivated’.

Interest usually refers to the condition where the source of the drive to study lies in

the student; the latter sees the intrinsic value of the effort to be expanded and the goal

to be achieved. ‘To motivate a student’, on the other hand, refers to a condition where

it is felt that there is an absence of interest and hence the drive to study lies in some

area extralingusitic to the goal to be achieved. It is often assumed that intrinsic

interest is a more favorable condition for learning than supplied motivation although

the evidence on this matter is ambiguous. Thus, Lorge (in Jakobvits 1970) reported

that adults were paid to follow experimental courses in Russian, they learned equally

well regardless of their stated interest in the task. The widely accepted definition of

attitude is provided by Secord and Backman (1964). This definition of attitude by

them is considered as certain regularities of an individual’s feelings, thoughts and

predispositions to act towards some aspect of the environment with some degree of

evaluative consistency.

2.2 Retrospect of the Literature

Chomsky’s (1959) reaction to the associationistic principles of the

behaviourists was very strong and he was particularly sharp on their uncalled for

extension of animal behaviour to human behaviour. In the context of the shift from

behaviour to cognitive aspects of learning a new method of second language teaching

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was developed where greater emphasis was laid on acquiring conscious control of the

patterns through study and analysis than through analogy. Thus, with more emphasis

on exercises in teaching which would help the learner to induce language system and

internalize the rules of the target (T) language, the cognitive code learning theory was

developed which was under the influence of Gestalt Psychology as well as

Transformational Generative Linguistics.

The questions of proficiency level, norms of correctness and instruction

models make comprehensive socio psychological study of the second language

learner essential. Considerable amount of research in second language acquisition has

shown that success in L2 can be related to measures of attitudes and motivation

(Clément, Gardner and Smythe 1977, 1980; Gardner and Lambert 1959, 1972;

Gardner and Smythe 1981 and Gliksman 1981). In the context of traditional second

language programs, these studies were conducted and the students study the language

as part of their standard school curriculum. These studies, in general, show that

measures of achievement in the second language are substantially related to measures

of attitudes and motivation. In spite of these relations, we are confronted with two

questions; one of them is about the validity of the attitude and motivation measures.

Though these measures may predict achievement in a second language, still it has to

be proved that any one attitude or motivation measure can be correlated significantly

with other measures of the same attribute. The other, that is, the second question

relates to the precise meaning of the correlation between measures of the attitudes

and motivation on the one hand and second language achievement on the other. As

these data have the correlation nature, the obtained relationships would be predicting

either attitudes and motivation are conducive to determining achievement in the

second language or that proficiency in the second language influences attitudes and

motivation. The research work concerning the role of attitudes and motivation on

second language learning has made use of the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery or

tests derived from it (Gardner,Clément, Smythe and Smythe 1979).

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As we noticed in the first chapter, the French-American studies of Gardner and

Lambert and their associates confirmed the result of their earlier studies and they

observe that positive attitudes towards French-American culture along with certain

stereotypes of the European French can have relationships with expressive skills in

French. Gardner and Lambert used the ‘matched–guise technique’ and found that

learning French American adolescent did carry pejorative and biased images of the

typical ethnolinguistic groups. Stevik (1976) is the propagator of the silent way.

Stevik mentions that the students who are not having high attitudes for second

language learning will tend to seek less input and will have a high or strong filter,

that means, they will not be internalizing the message in spite of being exposed to it.

In her several studies, Burstall (1975) found a positive coexistence between attitudes

and achievement though she was sceptical about this causal relationship.

Gardner and Lambert (1972) stressed the importance of anti-authoritarian and

non-ethnocentric attitudes in successful foreign/second language learning.

Authoritarianism generally refers to anti-democratic feelings and is generally

measured through respect for authority, use of force, nationalism, etc. On the other

hand, ethnocentrism refers to the people who suspect foreign people and ideas and is

generally measured through attitudes towards foreigners, preservation of nationality,

respect for national symbols, etc. Gardner and Lambert expressed the following view:

‘Learners who have strong ethnocentric or authoritarian attitude or have

learned to be prejudiced toward foreign peoples are unlikely to approach the language

learning task with an integrative outlook.’(Gardner and Lambert 1972:16)

Gardner, et al. (1976) found that the beginning students tended to be more

ethnocentric and anxious and students who had ethnocentric orientation would tend

to withdraw from second language programs. To quote them:

‘--- consequently it is reasonable to expect the relatively more advanced

students to be less ethnocentric.’ (Gardner, et al. 1976:251)

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They were successful in establishing that the motivation of the learners to learn a

foreign/second language was dependent on his attitudes and identification with the

features (linguistic as well as non-linguistic) of the speakers of the target (TL)

language. They made distinction between integrative motivation and instrumental

motivation. To them, a person’s motivation will be termed as integrative if he/she

learns a foreign/second language for active interaction with the speakers of the target

(TL) language. On the other hand, a person’s motivation will be called as

instrumental if he/she learns a foreign/second language with the look of utilitarian

objectives, such as, getting a better job, trading purposes, obtaining admission in a

particular course. Lambert (1963) puts it this way:

‘This theory, in brief, holds that an individual successfully acquiring a second

language gradually adopts various aspects of behaviour which characterize members

of another linguistic-cultural group. The learner’s ethnocentric tendencies and his

attitudes toward the other group are believed to determine his success in learning the

new language. His motivation to learn is thought to be determined by his attitudes

and by his orientation toward learning a second language. The orientation is

‘instrumental’ in form if the purposes of language study reflect the more utilitarian

value of linguistic achievement, such as, getting ahead of one’s occupation, and is

‘integrative’ if the student is oriented to learn more about the other cultural

community as if he desired to become a potential member of the other group. It is

also argued that some may be anxious to learn another language as a means of being

accepted in other cultural groups because of dissatisfaction experienced in their own

culture while other individuals may be equally interested in another culture as they

are in their own.’(Lambert 1963:114)

It can be seen that the question of motivation in Foreign Language (FL) study

may be a very complicated factor indeed. Lambert (1963) has found that

‘integratively orientated’ students are more successful than ‘instrumentally

orientated’ learners and he apparently believes that the latter are not normally aware

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that they are ‘trying less hard’, if indeed they are. Carroll (1960) is of the opinion that

the instrumentally orientated student in fact preserves less at FL (Foreign Language)

study which he considers as an account for Lambert’s findings. The following studies

also establish this point. Gardner and Lambert (1959), Lambert, Gardner, Olton and

Tunstall (1961) and Gardner (1966) observed that the higher would be success-rate in

foreign language learning if the nature of the motivation of the students was

integrative rather than instrumental. Burstall (1975) tested this hypothesis in the

course of NFER evaluation of the teaching of French in primary schools and

mentioned that a partial support can be found to Gardner and Lambert’s view. She

also mentioned that motivational characteristics of individual pupils had appeared to

be neither exclusively integrative nor instrumental though the relationship between

pupil’s attitude and achievement could be established. Gardner and Lambert (1972)

extended their studies to Philippines and found that the instrumental approach to

language study would be extremely effective as the setting was conducive to learning

a second language for utilitarian ends. To quote:

‘--- But still the Philippines investigation changed our perspective on the

instrumental-integrative contrast. We see now that the typical student of foreign

languages in North America will profit more if he is helped to develop an integrative

outlook toward the group whose language is being offered. For him, an instrumental

approach has little significance and little motive force. However, for members of

ethnic minority groups in North America as for those living in nations that have

imported prestigious world languages and made them important national languages,

the picture changes. Learning a second language of national or world wide

significance is then indispensable, and both instrumental and integrative orientations

towards the learning task must be developed.’ (Gardner and Lambert 1972:141-142)

Gardner, Lalonde and Moorcroft (1985) found that subjects who were high on

language aptitude learned faster than those who were low and also those who had

high integrative motivation learned faster than those who had low. Mueller (1971)

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showed that the students who had both integrative and instrumental motivations had

achieved equally high grades. However, it can be recalled that Pimsleur et al. (1964)

report that their ‘Interest Test 1’ is one of the tests on which underachievers are

significantly lower than the controls and they find it helpful to include it in their

Aptitude Battery as a useful predictor of success. Pimsleur et al. (1964) also found

that the distinction between under-achievers and average-achievers was not related to

any type of motivation. But the reason was that the latter type of students did not find

foreign language study to be pleasant in the course of their lives or any significant

relevance for pragmatic purposes. Similarly, after a series of investigations on the

study of French in the Montreal, Maine and Louisiana settings, Lambert (1963)

reached the following conclusion:

‘The results indicate that similar to the Montreal studies, two independent

factors underlie the development of skills in learning a second language: an

intellectual capacity and an appropriate attitudinal orientation toward the other

language group coupled with a determined motivation to learn the language.’

(Lambert 1963: 117)

Pimsleur et al. (1962) conducted several studies concerning the existing relationship

between intelligence and foreign language learning and found the relationship to be

somewhat positive though latter studies raised questions regarding the correlation

between these two. To quote Carroll and Sapon:

‘Most of the commonly employed intelligence tests measure a number of

abilities simultaneously–verbal ability, reasoning ability and others. While a few of

these abilities may be relevant to foreign language success, most are not and their net

effect is to depress the correlation of intelligence with foreign language success.’

(Carroll and Sapon 1959:22)

Gardner et al. (1965) showed that various aspects of foreign/second language skills

could have association with different characteristics of aptitude. They noticed that

verbal reasoning had close links with foreign language achievement particularly at

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the time of measuring students’ ability to recognize linguistic materials. Jakobovits

(1970) spoke in the same way that an individual might have high capability of

phonetic coding unlike grammatical sensitivity or memorization. Nida (1958) pointed

out that with the examination of fine, subtle and less obvious conditions regarding the

personality of the learner we could have better understanding of the reasons

responsible for learning a foreign language. In second language research, we see the

general tendencies of ignoring personal traits, such as, extraversion and introversion,

assertiveness, emotional stability, social conformity, anxiety, placidity and many

others. Wittenborn et al. (1944, 1945); Pimsleur et al. (1962, 1964); Smart et al

(1970) and Bartz (1974) have investigated the establishment of coexistence between

personal traits and language learning. Bartz (1974) found that introversion, soberness

and self-sufficiency had significant correlation with oral components of

communicative competence. Brown (1973) also mentioned several studies in order to

prove that reflective students reacted rather slowly and they were better readers than

conceptually impulsive ones.

Carroll (1963) showed that in the learning process, the total time spent on a

particular language played an important role and Carroll’s suggestions was further

extended by Titone (1977). Titone (1977) mentioned that children would be benefited

from an extended period time for being capable of mastering language skills whereas

the adult would be gaining profit from intensive courses because of their high degree

of transfer ability. The view of Titone is well supported by Burstall (1975). To quote

Burstall:

‘Thus, the most conservative interpretation which the available evidence would

appear to permit is that achievement of skills in a foreign language is primarily a

function of the amount of time spent studying that language---.’ (Burstall 1975:21)

We see in recent times an increasing phenomenon of looking at the learning of

a foreign/second language in comprehensive outlook that covers up the issues, such

as, the learner and his learning situations. Richards (1972) did not fail to mention that

21

the output of the learners with regard to social backdrop required to be highlighted

properly. The hypothesis of Schumann (1978) is that acculturation works as major

causal variable in second language acquisition and the degree of the learner’s

acculturation of the target (TLG) language group is as much as his acquiring the

target (TL) language. He points out two kinds of acculturation; the first one concerns

the learner’s social integration with the target language (TL) group, the second one

mentions the acting of the target language (TL) group as a reference point. Krashen

(1982) has employed the Acculturation Model as a part of the theory of Monitor

Model for learner’s language acquisition. Krashen like his predecessor Schumann has

stressed significantly on input. Cook (1978), Larsen-Freeman (1976) and Hatch

(1976) have found the existing important relationship between the learner’s language

and the different kinds of interaction he engages with others. Burstall (1975) quotes

several studies, such as, Douglas (1964) and Robinson (1971) to show that children

with parents in high status occupation tend to receive more parental support when

they approach new learning experiences than do those with parents in lower status

occupation.

Thus, the above-mentioned research work lead us to the conclusion that second

/foreign language learning is quite a complex process including the contributions

related to the learner and his environment. We can also posit that any one of the

variables cannot be the only determinant of success in second/foreign language

learning. The significance of studying each language in its own setting has come

prominently from Gardner and Lambert. They have emphasized the importance of

studying each language learning setting in its own right and also suggested that the

configuration of variable obtaining in one setting may not be valid in another setting.

As for example, the reasons for the introduction of English as second language in

schools or colleges in Bangladesh are quite different from the introduction of it in

Philippines or Nigeria or any other countries. We see the presence of an elite group in

Bangladesh who identify themselves with the behavioural patterns of the western-

world by using extensive English. But the student sections of our country do not feel

22

comfortable to follow their (the elite) westernized behavioural pattern. Thus, the

distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation made by Gardner and

Lambert needs to be modified in the Bangladeshi context.

The growth of the research in social psychological aspects of second language

learning in different parts of the world in recent years is phenomenal resulting in

raising several questions by research scholars. Lyczak, Fu and Ho (1976), Khanna

and Agnihotri (1982, 1984); Khanna (1983), Oller, Hudson and Liu (1977) and

Young and Gardner (1990) found that motivational or attitudinal variables could not

account for variance in second language proficiency as much as social variables did.

