Previous studies have found that motivation, and in particular integrative motivation, is an essential factor in the acquisition of a second language. In the present study of the acquisition of Norwegian by foreign students at the University of Bergen, Norway, a questionnaire assessing motivation was presented to 167 foreign students enrolled in classes of “Norwegian for foreign students”, a short time before the examination in Norwegian, Level 2. European and American students were found to be more integratively motivated than the Middle Eastern, African and Asian students, who were found to be more instrumentally motivated than the Western students. Moreover, a significant difference in means of grades was recorded; Europeans having the best and Asian students the poorest grades. In the total group a weak positive correlation between integrative motivation and language proficiency, and a negative correlation between instrumental motivation and grades were found. However, when motivation and grades were analyzed within each group, no positive correlation between grades and integrative motivation was found. When ‘cultural distance’ was entered into a multiple regression analysis, in addition to the two motivation variables, the results indicated that the motivation variables explained very little of the variance in language proficiency. The best predictor of variance in groups of students with various language and cultural backgrounds was ‘cultural distance’.
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