*Student Attitudes; *Student Motivation IDENTIFIERS *Argentina

Both the motivation for and attitudes of adult Argentine students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) are investigated. A questionnaire was administered to 114 adult students attending EFL classes at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels at the Instituto Cultural Argentino Borteamericano (ICANA) in Buenos Aires. The findings suggest that Argentine students for the most part were oriented toward studying EFL, but that male students were more driven by instrumental purposes and female respondents were more interested in learning English for social and economic purposes. It was also found that, while Argentine people received higher ratings on persona / traits related to appearance and affability, native speakers of English received higher ratings for traits that can be associated with economic success. It is suggested that this study may help Argentine teachers develop an improved understanding of their students ' actual motivation for studying EFL and of the students' attitudes toward native speakers of English. The questionnaire is appended, along with more than 75 pages of tabulated responses. Contains 49 references. (LB) it**********************2***a******************************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ****************************************************************Ww*****