Thus, the theoretical claim of Gardner and Lambert does not show generality as such.

Citing examples of Lyczak, Fu and Ho (1976), we can say that there is no significant

correlation between achievement and attitudinal variables. Wong (1982) found that

Chinese students learning English did not show any correlation between motivational

orientations and their achievement in English. Au (1984) found the existence of

negative correlation between the desire of learning English and English proficiency

measures. The theoretical claim of Gardner and Lambert, that is, the integrative

motive hypothesis maintains that integrative motive is positively related to second

language (L2) achievement. Au (1988) showed that this hypothesis was found to lack

generality. Au (1988) found substantial evidence against the hypothesis propagated

by Gardner and Lambert, which is, integrative motivation positively correlated with

second language achievement. Lukmani (1972) found that integrative and

instrumental motives were highly correlated with each other as well as with

achievement in English as a Second language (ESL). In her study, contrary to

expectation the instrumental motive was more highly correlated with achievement

than the integrative motive. Lukmani (1977) found that the instrumental motivation

of Marathi speaking children correlated significantly with English proficiency scores

but she did not address social variables in her study at all. Anisfeld and Lambert

(1961), testing English-speaking Jewish students learning Hebrew, found that,

contrary to expectation, instrumentally motivated students performed better on

23

Hebrew tests. Khanna and Agnihotri (1982, 1984) and Khana (1983) felt that Gardner

and Lambert’s distinction of motivational orientation might not capture the

motivational complexity obtaining in the Indian situation. A pilot study revealed that

most of the reasons for which the Indian students studied English were instrumental

in character. The absence of integrative motivation may be

‘Because there is no well-defined socio-cultural group with which students

may wish to identify themselves and whose behavioural patterns may be called

western.’ (Khanna and Agnihotri 1984: 232)

Their results made Khanna and Agnihotri (1982, 1984) and Khanna (1983) redefine

the distinction of integrative and instrumental motivation orientation made by

Gardner and Lambert. To them, there could be two kinds of motivational reasons;

one of them was complementary and the other one was supplementary.

Complemetary motivation was defined in terms of learning English for getting better

jobs or receiving higher education and supplementary motivation referred as learning

English for additive or ornamental purposes, such as, to read foreign literatures,

watch English films or just feel superior to others.

2.3 Cloze Procedure

Cloze procedure was initiated by Ebbinghaus in 1897. The origin of the word

‘cloze’ goes back to 1953 when Taylor was trying to design appropriate reading

materials for native students. Cloze procedure prominently came into light when

Taylor investigated its effectiveness as a tool for determining the readability of

passages of prose in the reader’s native language. Deleting words from a selection

and requiring the examinee to fill in the blanks constructed the test. The term ‘cloze’

was used with the notion of Gestalt ‘closure’ in mind, referring to the natural human

psychological tendency to fill in gaps in pattern. He coined the word as a reminder of

the concept of ‘closure’ which was well known in Gestalt psychology. According to

Gestalt psychology, the whole is considered different from the sum of its parts. The

development of Gestalt psychology has influenced the way the process of language

24

and language learning are described. Cloze procedure is based on the Gestalt

psychology. It refers to the ability of individuals to complete a pattern once they have

grasped the structure of the pattern. As for example, if one sees a picture of a man’s

face without one ear and one eyebrow, provided he grasps what it is meant to be, he

will be able to complete the picture.

Gestalt psychology was developed in Austria and Germany toward the end of

the 19th century. Gestalt is a German word which does not have an exact translation

in English. The word puts stress on the notion that properties of the whole influence

the way in which the parts are perceived; perception acts to draw the sensory data

together into a holistic pattern or Geslaltien. For that reason, the theory is sometimes

referred as the theory of the ‘whole’. The proponents of this theory refute the idea

that percepts are built up from distinct atoms of sensation. The theory leads to the

conclusion that human beings possess a natural ability to perceive unfinished or

incomplete Figures as complete entities. A typical example of visual perception is

completing an incomplete geometrical pattern–a pattern with a closure–such as the

ones illustrated below:

Thus, if a person has developed a perception of an object, the object will be perceived

completely even if it contains some incomplete parts or closures. The same approach,

applied to language processing, claims that if one has developed an ability to use

language, he will be able to complete his perception of a piece of a language even if

the piece of language contains some closures or blanks. Taylor (1953) suggested that

25

the closure procedure could be treated as an alternative to traditional reading

comprehension texts. He believed that when certain closures, i.e., blanks were made

in a passage, it would result in an incomplete whole. The words around the blank

would function as the stimuli to activate reader’s mental mechanism. Thus, the reader

would try to find clues from the passage that might help him trace the missing words.

In this case, the reader’s ability to complete the incomplete passage would be an

indication of his reading comprehension ability in general and that shows, in

particular, his language processing ability. In more technical terms, Cloze procedure

is a means of assessing learner’s internalized grammatical knowledge. In fact, the

Cloze procedure indicates the efficiency of the learner’s utilization of grammatical

processes to retrieve the missing or mutilated parts of the text. Cloze tests are

deceptively simple devices that have been constructed in so many ways for so many

purposes that an overview of the entire scope of literature on the subject is

challenging.

Various research projects were conducted to investigate the efficiency of Cloze

procedure as text for non-native learners’ language proficiency. The possibility of

using Cloze procedure for testing foreign–language proficiency has been known since

a study by Carroll, Caron and Wilds (1959) employed the Cloze method with high

school foreign–language students. In spite of the utility of their study, the Cloze

procedure is not even mentioned in many standard test books on language testing

(Lado 1961) nor is it discussed in the most widely used language-teaching manuals

(Lado 1964). The definition of Cloze procedure is provided by Taylor as ‘any

passage of appropriate length and difficulty with every nth word deleted.’ There are

several terms of the definition need to be clarified. The first line of research focuses

on determining the value of ‘n’. It is clear that the minimum value that ‘n’ can take

is ‘2’. That is, every other word should be deleted. Though the minimum is easy to

determine, it is not so with the maximum. To determine the most appropriate value of

‘n’, Cloze tests with every 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th word deleted are

developed. In practice, tests with every 5th or 7th word deletion have become more

26

popular. More specially, Cloze tests with every 7th word deleted tests considered as

standard Cloze tests though they may not possess significant advantages over other

types of Cloze with different rates. MacGinite (1961) has found that words are

equally restorable under sixth, twelfth and twenty-fourth deletion systems but when

every third word is deleted, restoration is more difficult. Fillenbaum, Jones and

Rapport (1963) have shown that deleting words more frequently e.g. one out of five

creates a test of such difficulty that much discriminatory power is lost. On the other

hand, to delete words less frequently than one out of twelve does not substantially

change the quality of the test. We can see that a very low value of ‘n’ e.g. 3 or 4 will

make the test extremely difficult and a very high value e.g. 10 or 11 will make it very

easy.

The second line of research centres around determining the appropriate number

of deletions ranging from 20 up to 100. Since the number of deletion determines the

length of the passages, generally, more care is taken in this regard. Following the

tradition of developing reading comprehension tests, most scholars believe that the

length of the passage should not exceed 300-400 words. These numbers of words

would accommodate approximate 40-50 deletions. The number of items should be

determined at a level which would produce both high reliability and high validity.

Experiments show that Cloze tests with 25-30 deleted items have as high a validity

index as those with 40 to 50 deleted items. Thus, the common sense criterion for the

number of deletions in a Cloze test is set to be 25-30. It means that considering the

7th word deletion rate and 25 to 30 blanks, the length of the Cloze passages would be

somewhere between 175 to 210 words.

The most common form of a paragraph is the so-called ‘I’ shaped one. That is,

the topic sentence which carries the heaviest load of information, usually appears at

the beginning of the paragraph and the concluding sentence which summarizes the

context of the paragraph, comes at the end of the paragraph. In other words, these two

sentences provide a great amount of information which may have a key role in

27

understanding the total passage. Therefore, it is felt that leaving the first and the last

sentences intact in the Cloze passage will help readers to comprehend the passage

easily. It eventually becomes an accepted norm to leave the first and the last

sentences intact. In fact, later research also supports this hypothesis. Adding the

number of words in these two sentences would lengthen the Cloze passage to 220-

250 words.

Literature on judging the passage difficulty is old and rich. Within the last few

decades many readability formulas have been developed. Readability formulas,

though variant on the surface, have some common characteristics. Most of them

utilize factors, such as, number of syllables or words, length of sentences or the

syntactic complexity of sentences. Research on foreign or second language indicates

that a Cloze score of 53% or above corresponds to ‘what has traditionally been called

an independent level of reading.’ A score of 44% to 53% is in the appropriate range

for instrumental materials, the so-called ‘instrumental level’ and the score below 44%

falls into the ‘frustration level of reading.’ Oller (1972). The same phenomenon has

been also explicitly supported by Haskell (1976). In using Cloze test procedure as a

readability measure for foreign language texts, it is mentioned that if the mean score

of a group of foreign students is over 53% correct on a passage, then they will have

the ‘independent’ level which means that the passage is easy enough for the students

and they can read and comprehend the passage without getting help from a teacher. If

the mean score of the students is between 44% and 53%, then they are reading at the

‘instructional’ level, i.e., the students will require help from a teacher. If their mean

score is less than 44%, then they will have the ‘frustration’ level, that means, the

passage is too difficult for the students even with the help of a teacher. Other

researchers, like Anderson (1976) suggested that the actual percentage might vary a

little.

Considering the complexion and controversies related to readability formulas,

and also taking account of the differences between a native and non-native speakers

28

of a language, it is difficult to advocate strongly a particular formula or criterion for

selecting a Cloze passage for non-native speakers. For selecting a passage for non-

native speakers, it is suggested first to determine the content of the materials studied

or expected to be studied by the target population for whom the test is intended to be

given. Then, a random sample of passages from the content should be selected. A

particular readability formula should then be applied to these passages and the

average index should be taken as the criterion for selecting an unseen passage for the

group. Among the methodological questions concerning Cloze tests which have been

investigated systematically with non-native speakers are scoring methods, difficulty

levels, grammatical categories of deletions and the performance of native and non-

native speakers on the same texts. Taking the difficulty level of a passage into

consideration, the definition of the term ‘cloze’ can be redefined as a passage of

appropriate difficulty (determined by readability formulas) and of appropriate length

(220-250 words) with every seventh word deleted. This definition though not a

standard one nor experimentally superior to other definitions can serve as a

reasonable working definition for those who are interested in working with Cloze

procedure.

In comparison with other earlier tests that generally measured discrete skills,

Cloze test is considered to be an integrative test. After the investigation of Taylor

(1953), a number of studies have been conducted to investigate the appropriateness of

the use of Cloze procedure as a measure of readability of L1 and L2 materials (e.g.,

Knight 1966, Bormuth 1962, Brual 1962, Anderson 1967, McLeod 1962, Miller and

Coleman 1967 and Keer 1968) measure of reading comprehension in L1 and L2 (e.g.,

Bormuth 1969, Weaver and Kingston 1963, Tuinman, Blaton and Gray 1975 and

Alderson 1978) and the measure of overall L2 proficiency (e.g., Carroll, Carton and

wilds 1959, Conrad 1970; Darnell 1970, Oller and Inal 1971, Oller 1972, Pike 1973,

Stubbs and Tucker 1974, Jonz 1976, Alderson 1979a, Hinofotis 1980, Brown 1980,

1983; Bachman 1985,etc.). Cloze procedure involves a cognitive task ‘based on

understanding and reasoning’ (Rye 1982). It is termed as a ‘constructive language

29

process’ by Ryan and Semmel (1969). Rye later on pointed out that a more

appropriate term for it would be ‘Construction Procedure’ as the subjects were asked

to build up or construct the deleted words with the help of grammatical, syntactical,

semantic and stylistic information.

There can be two bases on which the deletions are generally made. The

deletions are either on the basis of ‘fixed-ratio deletion cloze’ where every nth word

(5th to 10th word) is deleted and replaced by a blank of standard length or ‘variable-

ratio’/‘rational’ deletion where specific items, such as, articles, nouns, prepositions,

verbs, etc. are deleted. The latter suits grammatical testing/teaching .The scoring is

generally worked out either on the basis of ‘exact-word’ replacement requiring

retrieval of the original word or on the basis of ‘acceptable-substitute’ that allows

acceptance of any alternative word that is contextually appropriate. Bachman (1985)

made two tests, in one of them different types of deletions were made according to

the range of context required for closure, while in the other a fixed-ratio deletion

procedure was followed. Bachman found that while both tests (rational deletion

procedure and fixed-ratio deletion procedure) were equally reliable and had equal

criterion validity, the fixed-ratio test was significantly more difficult.

Oller (1973) has termed the Cloze procedure as a ‘stroke of raw genius’. The

Cloze test is easy to construct, score and also it shows very significant correlations

with other measures of language proficiency. Taylor (1953) attempted to show that

the Cloze test procedure ranked passages as much as the two most prominent

readability formulae, Dale-Chall and Flesch. Cloze researchers have focused on its

utility as measure of overall second language proficiency (e.g., Carroll, Carton and

Wilds 1959, Oller 1972, Stubbs and Tucker 1974, Mullen 1979, Khanna 1983 and

Sahgal 1992). Not only for measuring readability and assessing language proficiency

but also for educational, medicinal, social, translation and other purposes Cloze tests

have played significant roles. Fillenbaum and Jones (1962) were successful in

making distinction between transcripts of the speech of aphasic patients and control

30

speakers. Klare, Sinaiko and Stolurow (1972) showed that Cloze procedure possesses

valid technique for evaluating the quality of translations of technical training manuals

used by the military.

