An assessment of language attitudes as a mediator in the stereotypes–L2 motivation linkage

Abstract

Abstract Applied linguists and language educators have long acknowledged the prominent role that language attitudes play in the process of selecting and learning an additional language. The current study examines a mediating role of language attitudes in the Stereotypes–L2 motivation linkage in the context of learning a foreign language, an area which remains comparatively underexplored. It provides a detailed description of – and rationale for – applying a statistical procedure based on the Baron–Kenny method, which is rarely used in applied linguistics research. The findings indicate that stereotypes and language attitudes had a positive impact on L2 motivation when the former two variables were examined separately in two different analyses. However, when all the three variables were analysed together, language attitudes were found to remain a motivational factor while the stereotypes ceased to be such. This suggests that stereotypes had an indirect effect on L2 motivation through language attitudes. Hence, language attitudes were a mediating variable in the Stereotypes–L2 motivation linkage assessed by the Baron–Kenny method. These findings have some pedagogical implications.