Investigating the Primary Orientations and Principal Majors of Learners of Less Commonly Taught Languages
Dr. Comfort Pratt, Dr. Alime Sadikova, Ms. Tianlan Wei, Ms. Yanlin Wang, Dr. Yongjun Dan, Dr. Amani Zaier

Abstract
This paper reports on an investigation of the primary orientations of learners of less commonly taught languages and their major areas of study. One hundred and eleven students enrolled in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, and Uzbek courses in a West Texas university were surveyed. A descriptive analysis from SPSS indicated that the primary orientations were for the most part instrumental and language specific, with the most important factor overall being career benefits. A comparison of frequencies also revealed that there was an unequivocal relationship between major fields of study and target languages.

Full Text: PDF