One of the major issues related to Cloze tests ‘what does it test/measure?’ Oller

(1973) refers to the measurement of Cloze test as ‘grammar of expectancy’. He feels

that the underlying process of taking a Cloze test shows more than ‘passive reading’.

On the other hand, Alderson (1983) and Foley (1983) are sceptical of the validity of

Cloze procedure as a measure of overall language proficiency. Alderson (1983)

reports:

‘The Cloze procedure is not a unitary technique, since it results in tests which

are markedly different, different tests give unpredictably different measures’.

(Alderson 1983:211)

Researchers have tried to explore the influence of different cognitive abilities and

styles on Cloze test performance. There are many studies which show contrary views

about the existence of the influence of different cognitive abilities and styles on

Cloze test performance. Bialystok and Howard (1979) investigated the influence of

inferencing on Cloze test performance. They have defined inferencing as the ability

to exploit maximally all the available information sources in order to arrive at new

insights into the unknown aspects of the second language. They found that

inferencing is an integral component in performance on Cloze tests. A lot of research

has also been conducted to explore the influence of field dependent/independent

cognitive style (FD/I) on Cloze test performance. FD/I refers to individual differences

in performed ways of perceiving, organizing, analyzing or recalling information and

experience. Field dependence indicates a tendency to rely on external frames of

reference in cognitive activities whereas filed independence suggest reliance on

internal rules and strategies for processing information and the existence of mental

restructuring abilities. The results of the studies exploring the relationship between

FD/I and Cloze test performance are far from consistent. Hanseen (1984) came to the

31

conclusion that the relationship between field sensitivity and Cloze test performance

might not be very significant for all cultures.

The next issue related to Cloze test is whether Cloze items are sensitive to

cross-sentential ties. Many researchers, such as, Carroll (1972), Alderson (1983),

Porter (1983) and Markham (1985) found that Cloze items were not sensitive to long-

range constraints. Carroll (1972) emphasized that Cloze test is based on working with

the ‘local redundancy’ of a passage i.e., the missing elements can be supplied by the

linguistic clues present in the immediate environment-generally in the same sentence.

Alderson (1983:216) writes in this regard:

‘My research, and particularly that reported in the Journal of Research in

Reading in 1979, shows that increasing the amount of context on either side of a

Cloze gap has no effect on the case on average. No increase in predictability is

gained by a bilateral context of eleven words rather than five words. If amount of

context has any effect, the critical amount is less than five words’.

Porter (1983) also reached the same conclusion. He writes:

‘There was no indication that quantity of context beyond five or six words

bilaterally is a factor affecting predictability’.

On the other hand, there are many researchers, such as, Ramananskas (1972),

Oller (1975), Chihara, Oller, Weaver and Chavez-Oller (1977), Cziko (1978), Brown

(1983) and Jonz (1990) are of the opinion that Cloze items are sensitive to long-range

constraints. Ramananskas (1972) reached the conclusion that at least some Cloze

items are sensitive to cross-sentential constraints and also said that the affect of such

constraints tend to increase as the examinees become more proficient in the language

concerned. Chihara, Oller, Weaver and Chavez-Oller (1977) found that both native

and non-native speakers of English performed much better on Cloze items in intact

texts than did on the same items in the scrambled texts. Other studies, such as,

Shanahan, Kamil and Tobin (1982), Alderson (1979) and Porter (1978) have shown

that Cloze texts are not sensitive to contexts beyond the sentence. Alderson (1979)

32

found no evidence that increases in context affected his subjects’ ability to complete

items successfully. The current study of Chavez-Oller, Chihara, Weaver and Oller, Jr.

(1985) concluded that some Cloze items are sensitive to constraints that reach even

beyond 50 words on either side of a blank. Their research also showed that this sort

of context sensitivity was inaccessible to rank beginners but became increasingly

accessible to more proficient language users. With the reviewing of the experimental

data from Chihara et al. (1977), they found about 10% of the items in each of the two

texts examined were highly sensitive to constraints ranging across sentence

boundaries. Researchers have also come up with alternative suggestions of modifying

the basic Cloze test so that it becomes a better measure of cross-sentential cohesive

ties. Those researchers who gave alternative suggestions are Clarke (1979), Bachman

(1982), Bensoussan and Ramraz (1984), Deyes (1984) and Mauranen (1987). Clarke

(1979) and Bachman (1982) suggest that content words tend to reflect grammatical

process at the sentential level. According to these researchers a content-word deletion

procedure is superior to every nth word procedure since it is capable of measuring

both syntactic and discourse level relationship in a text. Bensoussan and Ramraz

(1984) worked with a multiple-choice rational Cloze which they named as the ‘fill-in-

test’ is not random; they are chosen because of their key function in a rational

argument which the candidate has to reconstruct. They found that this ‘fill-in-test’ is

a reliable measure of EFL reading comprehension. According to Deyes (1984), a

more discourse-oriented approach in Cloze testing is needed. Units based on

communicative value are more appropriate deletion items than single words if the

aim is to test the comprehension of a test.

The other important issue related to Cloze procedure is the frequency of word

deletion of a Cloze passage. Words of a Cloze test are generally deleted on the basis

of either rationally or semi-randomly or randomly. The rational Cloze deletion

process includes selection of words for deletion on the basis of linguistics principle.

For example, it can be only nouns or verbs deletion. Most researchers have preferred

to use the more simple every nth deletion procedure. A number of these have

33

employed an every 5th deletion system. A number of studies have been conducted to

investigate the effect of the rate of deletion on Cloze test performance and to answer

the question as how much context should be left between Cloze items. MacGinite

(1961) compared the effect of deleting every third, sixth, twelfth and twenty-fourth

word. He took into account the fact that different deletion rates took out different sets

of words. To control this factor, only results on blanks common to all deletion rates

were analyzed. Since different deletion rates were multiple of 3, the possibility of

having the same word deleted in different Cloze tests was fairly high. MacGinite

found that words were equally restorable under sixth, twelfth and twenty-fourth

deletion systems but restoration was more difficult when every third word was

deleted. He concluded that context more than about five words distant exercised

relatively little constraint. Anderson (1976) points out MacGinite employed passages

of text that would have been very easy reading for the sample he took and that the

effect of employing too easy reading materials for subjects is to run the risk of

masking differences which might exist. Fillenbaum, Jones and Rapport (1963)

compared the effect of deleting every second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth word and

found that Cloze scores increased moderately as frequently of deletion decreased

from every second to every sixth word. Most of the researchers, such as, Fillenbaum,

Jones and Rapport (1963), Oller (1973), Potter (1968) and Alderson (1980) have

preferred to employ the every nth word deletion procedure. To Cohen (1980), the

rational deletion process shows more of a discrete point test. The semi-random

deletion process involves deletion of every nth word (N can be any number)

neglecting its linguistic characteristics. Random cloze involves the deletion of a

percentage of words using a statistical random sampling technique.

Another issue related to the Cloze procedure is the scoring procedure. The

most common way of scoring responses is to give credit only for the restoration of

the exact word deleted. However, it is not uncommon to take as correct retrieval of

either synonyms of the deleted words or semantically acceptable words. There are

other alternative scoring procedures, e.g. Darnell (1986). Darnell used a scoring

34

procedure based on a prior determined distribution of response frequencies to each

item as answered by the native speakers.

Many studies, such as, Stubbs and Tucker (1974), Alderson (1980) and

Khanna (1983) showed that there existed high correlations between the exact word

scoring method and the contextually acceptable word among non-native speakers.

Alderson (1983) concluded that the method which gave credit for any semantically

word appears to be the most valid procedure for the purpose of English as a Second

Language (ESL) testing. Thus, it appears that for native speakers the exact word

scoring procedure is the best and for non-native speakers acceptable word scoring is

the best. Several researchers attempted to modify various aspects of the basic Cloze

test. Instead of the usual written form, Peisach (1965) and Potter (1968) presented the

Cloze passage in auditory form. Ozete (1977) used ‘attended–choice’ approach in

which the students will have choice to select one out of two words rather a blank at

random intervals. Jonz (1976) presented the ‘multiple-choice’ approach where the

students had to choose one out of four choices. On the other hand, Allen (1968)

proposed using fill-in-blank tests instead of the multiple-choice types. Clarke (1979)

and Bachman (1982) suggested that a rational-deletion Cloze test based on content-

word deletion procedure was superior to every nth word procedure.

The following issue related to Cloze test concerns the nature of the text. It is

well known now that if a student is familiar with the text of a Cloze passage, his

performance rises significantly than others who are not familiar with the text of the

Cloze passage. Darnell (1968) showed that engineering majors outperformed non-

majors on passage that was taken from engineering texts. Many studies have

investigated the kind of relationship that exists between the level of difficulty of the

text and the Cloze scores. Agnihotri and Khanna (1991) found that the difficult text

appeared as more difficult Cloze test rather than Cloze test based on easy text.

The most important issue related to Cloze procedure concerns the performance

of native versus non-native speakers’ differences on Cloze tests. Alderson (1980)

35

found that if Cloze tests were claimed to be texts of linguistic proficiency then native

speakers would perform invariably well on Cloze tests than non-native speakers. He

found that the effect of the changes in deletion frequency was also similar for native

and non-native speakers. It was shown by Alderson (1980) that native and non-native

speakers perform similarly on Cloze tests and non-native speakers achieve scores as

high as the highest native speaker. Although native speakers are somewhat better at

the task they are still far from perfect and are not clearly distinguished from non-

native speakers. Carroll et al. (1959) found no differences in mean scores between

native speakers and non-native speakers. On the other hand, Oller, Jr. and Inal (1971)

found that there were significantly differences between the mean scores of native and

non-native speakers though Whiteson (1979) found somewhat different results.

The last issue concerning Cloze procedure is about the number of deletions a

Cloze test can have. The recommendation comes from the research literature is that a

Cloze test should have 50 deletions and a minimum length of 250 words passage with

5th word deletion. To test this recommendation empirically, Rand (1978) designed an

item-analysis programme which artificially lengthens Cloze tests one item at a time.

The programme provided standard statistics for a two-items, three-items, four-items

and so forth, up to a fifty-item Cloze test for four different scoring procedure (exact-

word, acceptable word, Cloze-tropy, multiple choice). Twenty-five items had

achieved the maximum reliability achieved across scoring methods. Rand concluded

that little precision is gained by making a Cloze test longer than 25 items. Sciarone

and Schoorl (1989) tried to determine the number of blanks minimally required to

ensure parallelism for Cloze tests differing only in the point at which deletion starts.

They found that the required minimum number of blanks for Cloze tests depended on

the scoring method used.

36

III: Methodology 3.0 Introduction

This chapter discusses the details of the sample, tools and procedure employed to

examine the relationship between social psychological variables on the one hand and

proficiency in English on the other. The proficiency in English is measured through

the Cloze procedure.

3.1 Sample The sample consisted of students from class eight (30), class ten (30) and twelve (30)

from different institutions in Bangladesh. Figure 1 provides the details of the sample

design.

Figure 1: Sample Design N = 90 class 8 class 10 class 12 (30) (30) (30) school type I II III I II III I II III (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) We had 30 students from each class, that is, a total of 90 students. Three different

kinds of schools (an English medium public school, a government aided public

37

school and an ordinary school) were selected to take care of the socio-economic

variables. English medium children were taken from a school of Dhaka, government-

public school students from Jessore town and ordinary students from Navaran,

Jessore, Bangladesh. We preferred the co-educational schools so that we could

collect data from both male and female students of the same class. Random sample

selection was used in each class to select ten students. The information about the

students and their socio-economic background were obtained from their admission

forms in the institutions. All of them were Bengali speakers though some of them

learn Arabic in their earlier years and were in the age group of 12-19 years. The

students were learning English as a second language. It is to be noted that English in

most of the institutions in Bangladesh is taught from class one till class twelve as a

compulsory subject. We can also mention that the learning of English does not take

place in a natural setting as most of the teachers of English are not native speakers of

English and the target community is also absent in our country. The existing scenario

shows that the students of ordinary schools in Bangladesh generally don’t use English

with their family members, among classmates and friends. On the other hand, those

who are from English medium schools use English as a language of peer-group

communication particularly with the opposite sex. The reason for the greater use of

English with the opposite sex may be to impress them. There has been in recent years

a greater interest in western music and plays in English among the youth in

Bangladesh. In spite of all this, English is not the language of home and family for

the students in Bangladesh.

3.3 Tools

We used the following tools to collect data from our informants.

I. A Cloze test (Appendix A).

II. A detailed social psychological questionnaire (Appendix B).

38

The tools employed in this study were initially designed and tested in a pilot study.

Broadly speaking, we isolated three sets of measures, proficiency in English, personal

and family information and attitudes and motivations.

The Cloze Passage

Proficiency in English was measured through the Cloze test procedure. This

procedure was initially designed and developed by Wilson Taylor (1953) in the early

1950s to measure the readability of texts in the reader’s native language. This

technique is also found to be very useful for testing overall language proficiency of

native speakers. Recently, it has been used as a measure of proficiency in the case of

non-native speakers in foreign and second language situation. This section consists of

a Cloze test designed to measure the proficiency levels of the students in English.

