Using confirmatory factor analysis this study examines the cross-cultural generalizability of the factor structure for the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM), an instrument based on Personal Investment theory. The instrument consists of eight different scales with 43 survey items (ranging from 3 to 7 items each) and each reflecting one of eight specific dimensions: task, effort, competition, social power, affiliation, social concern, praise, and token. The factor structure was invariant over large samples of responses by Anglo-Australian (n=2,616), Migrant Australian (n=1,265), Aboriginal Australian (n=906), Hong Kong Chinese (n=697), Navajo (n=1,776), Anglo-American (n=884) and African (n=819) cultural groups of high school students. The results of factorial invariance analysis indicated that the ISM has a stable and reliable factor structure among the 7 cultural groups. Findings also provide evidence that the ISM scales are applicable to students of different cultural backgrounds; meaningful cross-cultural comparisons should use the 43 items in educational settings.
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The present paper tries to identify the societal factors and psychological factors that motivate students to have better performance in English as a second language and to postulate a theoretical model subsuming these socio-psychological variables to explain and predict the performance in English as a second language for Hong Kong students in Australia. Since the proposal of socio-educational model of second language learning by Gardner (1959), a number of studies have focused on identifying the potent factors in second language acquisition. Giles and Byrne (1982) emphasized the need to have variables intended to determine the perceived relationships operating between ethnic groups. Kraemer (1993) included ethnolinguistic vitality perception construct in her study on social psychological factors in the learning of Arabic in Israeli schools. 247 students of ethnic Chinese in the Sydney metropolitan area who were studying in weekend Chinese schools and 628 Hong Kong students who were studying in primary and secondary schools were sampled. Path analysis was used to determine the relationship between the performance of Chinese and English with societal and psychological variables.
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According to the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), equally able students have lower academic self-concepts when attending academically selective schools than non-selective schools. Here we evaluated the generalizability of the BFLPE with diverse self-constructs (e.g., self-concepts, values, goals, interest, etc.) for Grade 7 Hong Kong Chinese students (N= 1950). According to the internal/external frame of reference model, students formulate their self-concept by comparing their own performance (e.g., math achievement) with that of other students (i.e., the external frame) as well as their own performance in other academic areas (e.g., language; the internal frame). In support of the BFLPE, structural equation models showed that self-concept, self-efficacy and interest were most affected by school-average ability. Furthermore, students with high mastery goal, low performance goals, and low avoidance goals were less affected by the negative BFLPE. In agreement with the Eccles and Wigfield's (2002) expectancy-value model, expectancy and value had positive, additive effects on students' persistence/effort. However, there was no expectancy X value interaction as posited in earlier versions of the model. Implications for teaching are discussed.
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This study used item response modelling to develop measures of the development of proficiency in speaking, reading and writing English among Hong Kong primary students. Home and family background factors were identified that could be linked to higher than average levels of development in proficiency across two school years, from Primary One to Primary Two or from Primary Two to Primary Three. Participants were 2133 Hong Kong students and their parents, sampled from 140 primary schools that had employed a native-speaking teacher of English to work with the students. Higher than average improvement in English proficiency was associated with the students' attitudes to learning, their opportunities to use English in everyday life, access to books in any language at home and school, parents' level of education and parents' support of their child's English studies. The year level and gender of the student also interacted with home background factors in predicting development of second language acquisition.
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