The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) commissioned this Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) with a view to understanding what is known from the research literature concerning learning a foreign language (FL) and its impact on students' wider academic outcomes. The key questions addressed examine: (1) the research identifying what approaches to…

Background: The risk of childhood behavioural and psychiatric diseases could be substantially reduced if modifiable risk factors for these disorders were identified. The critical period for many of these exposures is likely to be in utero as this is the time when brain development is most rapid. However, due to confounding and other limitations of…

The main objective of this study is to investigate the motivation patterns of the two groups of Hong Kong students with different cultural backgrounds and examine the relationship between their motivation to learn English and English attainment. This study adopted the motivation framework of Dorneyi (2001) to investigate to what extent each social…

Causal statements from adults with learning disabilities and normally achieving adults were analyzed and organized within a linguistic taxonomy of causal semantic relations, and a relationship between Piagetian cognitive stages and verbal expressions of causality were identified. Piagetian principles were used to design assessment and intervention…

Examined the attributions of, the criteria for, the likelihood of obtaining, and the importance of success and failure in examinations. 200 New Zealand and 200 Singaporean students were surveyed. Singaporean students were found to have a higher criterion mark for success than New Zealand students, but a lower criterion mark for failure. (SVE)

Compares possible causal attributions for college success and failure in 358 American and Asian undergraduate students. American students attributed academic success more often to ability than did Asian students, and they appeared to believe that effort was more important to success than lack of effort was to failure. (GLR)

A research review of ability and effort studies in the United States and Japan finds: (1) effort considered the primary determinant of achievement in Japan; (2) different concepts; and (3) the Japanese fostering task involvement through cooperation. Social structure may account for the attributional patterns of Japanese children. (SLD)

Determined gender differences in undergraduates decisions to seek a bachelor's degree and whether these differences could be explained by performance levels, expectations, and attainment values. No gender differences were found for expectations and attainment values, and performance levels did not explain gender differences in reasons for seeking…

Examined the self-protective role of social attributions by comparing individual attributions made to the self, to one's ethnic group, and to factors external to oneself. Results from 309 Black, Hispanic, and White mothers show they all attributed positive outcomes to themselves, while Whites attributed failure to themselves personally. Middle-…

Examined culturally based differences in the perceptions of causal attributions for athletic achievement in Germany and China. Results show that the Chinese perceive success and failure to be more internal and controllable than the Germans. This result is discussed from the perspective of traditional Chinese culture and from today's social…