Following the principles of ‘Cloze procedure’, we used an extract from Jim Corbett’s

‘Lalajee’ where every sixth word was deleted after leaving the first and the last

sentence unmutilated. It was a very simple and an interesting passage. It was about

242 words in length. We had a total of 30 blanks. The blank size was kept uniform

throughout the entire passage.

3.4 Procedure

Examinees were given a copy of the test containing the instructions which

stresses that only one word was to be used in each blank which seemed the most

appropriate within the context of the passage. Students were advised to read the

passage twice before starting to fill in the blanks. Students were also told that spelling

would not count against them as long as the scorer could read the intended word. The

test administrator read through the complete instructions with the candidates. He then

asked whether there were any questions. The time allowed for this test was thirty

minutes. Students were told to consider the test as a challenge to their English

language ability.

39

Method of Scoring

The test was scored twice for each candidate: once by the exact word method

whereby only the words which were originally deleted from the text were considered

correct and second by the acceptable scoring method whereby any word which was

considered contextually and grammatically correct was also counted as correct. Each

blank when filled correctly was assigned one point; hence, the score range of the

Cloze test was 0-30. There were 30 blanks in the Cloze test passage. Following ‘exact

retrieval’ scoring procedure, every ‘exact’ recall was given a score of 1. Thus, a

subject could get a maximum score of 30. We adopted the following criteria for a

contextually-acceptable response (i) any non-grammatical form (e.g., he say for he

says) would be automatically excluded even though the meaning happened to be

exact and (ii) any blank which contained two words was excluded even though the

result may have been acceptable semantically. All other contextually-or semantically-

acceptable possibilities were accepted.

The Social psychological Questionnaire

This section consists of a detailed social psychological questionnaire designed

for the informants (students) to elicit the following kinds of information:

(a) Personal background, age, sex, socio-economic status, types of education received

(b) Medium of instruction

(c) Attitude towards English

(d) Attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis

(e) Motivational orientation

(f) Parental encouragement to learn English

(g) Classroom anxiety

A total of 25 variables (v/vs) were created to examine the patterns of correlation

obtaining in our data. A complete list of these variables is provided in Appendix C.

40

(a) Personal background and family information

Age (v. 1) was quantified as a running variable.

Sex (v. 2) was quantified in terms of ‘1’ for males and ‘2’ for females.

Exposure to English (v. 3) was quantified as a running variable ranging from 0 to 14.

Schooling (vs 4-6) was seen in terms of the nature of schooling at two different

levels, primary and secondary (post-primary). The score for total schooling (v. 6), as

may be seen from Question 11 (in Appendix B), could vary from a minimum of 6 to a

maximum of 18. It was measured in terms of prestige of the institution, medium of

instruction used there and facilities available for learning English. That is, the

medium of instruction and other facilities were seen as indication of the type of

school that the subject attended. Thus, there are English medium schools where not

only the medium of instruction is English but also other facilities required for an

optimal control over English are also available. Similarly, there are other schools

(mostly run by the government) where the medium of instruction is Bengali and

facilities for learning English are minimal. A high school score is suggestive of a

strong English bias in the total education of the informants.

Residence/Address (v. 7) was quantified on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (lower

class residential area) to 5 (posh residential area). This information was collected

from the address given by the subjects. The score was calculated as follows

Type of Locality Score

Lower Class 1

Lower Middle Class 2

Middle Class 3

Upper Middle Class 4

Posh 5

41

Socio-economic status or SES (v. 14):

The socio-economic status of the informants was elicited from Question 12

(Appendix B). Socio-economic status was measured in terms of the educational

qualification of the subject’s parents (vs 8-9), their monthly income (vs 10-11) and

occupation (vs 12-13). A modified version of Kuppuswamy’s (1962) SES-scale was

used to quantify father and mother’s education, occupation and income. Total socio-

economic status was seen as an aggregate of the above variables (vs 7-13). The score

for total SES (v. 14) could vary from a minimum of 7 to a maximum of 35.

(i) Educational qualifications:

Education is very important in uplifting a family socially and financially. The

following scale was used for the calculation of scores for educational qualification.

Educational Qualification Score Ph D 5 Professional Degrees or Masters 4 Bachelor 3 10+2 2 Below Class12 1

(ii) Occupation: the following scale was used for the calculation of scores for occupation. Occupation Score Professionals 6 Teacher/Government Servant 5 Businessman/Private Company 4 Farmer 3 Labourer/Clark 2 Housewife 1

42

(iii) Monthly Income: The scale used for the calculation of scores for monthly income is as follows: Income (TK. Per month) Scores Below 2000 1 2000-3499 2 3500-4999 3 5000- and above 4 (b) The desired medium of instruction in different domains of education

The medium of instruction (v. 15): In question 13 (Appendix B), we wanted to

provide what our informants thought should be the medium of instruction in different

level/fields of education, such as, school, college, medicine, management,

engineering, etc. All the responses to question 13 were scored as follows:

Medium of Instruction Score Bengali 1 Both Bengali and English 2 Only English 3 The score for total medium of instruction (v. 15) could vary from a minimum of 12 to

a maximum of 36.

(c) Attitudes to English-speaking Bangladeshis

An attitude scale was designed (Question 14: Statements i-iii) to measure

informant’s attitudes towards English-speaking Bangladeshis. There is a westernized

elite group in urban Bangladesh; one of their defining features is the knowledge of

English. A 5-point scale was given after every statement which ranged from ‘agree’

to ‘disagree’.

There were 2 positively (Statements i and ii) worded and 1 negatively

(Statement iii) worded statement(s). The score for total attitudes to English-speaking

Bangladeshis (v. 15) could vary from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 15. Scoring

the positive and the negative statement(s) was done as follows:

43

Positive Negative Agree 5 1 Slightly Agree 4 2 Neither Agree nor Disagree 3 3 Slightly Disagree 2 4 Disagree 1 5 (d) Attitude to English (v. 17)

An attitude scale (Question 14: Statements iv-v and xxv-xxx) was designed to

measure the attitudes of the informants towards English. A 5–point scale ranging

from ‘agree’ to ‘disagree’ was given after each statement. There were only one

negatively (Statement xxx) worded statement and the rest were 7 positively

(Statements iv-v and xxv-xxix) worded. The score for total attitude to English could

vary from a minimum of 8 to a maximum of 40. Scoring for the positive and the

negative statements was done as follows:

Positive Negative Agree 5 1 Slightly Agree 4 2 Neither Agree nor Disagree 3 3 Slightly disagree 2 4 Disagree 1 5 (e) Motivation to learn English

All the items in these attitudinal scales were followed by a 5-point scale ranging

from ‘agree’ to ‘disagree’. Items were modified to suit the Bangladeshi situation. The

subjects were asked to circle the alternative which best indicated the extent to which

he/she agreed or disagreed with the statements.

Integrative motivation (v. 18) consists of 4 statements (Question 14: Statements vi-ix)

and the score for total integrative motivation could vary from a minimum of 4 to a

maximum of 20. Primarily, it focuses on assimilation with the target language

44

community (here, the personality, traits and social roles of the English-speaking

Bangladeshis).

On the other hand, Instrumental motivation (v. 19) (Question 14: Statements x-

xi and xiv and xv) concerned with learning English for social and occupational

mobility. The score total for instrumental motivation could vary from a minimum of

4 to a maximum of 20.

Not every one in Bangladesh learns English willingly. For some, it is a

compulsion imposed by the system of education; others learn it because it is a part of

their course requirement. The score for total Resentment motivation (v. 20) (Question

14: Statements xii-xiii) could vary from a minimum of 2 to a maximum of 10.

Manipulative motivation (v. 21) has been measured through statements xvi and xvii

in Question 14 and the score for total manipulative motivation could vary from a

minimum of 2 to a maximum of 10. Scoring for the motivation to learn English was

done as follows:

Agree 5

Slightly Agree 4

Neither Agree or Disagree 3

Slightly Disagree 2

Disagree 1

(f) Class-room anxiety (v.22) was elicited through 3 statements (Question 14:

Statements xxii- xxiv) and a 5-point scale ranging from ‘agree’ to ‘disagree’ was

given after each statement. The score for total class-room anxiety (v. 22) could vary

from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 15. It was meant to be an index of how

comfortable a subject feels in the English class. Scoring was done as follows:

45

Agree 5

Slightly Agree 4

Neither Agree or Disagree 3

Slightly Disagree 2

Disagree 1

(g) Parental support in learning English (v. 23) was measured through 4 statements

(Question 14: Statements xviii-xxi) and was quantified as in the other (above) cases

using a 5-point scale. The score for total parental support could vary from a minimum

of 4 to a maximum of 20. The students were asked to rate the extent to which their

parents actively encouraged them to study English.

The remaining two variables deal with the Cloze test; one of them is Cloze test

exact (v. 24) and the other is Cloze test acceptable included (v. 25). The discussion of

the two variables can be seen in the previous section 1 which deals with Cloze

procedure. The questionnaire was administered to the students only after assuring

them that the data to be collected from them would be strictly confidential and it has

nothing to do with their college evaluation. The questionnaire was provided followed

by the Cloze test.

We give below a list of variables we examined:

A. Individual Variables

(a) Biological Variables

(i) Age (v. 1)

(ii) Sex (v. 2)

(b) Attitudinal Variables

(i) Attitude to English (v. 17)

46

(ii) Attitude to English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16)

(iii) Motivational orientation (vs 18-21)

(c) Class-room Variables

(i) Class-room anxiety (v. 22)

B. Social Variables

(a) Socio-economic Variables

(i) Residence (v. 7)

(ii) Occupation (vs12-13)

(iii) Income (vs 10-11)

(iv) Education (vs 8-9)

(b) Socio milieu Variables

(i) Parental support (v. 23)

(ii) Medium of instruction (v. 15)

C. Language Proficiency

(a) Cloze test variables

(i) Cloze exact (v. 24)

(ii) Cloze acceptable included (v. 25)

47

IV. Analysis

Data was collected from schools; three types of school were identified for

collecting data; an English medium school, a government-aided school and an

ordinary school in Bangladesh. We preferred the co-educational schools so that we

could get data from both male and female students in the same class. As pointed out

in Chapter 3, we collected data from class eight (30), class ten (30), class twelve (30)

students and tried to make equal numbers of male and female students. We took 30

students from each class, that is, a total of 90 students.

The average age was 15.33 with a range from 12 to 19. We used random

sample procedure for each class to select ten students. We always sought permission

from the head of each institute for the purpose of collecting data. After getting the

required permission, we first got the questionnaire (Appendix B) filled in and then

administered the Cloze test (Appendix A). In addition to it, we informed the students

about the objective of our study and assured them that this study had nothing to do

with the evaluation of their class-performances. Though they were told to take the

Cloze test as a challenge for their knowledge of English.

The administration of the tests and questionnaire was supervised at all times by

the test administrator. This was to ensure consistency in the collection of the data.

The total time spent on administering the questionnaire and the Cloze test ranged

from one to one-half hour. Allowance was made for five minutes for the students to

rest between the administrations of test and questionnaire. Sometimes, along with me

the class teacher invariably gave the instructions and also guided the students. The

teacher read each item of the questionnaire before it was answered. This was to make

sure that the students understood the questions and responded appropriately. Due

consideration was given to the fact that the medium of questions was not the mother

tongue of the students. The data collected was codified and tabulated for every

student. A large matrix was prepared on a checkered sheet. The matrix consisted of

48

twenty-five variables on the horizontal axis and ninety informants on the vertical

axis. Each student had been assigned a number.

The analysis was done by using a software package SPSS/WIN. The data were

analyzed for means, standard deviation and correlation of 25 variables. The total

number of students in our study is 90. We did not face any problems in the process of

data collection. There was no question left unanswered by our informants. They were

very cooperative, patient and sincere in filling the questionnaire (Appendix B). In our

following tables, number before the issues listed in Column I refer to the statements

numbers in Question 14 in Appendix B.

Table 4.0: Cloze Retrievals (%) of the Students

Class

School 8 10 12

English Medium (n=30) 33.00 47.66 48.33

Government-aided (n=30) 31.66 34.33 41.66

Ordinary (n=30) 16.00 20.66 29.66

Table 4.0 shows vertical progress of performance among schools. The students of

government-run school have performed better than students of ordinary schools. The

students of English medium school have also performed better than students of

government-run school. For example, the students of class eight of government-run

school have better performance (31.66%) than the students of class eight of ordinary

school (16.00%) and the students of class eight of English medium school have better

performance (33.00%) than the students of class eight of government-run school. The

same can be said for other two classes (class ten and twelve) of students as well.

49

We also see horizontal progress of performance within schools. The students

of class ten of any schools (English medium or government-run or ordinary school)

have performed better than students of class eight and class twelve students of any of

the three schools have performed better than the students of class ten. Thus, we can

say that the students of class twelve of English medium school are the best performer

in the Cloze test. Whereas the students of class eight of ordinary school have

performed very poorly in the Cloze test. Here, we can also mention that as the

students move up to higher classes, their English proficiency level also increases.

The interpretation of the variables based on Mean score, Standard Deviation (S .D)

and percentage is shown in the following tables.

Age: The mean age of the sample is 15.33 (S.D 2.02). On an average, the students

involved in this study are found to be half a year above the standard age of their

respective classes. The students of the ordinary schools were perhaps sent late for

primary education by the parents.

