The CATESOL Journal

This study examines the relationship between Japanese women’s attitudes toward learning English and the improvement in their ability to judge grammaticality. Fourteen women temporarily living in the United States, who were neither working nor attending school full time, were interviewed regarding their English learning experiences. Data analysis reveals that attitudes toward American people correlate with improvement in ability to judge grammaticality. Tendencies to learn with others and to think actively about the learning process and its applications to daily activities also correlate with higher levels of improvement. The Johnson and Newport (1989) grammaticality judgment task served as the testing instrument, with pre- and posttests administered 11 weeks apart for each subject. Gardner’s (1985) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery measured subjects’ attitudes toward American culture and motivations for learning English. Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning and interviews conducted in Japanese were used to gather information on subjects’ methods of, and preferences for, learning English.