The relationship between attitudes toward language study and cross-cultural attitudes

This study investigated the relationship between attitudes toward foreign language study (a general attitude toward language study; attitudes toward specific languages—Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish; and instrumental and integrative attitudes) and cross-cultural attitudes (world-mindedness and social distance). The results of a survey of US college students (N=151N=151) indicated that: (1) a general attitude toward foreign language study was significantly related to world-mindedness and social distance; (2) attitudes toward Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish were significantly related to both world-mindedness and social distance, whereas an attitude toward French was not significantly related to either world-mindedness or social distance; and (3) an integrative attitude was significantly related to social distance, whereas an instrumental attitude was not significantly related to either world-mindedness or social distance.