Sex: The mean score of sex for the sample is 1.42 (S.D .49). This score shows that on

an average, the numbers of female students are more than male students. The reason

behind this can be the policy of our government which has started granting many

schemes, scholarships from class 6 to 12 to encourage female students to study.

Exposure to English: English is taught from class one as a subject throughout

Bangladesh. The mean score of exposure to English for the sample is 9.43 (S.D 2.27)

on a scale ranging from 0 to 14. The reason for this healthy figure is because of their

learning English from class one onwards.

The following Table 4.0 shows the mean and standard deviation of the variables of

our study.

50

Table 4.1: Variable, Mean and Standard Deviation

Variable No Variable Mean Standard Deviation 1 Age 15.33 2.02 2 Sex 1.41 .496 3 Exposure to

English 9.43 2.27

4 Schooling Primary 5.14 1.72 5 Schooling

Secondary 5.65 1.49

6 Schooling Total 8.92 3.62 14 SES 18.50 4.36 15 Medium of

Instruction 32.27 2.31

16 Attitude to English-Speaking Bangladeshis

11.46 2.35

17 Attitude to English 31.49 4.79 18 Integrative

Motivation 16.74 3.21

19 Instrumental Motivation

17.87 2.40

20 Resentment Motivation

7.93 2.40

21 Manipulative Motivation

7.23 2.49

22 Class-room Anxiety

8.53 3.94

23 Parental Support 16.47 3.84 24 Coze Test Exact 10.11 3.94 25 Cloze Test

Acceptable Included

16.73 5.65

Schooling: The mean scores of primary schooling, secondary schooling and total

schooling are 5.14 (S.D 1.72), 5.65 (S.D 1.49) and 8.92 (S.D 3.62) respectively. The

score for primary schooling (v. 4) and secondary schooling (v. 5) could vary from a

minimum of 3 to a maximum of 9 whereas the score for total schooling (v. 6) ranges

51

from 6 to 18. The mean of total schooling shows that the students are from quite

prestigious schools and also there are some facilities for learning English.

Socio-Economic Status (SES): The mean SES of the sample is 18.50 (S.D 4.36) on a

scale ranging from 7 to 35. The mean score suggests that most of the students belong

to middle class and lower middle class.

Medium of instruction: The mean score of medium of instruction for the sample is

32.27 (S.D 2.31) on a scale ranging from 12 to 36. The mean score indicates that

most of the students want greater amount of English to be used in teaching at all

levels of education. The figures tend to suggest that there should be very little use of

English at the primary level and more in professional levels of education. It is also

noticed that if a student prefers English medium at one level of education, he prefers

English medium for other levels of education as well.

Cloze test

The mean score exact, exact and acceptable included of the Cloze test are 10.11

(S.D 3.94) and 16.73 (S.D 5.65) respectively. The score range of the Cloze test was 0

to 30. The mean scores reflect the poor performance of the students. The nature of the

text coupled with the below standard of our education as well as the lack of qualified

English teachers can be reasons for poor performance of the students.

Attitude towards English: The mean attitude towards English of the sample is 31.94

(S.D 4.79) on a scale ranging from 8 to 40. On an average, the attitude towards

English of the students is on higher side. The mean score suggests that the level of

attitude towards English of the students falls between slight positive (high) to total

positive orientation. The attitude towards English measured through it’s suitability

for creative writing (see following Table 4.2) is not totally positive unlike scientific

thinking. However, it is considered overwhelmingly (67.7%) suitable for scientific

thinking. Most students agree that the present system of education has benefited

enormously (73.3%) from English and greater efforts (81.1%) should be made to

spread English throughout Bangladesh.

52

Table 4.2: Distribution of the Sample on the Scale Measuring Attitude Towards

English Issues eliciting attitude towards English

Agree Agree Slightly

Neither agree nor disagree

Slightly disagree

Disagree

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

4.Suitable for creative writing

23 25.5 24 26.6 9 10.0 9 10.0 25 27.7

5.Suitable for scientific thinking

61 67.7 15 16.6 1 1.1 5 5.5 9 10.0

25.Good influence on the system of education

66 73.3 18 20.0 3 3.3 0 0 3 3.3

26.More effort to spread English

73 81.1 10 11.1 5 5.5 1 1.1 1 1.1

27. Essential for a leader

32 35.5 16 17.7 13 14.4 11 12.2 19 21.1

28.Good for science and technology

67 74.4 14 15.5 4 4.4 0 0 5 5.5

29.Important for political unity

22 24.4 16 17.7 15 16.6 5 5.5 32 35.5

30 Abolition of English

5 5.5 5 5.5 7 7.7 1 1.1 72 80.0

The attitude towards English, measured through it’s requirement to become a

leader in Bangladeshi society, is positive. However, about 36 per cent informants

agree that knowledge of English is necessary to become a leader in Bangladesh.

Nearly 75 per cent of the informants agree that progress in science and technology

will be hampered without English. It is expected in the context of Bangladesh that

English will not play an important role in bringing about political unity. Nearly 36

53

per cent of the informants disagree that English is important for achieving political

unity in Bangladesh. The reason behind this goes back to history. The Bangladeshis

have fought for their mother-tongue against the imposition of Urdu by then West

Pakistan government. They have more positive attitude towards Bengali than any

other language. In the present context of Bangladesh, the pressing need for English in

the first globalising society shows that English has come to stay and will become part

of our society. Almost 73 per cent of our informants disagree that English should be

abolished from Bangladesh.

Attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis: From Table 4.3, we can see that

most of the informants are positively oriented towards English-speaking

Bangladeshis. The mean score of attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis for

the sample is 11.46 (S.D 2.35) on a scale ranging from 3 to 15. The mean score

suggests that most of the students have slight positive attitude (high) orientation

towards English-speaking Bangladeshis.

Table 4.3: Distribution of the Sample on the Scale Measuring Attitude Towards

English-Speaking Bangladeshis. Issues eliciting attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis

Agree Agree Slightly

Neither agree nor disagree

Slightly disagree Disagree

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage No of persons

Percentage

1.Warm-hearted

20 22.2 36 40.0 13 14.4 13 14.4 8 8.8

2.Progressive

38 42.2 32 35.5 11 12.2 5 5.5 4 4.4

3.Dishonest

5 5.5 5 5.5 22 24.4 5 5.5 53 58.8

About 42 per cent of the informants agree that the English-speaking Bangladeshis are

progressive. Nearly 59 per cent of our students disagree that the English-speaking

Bangladeshis are generally dishonest. A smaller percentage (22.2%) of them agree

that they are warm-hearted also.

54

Class-room Anxiety: Table 4.4 shows that nearly 47 per cent informants agree that the

other students in their class speak better than them. This shows that they do not lack

confidence in their use of English totally. Nearly 44 per cent of them disagree that

they get nervous and confused when they speak English in their class. On the other

hand, 56 per cent of them agree that they get confused and nervous when they speak

in English in their class. However, interestingly a noticeable percentage (65%) of

them disagree to have a fear of being laughed at when they speak in English.

Whereas about 35 per cent, that is, one third of the students agree to have fear of

being laughed at when they speak in the class. The overall picture one gets from this

spectrum of responses is that most of the students experience class-room anxiety in a

mixed way.

4.4: Distribution of the Sample on the Scale Measuring Attitude Towards Class-room

Anxiety Issues eliciting class-room Anxiety

Agree Agree Slightly

Neither agree nor disagree

Slightly disagree Disagree

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

22.Other students speak English better

22 24.4 20 22.2 12 13.3 12 13.3 24 26.6

23. Get nervous and confused while speaking

18 20.0 32 35.5 2 2.2 5 5.5 33 36.6

24.Fear of being laughed at while speaking English

17 18.8 14 15.5 8 8.8 4 4.4 47 52.2

The mean score of class-room anxiety of the sample is 8.53 (S.D 3.94) on a

scale ranging from 3 to 15. The mean score suggests that the level of anxiety is not

alarmingly high. The reason can be that most of the students claim themselves as

good students in their classes.

55

Parental Support: The mean score of parental support of the sample is 16.47 (S.D

3.85) on a scale ranging from 4 to 20. The mean score suggests that most of the

students have high degree of parental support when it comes to learning English. It is

evident from Table 4.5 that more than 64 per cent informants agree that they have

parental help for their English. Nearly 64 per cent of them agree that their parents

encouraged them to seek help from their English teachers whereas about 61 per cent

of them agree that their parents emphasize the importance of English after leaving

school/college. However, about 53 per cent of them agree that their parents have

advised them to spend more time on their English studies. Most parents understand

that the career prospects of their children depend on subjects, such as, physics,

chemistry and mathematics. Therefore, they do not exaggerate the importance of

English as a subject.

Table 4.5: Distribution of the Sample on the Scale Measuring Parental Support Issues eliciting parental support

Agree Agree Slightly

Neither agree nor disagree

Slightly disagree Disagree

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

18.Help in English

58 64.4 14 15.5 5 5.5 2 2.2 11 12.2

19. More time to English studies

48 53.3 23 25.5 7 7.7 6 6.6 6 6.6

20.Importance of English

55 63.3 20 22.2 12 13.3 12 13.3 24 26.6

21.Seek help from English teacher

57 63.3 20 22.2 12 13.3 12 13.3 24 26.6

56

Table 4.6: Distribution of the Sample on the Scale Measuring Integrative Motivation Issues eliciting integrative motivation

Agree Agree Slightly

Neither agree nor disagree

Slightly disagree Disagree

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

6.Important for interacting English-speaking Bangladeshi

53 58.8 20 22.2 4 4.4 3 3.3 10 11.1

7.Important for interacting with varied people

77 85.5 7 7.7 1 1.1 3 3.3 2 2.2

8.Helps to appreciate English art and literature

60 66.6 17 18.8 8 8.8 0 0 5 5.5

9.Helps to live and behave like English-speaking Bangladeshi

37 41.1 22 24.4 12 13.3 2 2.3 18 20.0

Integrative Motivation: We see from Table 4.6 that out of the four integrative reasons

for learning English in Bangladesh, the largest number (85.5%) of informants agree

to have the desire to ‘interact with more and varied people in the world’. Nearly 59

per cent of the informants agree that English learning would be important for them to

interact with English-speaking Bangladeshis. About 76 per cent of them agree that it

would help them to appreciate English art and literature. However, a lesser number of

informants (41.1%) agree that English is important for them because ‘it will help

them live and behave like English-speaking Bangladeshis’. It is obvious from the

responses of our informants that most of the informants have the desire to learn

English to interact with people, not necessarily to assimilate or imitate the way of life

of English-speaking Bangladeshis. The mean score of integrative motivation of the

sample is 16.74 (S.D 3.21) on a scale ranging from 4 to 20. Compared with

instrumental motivation, the mean score shows lower level of orientation in

integrative motivation. It looks like the students wish to learn English without

surrendering their unique identity as many students desire to learn English for

57

appreciating arts and literature which are accessible through the knowledge of

English. Very few students feel to imitate the way of life of English-speaking

Bangladeshis

Instrumental Motivation: Most informants, that is nearly 86 out of 90 agree (see

Table 4.7) that English is important for them because ‘it would help them to build a

career’.

Table 4.7: Distribution of the Sample on the Scale Measuring Instrumental

Motivation Issues eliciting instrumental motivation

Agree Agree Slightly

Neither agree nor disagree

Slightly disagree Disagree

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

10.Helps to build career

77 85.5 9 10.0 2 2.2 0 0 2 2.2

11.Useful for higher education

70 77.7 14 15.5 4 4.4 1 1.1 1 1.1

14.Makes a person knowledgeable

68 75.5 10 11.1 5 5.5 2 2.2 4 4.4

15.Adds to prestige and personality

48 53.3 19 21.1 6 6.6 5 5.5 15 16.6

Nearly 78 per cent of them agree that English would be useful for them in higher

education in Bangladesh. On the other hand, about 76 per cent of the students agree

that English-learning would make them more knowledgeable. More than half of them

(53.3%) agree that English would add to their prestige and personality. It looks like

that the students wish to use English largely for instrumental reasons. It is very

interesting to note that English is perceived not only as an academic and economic

mobility but also as a means for enhancing social mobility and individual personality.

The mean instrumental motivation of the sample is 17.87 (S.D 2.40) on a scale

ranging from 4 to 20. The mean score suggests that most of the students are fully

aware of the significance of learning English for their future career. They realize well

that most white-collar jobs and social mobility require the knowledge of English.

58

Resentment motivation: Nearly 63 per cent of the informants agree that they learn

English because it is a part of their course requirement whereas about 52 per cent of

them agree that they learn English as they are forced by their parents/guardians to

learn it.

Table 4.8: Distribution of the Sample on the Scale Measuring Resentment Motivation Issues eliciting resentment motivation

Agree Agree Slightly

Neither agree nor disagree

Slightly disagree Disagree

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

12.A part of course requirement

56 62.2 20 22.2 0 0 4 4.4 10 11.1

13. Parents want it to be learnt

47 52.2 8 8.8 15 16.6 2 2.2 18 20.0

The mean score of resentment motivation of the sample is 7.93 (S.D 2.40) on a scale

ranging from 2 to 10. The mean score suggests that most of the students learn English

as more of compulsion than anything else.

