ABSTRACT

The most widely used instrument to measure L2 motivation was the standardized Attitudes and Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) developed by the social psychologist Robert Gardner and his colleagues (Gardner, 1985). As a rigorous measurement instrument with good psychometric properties of validity and reliability in several L2 learning contexts (Gardner, 2006), the AMTB inspired similar instruments designed to characterize additional factors implicated in L2 development (e.g., Clemént, 1980; Noels, 2001). Most of the measurements involved four major classes of variables: Integrativeness (openness to the L2 community), attitudes toward the learning situation, motivation, and language anxiety. Researchers processed the data by means of complex statistical procedures, such as correlation and factor analysis (e.g., Clément, Dörnyei, & Noels, 1994), analysis of variance (e.g., Comanaru & Noels, 2009), structural equation modeling (e.g., Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005a), and cluster analysis (e.g., Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005b), and often in relation to achievement or performance. The rigorous quantitative features of these measures of L2 motivation facilitated the systematicity of data collection and analysis and allowed comparability with, and replicability across, wider populations (Ushioda & Dörnyei, 2012). They were limited, however, in that they offered a trait-like macro perspective of L2 motivation, one that was incompatible with the process-oriented nature of second language development (Dörnyei, 2005).