Multicultural and problematic social contexts and their contribution to l2 learning

This study investigated the relationship of attitudes and cultural background to reading comprehension in L2 of eighth-grade students in three different social contexts: Israeli-Arab students learning Hebrew as their L2, Israeli Jewish students learning English as their L2, and Canadian-Arab students learning English as their L2. Cloze tests, attitude questionnaires, foreign and familiar (cultural) stories, and multiple choice questions were employed. The results showed that generally the students were instrumentally motivated rather than integratively motivated, and that instrumental motivation was commonly a strong predictor of L2 learning. Furthermore, the cultural content of the stories was a strong predictor of 12 learning for Israeli-Arabs and Israeli-Jewish students, but not for Canadian-Arab students. The paper discusses the implications of the findings for the design of L2 programmes.