Manipulative motivation: Nearly 70 per cent of the informants (see Table 4.9) agree

that English will enable them to get their work done everywhere in Bangladesh.

Table 4.9: Distribution of the Sample on the Scale Measuring Manipulative

Motivation Issues eliciting manipulative motivation

Agree Agree Slightly

Neither agree nor disagree

Slightly disagree Disagree

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

No of persons

Percentage

16.Helps to get work done everywhere

45 50.0 19 21.1 6 6.6 7 7.7 13 14.4

17.Helps to use other people for personal gains

26 28.8 28 31.1 12 13.3 5 5.5 19 21.1

On the other hand, 20 per cent of them disagree on this issue. About 50 per cent of

the students agree that English would help them to use other people for their personal

gains. It shows that manipulative motivation is instrumental in nature. The mean

59

score of manipulative motivation of the sample is 7.23 (S.D 2.49) on a scale ranging

from 2 to 10. This is not as high as of resentment motivation. The mean score

suggests that most of the students wish to learn English for instrumental and not

manipulative reasons.

Analysis of the Cloze Test

Following Haskell’s (1976) level of judging a Cloze score, we have divided

the sample into three groups in order to measure the overall global proficiency of the

students. This classification is aimed at determining the proficiency level of second

language learners and the difficulty level of the test the students are faced with.

Table 4.10: Sample Distribution According to Haskell’s Criteria (N=90)

Mean Score Number of Students

Independent Level Over 54 5

Instruction Level 44-53 14

Frustration Level Below 43 71

A close look at the above Table 4.10 tells us that most of the students i.e. 71 out of 90

i.e.78 per cent of the students are at the frustration level. This indicated that the

passage is difficult for majority of the students and even extra help from the English

teacher would have not been useful for them. The average mean score of Cloze Exact

(see Table 4.1: Variables, Mean and Standard Deviation) is only 10.11 which

suggests that the majority of the students are not proficient in English. The poor

performance of the students clearly shows that a few students are able to acquire

academic/cognitive level of proficiency in English in Bangladesh. Fourteen students,

that is, about 15 percent students are at the instruction level which means that they

are able to read and comprehend the passage and their performance would have gone

60

up with the help of the English teacher. Only five students, i.e., nearly 6 per cent of

the students are at the independent level which indicates that they have acquired full

grasp over English and have academic/cognitive proficiency in English. It also shows

that without the help from the English teacher, they are quite capable of

comprehending the test. The average number of correct answers for the Cloze exact

scoring is 10.11, with Cloze acceptable included it rises to 16.73. The mean score is

well over 50% now. In second language learning situations, acceptable Cloze entries

should be considered seriously.

Classifications of the Deleted Words

We have classified the deleted words of the Cloze test (Appendix A) into

content words (Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs) and function/grammatical

words (Articles, Prepositions, Pronouns, Conjunctions, Determiner and Adverbial

particles). This kind of classification helps us to determine which category or

categories are easier or more difficult for students to retrieve. Table 4.11 shows the

exact number of words deleted in each category. Table 4.12 shows the percentage of

retrieval of function and content words in the Cloze test in terms of:

i. Exact retrievals

ii. Semantically and grammatically acceptable (SGA) retrievals

61

Table 4.11: Classification of Deleted Words

Parts of Speech Number of Deletion from Cloze Test

Content Words

1 Nouns 7

2 Verbs (Main Verb) 2

3 Adjective 1

4 Adverb 1

Total Content Words 11

Function

Words/

Grammatical

Words

1 Article 1

2 Prepositions 6

3 Pronouns 5

4 Conjunctions 3

5 Determiners 3

6 Adverbial 1

Total Function Words 19

Total Number of

Deletions

30

Table 4.12: Percentage of Retrieval of Content and Function Words (N=90)

Exact (%) Acceptable Included (%)

Content Words 24.94 50.80

Function Words 38.88 58.83

62

From the above Table, we can say that the students have found the exact function

words easier to retrieve than the content words of the Cloze test.

Table 4.13a: An Overview of Retrievals in Different Categories (Exact and

Acceptable Included)

Open Class Items Exact (%) Acceptable Included (%)

1.Nouns 18.73 50.15

2. Verbs (Main) 34.44 49.44

3. Adjectives 28.88 50.00

4. Adverbs 45.55 58.88

Mean Score 22.45 45.72

Tables 4.13a and 4.13b present an overview of the percentage scores of the retrievals

in different grammatical categories by the 90 students.

Table 4.13b: An Overview of Retrievals in Different Categories (Exact and

Acceptable Included)

Close Class Items Exact (%) Acceptable Included (%)

1. Articles 67.77 75.55

2. Prepositions 44.44 64.88

3. Pronouns 48.44 60.44

4. Conjunctions 20.00 45.92

5. Determiner 19.25 56.29

6.Adverbial 44.44 44.44

Mean Score 35.00 52.92

63

The mean score of the function words is higher than the mean score of the content

words. In the close class items, the percentage of retrievals of the articles based on

acceptable included score is the highest followed by the prepositions. The reason can

be the limited number of items falling in these categories. However, the percentage of

retrievals of the adverbials and conjunction based on acceptable included score is on

lower side among close class items. In the context of open class items, that is, content

words, verbs and adjectives have lower retrievals in comparison with the rest of the

content words. Comparing function words, we can say from the above Table that

function words for the students are easier to retrieve. In fact, most studies have shown

comparable results. Function words tend to be predictable from the overall structure

of the sentence. On this basis, we can draw the conclusion that functions words are

easier to learn.

Correlation Analysis

The level of significance of the values of the correlation coefficient (r-value) is

dependent on the sample size. The sample size of this study is ninety and the loading

considered significant is as follows: r ≥ .26 p ≤ .01 and r ≥ .20 p ≤ .05

Table 4.14: Correlation Matrix

1 -.119 -.079 .423 ** .432 ** .870 ** -.024 -.131 .522 ** .006 -.285 ** -.248 * -.109 .057 -.032 -.133 .263 * -.428 **

1 .000 -.282 ** -.243 * -.025 -.006 -.060 -.069 -.025 .195 .251 * .061 -.013 -.061 .146 -.059 .281 ** 1 .249 * .198 .063 .296 ** .338 ** .122 -.072 -.348 ** -.073 -.319 ** -.326 ** -.343 ** -.345 ** -.325 ** -.142 1 .920 ** .400 ** .504 ** .396 ** .598 ** .138 -.413 ** -.491 ** -.320 ** -.291 ** -.162 -.533 ** .104 -.459 ** 1 .411 ** .505 ** .430 ** .636 ** .149 -.377 ** -.429 ** -.287 ** -.259 * -.211 * -.499 ** .056 -.469 ** 1 .055 -.254 * .463 ** .043 -.290 ** -.178 -.086 .030 -.089 -.164 .120 -.415 ** 1 .617 ** .589 ** .310 ** -.249 * -.394 ** -.218 * -.313 ** -.266 * -.610 ** -.071 -.271 ** 1 .892 ** .395 ** -.325 * -.314 * -.464 ** -.401 ** -.221 -.364 ** -.241 -.225 1 .241 * -.358 ** -.390 ** -.258 * -.164 -.251 * -.445 ** .052 -.385 ** 1 .021 -.063 -.072 -.089 .078 -.093 .104 -.150 1 .405 ** .416 ** .235 * .266 * .354 ** .046 .420 ** 1 .326 ** .448 ** .294 ** .549 ** -.128 .574 ** 1 .536 ** .117 .368 ** .163 .513 ** 1 .139 .534 ** .181 .427 ** 1 .281 ** .206 .208 * 1 .120 .431 ** 1 -.041 1

SEX 2 SES 14 CLOZ.EXA 24

COLZ.ACC 25 EXP.ENG 3 SCH.PRIM 4 SCH.SECO 5 SCH.TOTA 6 MED.INST 15 AT.EN.BA 16 ATT.ENGL 17 INTE.MOT 18 INSTR.MO19 RESE.MO 20 MANI.MO 21 CL.ANXIE 22 PAR.SUP 30

V1 V2 V14 V24 V25 V3 V4 V5 V6 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V22 V23

Correlation is signif icant at the 0.01 lev el (2-tailed). **. Correlation is signif icant at the 0.05 lev el (2-tailed). *.

AGE 1

64

The correlation matrix of individual and social variables can be seen in Table 4.14

which has been taken from Appendix D.

An Overview

Language Proficiency and Social Psychological Variables:

4.15: Correlation of Social Psychological Variables with Cloze Test

Social Psychological Variable Cloze Test

Age .42**

Sex -.28**

Exposure to English .40**

Total Schooling .59**

SES .24**

Medium of Instruction .13

Attitude to English-Speaking Bangladeshis -.41**

Attitude to English -.49

Integrative Motivation -.32**

Instrumental Motivation -.29**

Resentment Motivation -.16

Manipulative Motivation -.53**

Class-room Anxiety .10

Parental Support -.45**

65

i. A significant correlation (r= .42; p ≤ .01) is found between age (v. 1) and Cloze

exact (v. 24). It suggests that the older students have performed better than the

younger ones in the Cloze test.

ii. A significant inverse correlation (r= -.28; p ≤ .01) exists between sex (v. 2) and

Cloze exact (v. 24). It suggests that boys have performed significantly better than

girls in the Cloze test.

iii. Cloze test exact (v. 24) correlates (r= .40; p ≤ .01) positively in a significant way

with exposure to English (v. 3). This shows that those students who have more

exposure to English perform better in Cloze test.

iv. Cloze test exact (v. 24) shows positive and significant correlation with total

schooling (r= .59; p ≤ .01). These positive correlations show that those students who

have got better primary, secondary and total schooling perform reasonably well in the

cloze test exact.

v. A significant positive correlation (r= .24; p ≤ .05) is found between SES (v. 14)

and exact Cloze (v. 24) retrievals. This suggests that those who have come from high

socio-economic status perform better than those of low socio-economic status in the

Cloze test.

vi. Cloze test exact (v. 24) is seen to correlate (r= -.41; p ≤ .01) negatively in a

significant way with attitude to English-speaking Bangladeshis (v 16). This suggests

that those students who have performed better in Cloze test exact do not have positive

attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis.

vii. Cloze test exact (v. 24) bears significant negative correlation (r= -.49; p ≤ .01)

with attitude to English (v. 17). This inverse correlation indicates that those students

who have got better score in Cloze test exact do not view English more favorably.

viii. Cloze test exact (v. 24) holds significant inverse correlation (r= -.32; p ≤ .01)

with integrative motivation (v. 18). This negative correlation shows that the students

66

who have performed well in the Cloze test exact have less integrative motivation for

learning English.

ix. The correlation (r= -.29; p ≤ .01) of Cloze test exact (v. 24) with instrumental

motivation (v. 19) is also negative. This suggests that those students who have

performed reasonably well in the Cloze test exact do not have high level of

instrumental motivation to study English.

x. Cloze test exact (v. 24) correlates (r= -.53; p ≤ .01) significantly in a negative way

with manipulative motivation (v. 21). This negative correlation suggests that those

students who have got better score in the Cloze test exact do not sustain high level of

manipulative reasons for learning English.

xi. Cloze test exact (v. 24) has inverse correlation (r= -.459; p ≤ .01) with parental

support (v. 23) suggesting that those students who have performed better in Cloze test

exact have received less parental support for learning English.

The correlation matrix of Tables 4.15 shows that proficiency in English is

correlated far more significantly with social variables, such as, schooling, age,

parental support, exposure to English, attitude towards English-speaking

Bangladeshis, integrative motivation, etc. Schooling is significantly correlated with

proficiency in English. Variables which have relatively low correlation with

achievement in the Cloze test include sex, socio-economic status and instrumental

motivation. Variables which are slightly more significant include age and integrative

motivation. Exposure to English has a significant correlation with proficiency in

English. It is found among those students who have studied in English medium

school. Attitude to English and manipulative motivation are also found to have

significant correlations with proficiency in English. It appears that the learners who

are negative in their outlook to English and have less manipulative reasons for

learning English tend to be proficient in English. It is very rare that manipulative

motivation turns out to be significant; this area needs further investigation.

67

Cloze Test Acceptable Included (v 25):

A highly significant positive correlation (r= .92; p ≤ .01) holds between Cloze test

exact (v. 24) and Cloze test acceptable included (v. 25) (see Table 4.14). This

correlation suggests that the students who have scored well in Cloze test exact have

also got better score in Cloze test acceptable included (in the same Cloze test).

Except for resentment motivation (v 21), all the variables that are either positively or

negatively correlated with Cloze test exact (v. 24) are in the same way either

positively or negatively correlated with Cloze test acceptable included (v. 25). Cloze

test acceptable (v. 25) correlates (r= -.21; p ≤ .01) significantly in a negative way

with resentment motivation (v. 20). This negative correlation suggests that those

students who have scored well in Cloze test acceptable included do not have high

level of resentment motivation for learning English.

Correlation of Individual and Social Psychological Variables:

Age (v. 1):

i. A highly significant positive correlation (r= .87; p ≤ .01) exists between exposure

to English (v. 3) and age (v. 1) and it indicates that the older students have more

exposure to English than the younger students.

ii. A significant positive correlation (r= .522; p ≤ .01) exists between age (v. 1) and

total schooling (v. 6) which simply suggests the almost obvious that more the number

of years higher the schooling.

iii. Age (v. 1) has negative correlation (r= -.28; p ≤ .01) with attitude towards

English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16) suggesting that younger students have more

positive attitudes towards English-speaking Bangladeshis. It is important to notice

that as children mature, their 'fascination' for the English-speaking adult declines.

iv. A significant negative correlation (r= -.24; p ≤ .05) is seen between age (v. 1) and

attitude to English (v. 17). It suggests that the younger students view English more

favorably than the older students in the sample.

