L2 learners' language attitudes and their assessment

Abstract This article describes the development of a new questionnaire for assessing L2 learners' language attitudes. Drawing on theoretical work in the fields of social psychology and applied linguistics, the author reviewed the concept of (language) attitudes and contrasted them with the concept of (language) motivation. This thorough literature review, including an examination of the currently available instruments, resulted in the generation of question items for the new questionnaire. The empirical part of the project consisted of data collection and analyses to establish the internal structure of the proposed instrument and to assess its reliability. The new Language Attitudes Questionnaire for Language Learners was found psychometrically sound and easily interpretable.