The Socio-Educational Model: An Evidence-Based Re-evaluation

Abstract

The socio-educational model suggests that social milieu influences individual characteristics, which in turn affect engagement in learning contexts, ultimately impacting linguistic and non-linguistic outcomes. Operationalized representations of the model tend to focus on relations among integrativeness, attitudes to the learning situation, motivation, language anxiety, and language achievement. While objections to the model exist, recent work has challenged their persuasiveness, and as such, it seems appropriate to re-evaluate the model using new data to elucidate its continuing utility in understanding second language outcomes. The objective of this study was therefore to measure the levels of the aforementioned constructs in an international sample and to determine the degree to which they covaried as predicted by the model. A structural equation modelling study of 278 Malaysian high school students studying English compulsorily in national secondary schools in Malaysia found substantial levels of model constructs and statistically significant relationships between them, implying the model’s potential ongoing utility. Implications for second language learning theorization, educational policy, curriculum design, teaching strategies, global language learning contexts, and further research are explored.