68

v. A significant positive correlation (r=. 26; p ≤ .05) holds between age (v. 1) and

class-room anxiety (v. 22). This indicates that the older students have experienced

higher levels of anxiety in the class than the younger students.

vi. Age (v. 1) has significant negative correlation (r= -.42; p ≤ .01) with parental

support (v. 23) suggesting that the younger students have received more parental

support for learning English than the older students.

Sex (v. 2):

i. Sex (v. 2) has significant positive correlation (r= .25; p ≤ .05) with attitude to

English (v. 17) suggesting that girls have more positive attitude towards English than

boys.

ii. Sex (v. 2) shows significant positive correlation (r= .28; p ≤ .01) with parental

support (v. 23). This indicates that girls have received more parental support for

studying English than boys.

Exposure to English (v. 3):

i. Exposure to English (v. 3) is seen to correlate (r= .46; p ≤ .01) positively in a

significant manner with total schooling (v. 6). This suggests that older students have

more exposure of learning English than the younger students in the sample.

ii. Exposure to English (v.3) correlates (r= -.29; p ≤ .01) negatively with attitude

towards English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16). This means that the greater the

exposure to English, the less positive the attitude towards English-speaking

Bangladeshis.

iii. A significant negative correlation (r= -.41; p ≤ .01) exists between exposure to

English (v. 3) and parental support (v. 23). This suggests that more the exposure to

English the less the support, encouragement for learning English from parents. It

suggests that perhaps parents themselves do not have very high level of proficiency

69

in English. As children grow older and study advance level texts, parents are

probably unable to help them.

Total Schooling (v. 6):

i. Total schooling (v. 6) is seen to correlate (r= .24; p ≤ .05) positively with medium

of instruction (v. 15). This suggests that those who have better schooling recommend

more use of English as a medium of instruction in different levels of education.

ii. Total schooling (v. 6) has inverse correlation (r= -.35; p ≤ .01) with attitude

towards English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16). Surprisingly, it suggests that those

who have better schooling (involving greater exposure to English) don’t have

positive attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis.

iii. A significant negative correlation (= -.39; p ≤ .01) is found between total

schooling (v. 6) and attitude to English (v. 17). This suggests that those who have

received better schooling do not view English favorably.

iv. Total schooling (v. 6) correlates (r= -.258; p ≤ .05) in a negative way with

integrative motivation (v. 18). It indicates that the students who have got better

schooling have less positive attitude to integrative motivation. This suggests that the

students don’t wish to assimilate to or imitate the way of life of English-speaking

Bangladeshis.

v. Total schooling (v. 6) has inverse correlation (r= -.251; p ≤ .05) with resentment

motivation (v. 20) suggesting that the students of the sample who have better

schooling learn English not out of resentment motivation. They do not learn English

because it is a part of their course or because their parents force them to.

vi. A highly significant negative correlation (r= -.44; p ≤ .01) is seen between total

schooling (v. 6) and manipulative motivation (v. 21). This shows that the students

who have better schooling do sustain less manipulative reasons for learning English.

70

vii. Total schooling has negative correlation (r= -.38; p ≤ .01) with parental support

(v. 23). It suggests that the students who have better schooling receive less parental

support to study English. The reason can be that most of the parents encourage their

wards to go for English tuitions.

Socio-Economic Status (SES) (v. 14):

i. Socio-economic status (v. 14) has significant positive correlations (r= .29; p ≤ .01)

and (r= .33; p ≤ .01) with primary schooling (v. 4) and secondary schooling (v. 5)

respectively. It indicates that the students those who have come from higher class of

society also have both better primary and secondary schooling.

ii. SES (v. 14) bears significant negative correlation (r= -.34; p ≤ .01) with attitude

towards English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16) suggesting that those students who

have come from lower stratum of society hold more positive attitude towards

English-speaking Bangladeshis than those students who have come from high socio-

economic status.

iii. A significant negative correlation (r= -.31; p ≤ .01) holds between SES (v. 14) and

integrative motivation (v. 18). This suggests that those who have come from low

socio-economic status tend to less have reservations about assimilating or imitating

the way of life of English-speaking Bangladeshis.

iv. SES (v. 14) is seen to show a significant inverse correlation (r= -.32; p ≤ .01) with

instrumental motivation (v. 19). It indicates that the students who have come from

lower stratum of society wish to learn English for instrumental purposes. They

believe that their knowledge of English will help to get higher education and good

jobs.

v. A significant negative correlation (r= -.343; p ≤ .01) is seen between SES (v. 14)

and resentment motivation (v. 20). This suggests that those students who have come

from higher socio-economic status tend to have less resentment motivation for

learning English.

71

vi. SES (v. 14) correlates (r= -.345; p ≤ .01) negatively in a significant way with

manipulative motivation (v. 21). It suggests that those students who are coming from

higher socio-economic status have less manipulative reasons for learning English.

vii. We see significant negative correlation (r= -.32; p ≤ .01) of SES (v. 19) with

classroom anxiety (v. 22). This negative correlation indicates that the students who

have come from high socio-economic status do not have any significant amount of

classroom anxiety in English classes because their parents spend substantial amount

of money to encourage their wards to devote more time in acquiring proficiency in

that language.

Attitude to English-Speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16):

i. Attitude to English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16) shows positive and significant

correlation (r= .40; p ≤ .01) with attitude towards English (v. 17). This suggests

clearly that the students who have a positive attitude towards English have in general

positive attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis.

ii. Attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16) correlates (r= .41; p ≤ .01)

positively in a significant way with integrative motivation (v. 18). This correlation

suggests that those students who have positive attitude towards English-speaking

Bangladeshis have wished to integrate with the way of life of English-speaking

Bangladeshis.

iii. Attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16) bears significant

correlation (r= .23; p ≤ .05) with instrumental motivation (v. 19). This positive

correlation suggests that the students who have more positive attitude towards

English-speaking Bangladeshis have more integrative motivation. This is due to the

fact that they have realized the importance of English for higher education, better

career, etc.

iv. Attitude towards to English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16) is seen to correlate (r=

.26; p ≤ .05) in a positive way with resentment motivation (v. 20). This suggests that

72

the students who desire to integrate with the way of life of English-speaking

Bangladeshis learn English due to the pressure of course requirement or their parents

force them to.

v. Attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16) is seen to show a

significant correlation (r= .35; p ≤ .01) with manipulative motivation (v 21). This

suggests that the students who have positive attitude towards English-speaking have

also manipulative reasons for learning English.

vi. Attitude towards English-speaking Bangladeshis (v. 16) correlates (r= .42; p ≤

.01) in a significant manner with parental support (v. 23). This correlation indicates

that those students who have more positive attitude towards English-speaking

Bangladeshis have more support for learning English from their parents.

Attitude to English (v. 17):

i. Attitude to English (v. 17) correlates (r= .32; p ≤ .01) significantly with integrative

motivation (v. 18). This suggests that the students who have positive attitude to

English have high level of integrative motivation for learning English.

ii. Attitude to English (v. 17) has highly significant correlation (r= .448; p ≤ .01) with

instrumental motivation (v. 19) suggesting that those who have positive attitude to

English have also high level of instrumental motivation for learning English. This

shows that English is perceived by the students not only as an academic and

economic ladder but also as means for enhancing social mobility and individual

personality.

iii. Attitude to English (v. 17) shows positive and significant correlation (r= .294; p ≤

.01) with resentment motivation (v. 20). This indicates that the students who have

positive attitude towards English have high level of resentment motivation for

learning English.

iv. Attitude to English (v. 17) is seen to correlate (r= .549; p ≤ .01) positively in a

significant manner with manipulative motivation (v. 21). This correlation suggests

73

that the students who have positive attitude to English have very high level of

manipulative motivation.

v. Attitude to English (v. 17) shows highly positive significant correlation (r= .57; p ≤

.01) with parental support (v. 23). This suggests that the students who have positive

attitude to English claim to have received more parental support for learning English.

Integrative Motivation (v. 18):

i. Integrative motivation (v. 18) correlates (r= .536; p ≤ .01) highly significantly with

instrumental motivation (v. 19). This correlation suggests that the students who have

high level of integrative motivation also have high level of instrumental motivation

for learning English.

ii. Integrative motivation (v. 18) bears significant correlation (r= .36; p ≤ .01) with

manipulative motivation (v. 21). This indicates that those students who have higher

level of integrative motivation also have high level of manipulative reasons for

learning English.

iii. A highly significant correlation (r= .51; ≤ .01) exits between integrative

motivation (v. 18) and parental support (v. 23). This suggests that the students who

have high level of integrative motivation also have received more parental support for

learning English.

Instrumental Motivation (v. 19):

i. Instrumental motivation (v. 19) shows highly significant positive correlation (r=

.53; p ≤ .01) with manipulative motivation (v 21). This positive correlation suggests

that those students who have higher level of instrumental motivation also have more

manipulative reasons for learning English.

ii. Instrumental manipulative (v. 19) correlates (r= .42; p ≤ .01) significantly with

parental support (v. 23). This suggests that the students who have higher level of

74

instrumental motivation also have received more parental support for learning

English.

Resentment Motivation (v. 20):

i. A significant correlation (r= .28; p ≤ .01) exits between resentment motivation (v.

20) and manipulative motivation (v. 21). This correlation indicates that the students

who have higher level of resentment motivation also have more manipulative reasons

for learning English.

ii. Resentment motivation (v. 20) shows significant correlation (r= .208; p ≤ .01) with

parental support (v. 23). This suggests that the students who have more resentment

motivation also receive significant support from their parents for learning English.

Manipulative Motivation (v. 21):

A highly significant correlation (r= .43; p ≤ .01) exits between manipulative

motivation (v. 21) and parental support (v. 23). This correlation shows that the

students who have higher level of manipulative motivation also have received

substantial amount of support from their parents for learning English.

The network of all significant correlations can be seen in Figure 2.

75

+ +

From Figure 2, we can say that among the socio-biological variables, age,

exposure to English and schooling are not strongly and positively correlated with

Cloze but also among themselves. It is thus possible to say that in general, senior

students with higher exposure and better schooling have higher scores. Though

attitudinal and motivational variables are positively correlated among themselves,

they generally correlated negatively and strongly with Cloze scores. Though those

who are positively inclined towards English are also positively inclined towards

English-speaking Bangladeshis and have strong motivation to learn English. They do

not end up scoring highly on the Cloze. As in several other studies (Agnihotri et al.

1985, Khanna 1983 and Khanna and Agnihotri 1982,1984), it seems social variables

are more important for proficiency in a second language. This study in fact has

Age

English Language Proficiency

Manipulative

Attitude to English

Integrative Motivation

Exposure to English

Schooling

Instrumental Motivation

Parental Support

Attitude Eng.Spe.Ban

. 42

. 40

. 59

- .41

-. 32 - . 49

- . 53

- . 29

- . 45

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+ + +

+ +

-

-

- -

- - +

+ +

+

-

-

+

76

shown that the cluster of attitudinal and motivational variables may in fact be

negatively associated with language proficiency.

77

V. Conclusion

The main objective of the present study was to examine the relationship

between different social psychological variables on the one hand and proficiency in

English on the other. We had a total 90 students from class eight (30), class ten (30)

and twelve (30) from different institutions in Bangladesh. A set of 25 linguistic and

social psychological variables was examined to decide the main diagnostic

determinants of the proficiency levels of the students in English. The proficiency in

English was measured through the Cloze procedure.

We have found a significant correlation between scoring for exact versus

acceptable included responses suggesting the Cloze procedure would well be

appropriate for use with non-native speakers. Except for medium of instruction,

resentment motivation and class-room anxiety, all other variables, namely, age, sex,

socio-economic status, exposure to English, schooling, attitude to English-speaking

Bangladeshis, attitude to English, integrative motivation, instrumental motivation,

manipulative motivation and parental support are significantly correlated with the

Cloze scores. We have observed that age was positively correlated with the Cloze

test, exposure to English and total schooling indicating that those students who are

older have better schooling, more exposure to English and also have performed better

in the Cloze test. Sex has inverse correlation with Cloze which suggests that male

students have done better than female students. Cloze has shown significant positive

correlation with socio-economic status. This indicates that the learners who are from

lower rung of society have not done well in the Cloze test though they have positive

attitude to English-speaking Bangladeshis and also have realized the importance of

English for getting better education and good jobs. The reason might be that they do

not enough access to English. Those students who have performed better have come

from high socio-economic status and do not sustain positive attitude towards English-

speaking Bangladeshis and view English unfavourably. We have observed that the

78

maximum numbers of students, that is, over 78 per cent of them are at the frustration

level. The other reasons that are responsible for this poor performance of the students

are lack of standard educational system and overall poor teaching by the unqualified

English teachers. It is obvious that those who are from high socio-economic status

can afford to learn English by private tutors and also have access to other sources.

Thus, we see from the result that more positive the attitudes and more integrative the

motivation, the lower the level of proficiency of English of the learners.

