Posted: April 10th, 2015

Homework Assignment 2

Homework Assignment 2
Read the following paper: Yu, B., & Watkins, D. (2011). Attitudes and motivation in second language acquisition: A study of international students in China from a cultural perspective. In D. Chapman, W. Cummings & G. Postiglione (Eds.), Crossing borders in East Asian higher education (pp. 167-192). Dordrecht: Springer.
Answer the questions below.
1.    Look at p. 174 of the Methods section. How did the authors compute the value for their variable “integrativeness”? You may also have to look at Figure 8.1 on p. 179.

2.    Look at Table 8.1 on p. 176. Why could the correlation between cultural group and Chinese language proficiency not possibly be a Pearson correlation?

3.    Look at Table 8.3 on p. 178. [Note that the following questions ask for interpretations—there is no definite right or wrong answer. Any reasonable answer is acceptable. Please write no more than a short paragraph per question.]
a.    How do you interpret the very weak correlation between integrativeness and instrumental orientation?

b.    Why is the correlation between language anxiety and integrativeness relatively high but negative?

c.    Why is the correlation between instrumental orientation and Chinese language proficiency negative?