Our study has shown that the variables which appear to be most significant in

their relationship with total achievement includes age, exposure to English and the

kind of school attended. Total achievement in the Cloze test is highly correlated with

primary, secondary and total schooling. Schooling, thus, appears to be the most

significant variable in relation to achievement in English. Schooling also has been

found to be a very significant variable in several other studies. Williams (1981)

concerned with the relative significance of different social and psychological

variables in relation to the ability of Nigerian children in reading English also found

that the ‘type of school’ accounted for no less than 37 per cent of the variance in the

combined scores. Agnihotri et al. (1982) in their socio-psychological study of

achievement in English tenses found that schooling explained 29 per cent of variance

in the total achievement in the use of tenses. Khanna et al. (1984) pointed out that

speech skills were significantly influenced by the type of school a student had

attended. The importance of schooling in second language learning becomes clear

when we realize that it is only good schools which provide suitable facilities

encouraging the conversion of ‘input’ into ‘intake’. Agnihotri et al. (1983) point out

that these schools generally have qualified teaching staff, very good libraries and

several recreational facilities where children can learn while playing. On the other

hand, teaching in government schools generally concentrate on discrete grammatical

points and provide very little interesting exposure. The ordinary schools cater to

children coming from relatively poor socio-economic background. There are minimal

opportunities to use English and the library and recreational facilities are limited. Not

79

very different situation prevails in Bangladesh. It is obligatory for the students to use

English all the time in English medium schools. On the other hand, English is seldom

used outside the class-room in government schools. There are minimal opportunities

to use English for the students in ordinary semi-government schools and the teaching

is done through Bengali even in English classes.

Socio-economic status was found to play a very important role in the

development of proficiency in English. This finding corroborates the results of many

other investigations reported by Burstall (1975). Robinson (1971) noticed that

children with parents in high status occupation tend to receive more parental support

when they approach new learning experiences than do those with parents in lower

status occupation. We have noticed that positive attitude towards the English-

speaking Bangladeshis do not correlate significantly with achievement in English

proficiency. It was expected that the socio-economic status of the learners would

correlate highly with their schooling and with overall achievement in the Cloze test.

Children from higher socio-economic background generally go to schools and speak

English more fluently than others. But, in the test administered by us, socio-economic

status seems to bear very low correlation with achievement. The present study has

shown that age is one of most significant predictors of proficiency in English.

Hamid’s (2001) work based on Syrian college students acquiring English also found

that age was one of the most significant predictors of achievement and proficiency in

English.

We have also found that social psychological variables significantly interact

with social variables and social variable are found to be more important for language

proficiency. Our study has also shown that out of all social psychological variables

only attitude toward English and English-speaking Bangladeshis and motivation

manipulatively instrumental in nature have significant correlations with proficiency

in English. It seems that in foreign language learning situation such as those

examined by Gardner and Lambert (1972), social psychological variables may be

80

more important in determining proficiency/ achievement in a foreign language

whereas in second language learning situations such as that of Bangladesh, social

variables are more important. Khanna (1983) found that the best predictor of

achievement in English were proficiency in English and schooling. It appears that

different sets of social psychological variables are likely to cluster with different

linguistic skills in different social settings. Our study shows that attitudinal

motivations have strong negative correlations. Though the result is in line with Indian

studies where socio-psychological variables, such as, schooling and exposure to

English are found as important predictors for English proficiency. The high negative

correlations of attitudinal motivations of our study require further investigations.

We have examined the proficiency in English in a comprehensive

sociopsychological framework in our study. We have also noticed how statistical

tools such as correlation can be used to select significant variables from manifold

different social and social psychological variables. The results of our present study

confirm that schooling is the most significant predictor of achievement and

proficiency in second language learning. In addition to schooling, age and exposure

to English also contribute substantially towards language proficiency in English.

81

APPENDIX A Please read the whole text once without filling in the blanks. Read it again and fill in

the blanks with the most appropriate word you can think of.

Fill only one word in each blank.

LALAJEE

BY JIM CORBETT

And so Lalajee left me, taking with him the greater part of my savings. That I would

see him 1 I never doubted, for the 2 of India never forget a 3 ;

but the promise Lalajee had 4 was, I felt sure, beyond 5 powers of

accomplishment. In this 6 was wrong, for returning late 7 evening I

saw a man 8 in spotless white standing in 9 veranda. The light from

the 10 behind him was in my 11 , and I did not recognize 12 until

he spoke . It was 13 , come a few days before 14 expiry of the time limit

15 had set himself. That night 16 he sat on the floor 17 my chair he

told me 18 his trading transactions, and the 19 that had attended

them. Starting 20 a few bags of grain 21 being content with a profit

22 only four annas per bag 23 had gradually, and steadily, built 24

his business until he was 25 to deal in consignments up 26 thirty tons

in weight, on 27 he was making a profit 28 three rupees per ton. His

29 was in a good school, 30 as he could now afford to keep a wife he had

married the daughter of a rich merchant of Patna; all this he had accomplished in a

82

little under twelve months. As the time drew near for his train to leave he laid five

one-hundred rupee notes on my knee.

List of Deleted Words of the Test

1 Again 11 Him 21 And 2 Poor 12 Lalajee 22 Of 3 Kindness 13 The 23 He 4 Made 14 He 24 Up 5 His 15 As 25 Able 6 One 16 Near 26 To 7 Dressed 17 Of 27 Which 8 My 18 Success 28 Of 9 Room 19 With 29 Son 10 Eyes 20 And 30 And

83

APPENDIX B

INFORMANT NO: QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Name: 2. Address: 3. Telephone Number: 4. Course: Science/Humanities 5. Age: 6. Sex: 7. Date of Birth: 8. The first language you learnt to speak as a child: 9. At what age did you start learning/using English: 10. In which class did you join this school? 11. Using the scale below, please tell us about the educational institutions you attended in terms of their prestige, facilities available for learning English and the medium of instruction:

Prestige Medium of instruction

Ordinary school =1 Bangla =1 Quite prestigious =2 Both Bangla and English =2 Highly prestigious =3 Only English =3 Facilities for English Very little =1 Some =2 A lot =3 (Please put the appropriate number in each box) Level Prestige Facilities Medium of Instructions Primary Secondary

84

12. Using the Scale below, provide the following information about your family members: Monthly Income Fluency in English (Tk Per Month) Below 2000 =1 Nil =1 2000- 3499 =2 Very little =2 3500-4999 =3 Moderate =3 5000-and above =4 Good =4

Very high =5 Age Educational

Qualification Occupation Monthly

Income Fluency in English

Father Mother Brother (s) Sister (s) Any Other

13.What, according to you, should be the medium of instruction at the following levels of education? Level Medium of instruction Primary school Secondary school Higher secondary school B.A B.Sc. M.A M.Sc. Engineering Management Fashion designing Travel and Tourism Computer education 14. Please indicate your opinion about each of the following statements by circling the alternative which best indicates the extent to which you agree or disagree with that statement.

i. The English-speaking Bangladeshis are warm-hearted. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

85

ii. The English-speaking Bangladeshis are very progressive. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

iii. The English-speaking Bangladeshis are generally dishonest. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

iv. English is the most suitable language for creating writing (poetry, drama, etc). (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

v. English is the most suitable language for scientific thinking. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

vi. English is important for me because it will allow me to interact with the English-speaking Bangladeshis.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

vii. English is important for me because it will allow me to interact with more and varied people in the world.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

viii. English is important for me because it will help me to appreciate English art and literature.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

ix. English is important for me because it will help me to live and behave like the English-speaking Bangladeshis.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

x. English will help me to build my career. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xi. English is very important for me because it would be useful for higher education in Bangladesh.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

xii. I learn English because it is a part of my course requirement. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

86

xiii. I learn English because my parents want me to learn it. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xiv. English is important for me because it will help me to become a more knowledgeable person.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

xv. English is important for me because it will add to my prestige and personality. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xvi. English is important for me because it will enable me to my get work done everywhere in Bangladesh.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

xvii. English will help me to use other people for my personal gains. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xviii. My parents try to help me with English. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xix. My parents think that I should devote more time to my English studies. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree xx. My parents have stressed the importance on English will have for me when I leave

school/college. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xxi. My parents encourage me to seek help from my English teacher. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xxii. I always feel that other students speak English better than me. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xxiii. I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my English class. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xxiv. I am afraid of the other students will laugh at me when I speak English. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

87

xxv. English has exercised a good influence on the system of education in Bangladesh. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xxvi. Greater effort should be made to spread English throughout Bangladesh. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

xxvii. Knowledge of English is essential in order to be a leader in the Bangladeshi society.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

xxviii. If English is abolished, it would hamper the progress of science and technology in Bangladesh.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

xxix. English has important role than Bangla to play in bringing about political unity in Bangladesh.

(a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly disagree (e) disagree

xxx. English should be abolished from Bangladesh. (a) Agree (b) slightly agree (c) neither agree or nor disagree (d) slightly

disagree (e) disagree

88

APPENDIX C

Coding Sheet

Variable No. Name Coding 1 Age Running 2 Sex Male=1; Female=2 3 Exposure to English Running 0-14 4 Primary Schooling 3-9 5 Secondary Schooling 3-9 6 Total Schooling (4-5) 6-18 7 Residence 1-5 8 Father’s Education 1-5 9 Mother’s Education 1-5 10 Father’s Income 1-4 11 Mother’s Income 1-4 12 Father’s Occupation 1-6 13 Mother’s Occupation 1-6 14 Total SES(7-13) 7-35 15 Medium of Instruction 12-36 16 Attitude to English-Speaking

Bangladeshis 3-15

17 Attitude to English 8-40 18 Integrative Motivation 4-20 19 Instrumental Motivation 4-20 20 Resentment Motivation 2-10 21 Manipulative Motivation 2-10 22 Class-room Anxiety 3-15 23 Parental Support 4-20 24 Cloze Test Exact 1-30 25 Cloze Test Acceptable Included 1-30

89

APPENDIX D

Variable, Mean and Standard Deviation Variable No Variables Mean Standard Deviation 1 Age 15.33 2.02 2 Sex 1.41 .496 3 Exposure to

English 9.43 2.27

4 Schooling Primary 5.14 1.72 5 Schooling

Secondary 5.65 1.49

6 Schooling Total 8.92 3.62 14 SES 18.50 4.36 15 Medium of

Instruction 32.27 2.31

16 Attitude to English-Speaking Bangladeshis

11.46 2.35

17 Attitude to English 31.49 4.79 18 Integrative

Motivation 16.74 3.21

19 Instrumental Motivation

17.87 2.40

20 Resentment Motivation

7.93 2.40

21 Manipulative Motivation

7.23 2.49

22 Class-room Anxiety

8.53 3.94

23 Parental Support 16.47 3.84 24 Coze Test Exact 10.11 3.94 25 Cloze Test

Acceptable Included

16.73 5.65

90

Correlation Matrix

1 -.119 -.079 .423 ** .432 ** .870 ** -.024 -.131 .522 ** .006 -.285 ** -.248 * -.109 .057 -.032 -.133 .263 * -.428 **

1 .000 -.282 ** -.243 * -.025 -.006 -.060 -.069 -.025 .195 .251 * .061 -.013 -.061 .146 -.059 .281 ** 1 .249 * .198 .063 .296 ** .338 ** .122 -.072 -.348 ** -.073 -.319 ** -.326 ** -.343 ** -.345 ** -.325 ** -.142 1 .920 ** .400 ** .504 ** .396 ** .598 ** .138 -.413 ** -.491 ** -.320 ** -.291 ** -.162 -.533 ** .104 -.459 ** 1 .411 ** .505 ** .430 ** .636 ** .149 -.377 ** -.429 ** -.287 ** -.259 * -.211 * -.499 ** .056 -.469 ** 1 .055 -.254 * .463 ** .043 -.290 ** -.178 -.086 .030 -.089 -.164 .120 -.415 ** 1 .617 ** .589 ** .310 ** -.249 * -.394 ** -.218 * -.313 ** -.266 * -.610 ** -.071 -.271 ** 1 .892 ** .395 ** -.325 * -.314 * -.464 ** -.401 ** -.221 -.364 ** -.241 -.225 1 .241 * -.358 ** -.390 ** -.258 * -.164 -.251 * -.445 ** .052 -.385 ** 1 .021 -.063 -.072 -.089 .078 -.093 .104 -.150 1 .405 ** .416 ** .235 * .266 * .354 ** .046 .420 ** 1 .326 ** .448 ** .294 ** .549 ** -.128 .574 ** 1 .536 ** .117 .368 ** .163 .513 ** 1 .139 .534 ** .181 .427 ** 1 .281 ** .206 .208 * 1 .120 .431 ** 1 -.041 1

SEX 2 SES 14 CLOZ.EXA 24

COLZ.ACC 25 EXP.ENG 3 SCH.PRIM 4 SCH.SECO 5 SCH.TOTA 6 MED.INST 15 AT.EN.BA 16 ATT.ENGL 17 INTE.MOT 18 INSTR.MO19 RESE.MO 20 MANI.MO 21 CL.ANXIE 22 PAR.SUP 30

V1 V2 V14 V24 V25 V3 V4 V5 V6 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V22 V23

Correlation is signif icant at the 0.01 lev el (2-tailed). **. Correlation is signif icant at the 0.05 lev el (2-tailed). *.

AGE 1

91

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