This study investigated the effect of the cultural background of immigrant children on affective variables in learning three different languages. Participants were students in secondary multicultural classrooms in Spain. The results demonstrated that there were few differences attributable to cultural background. Asian students were lower in instrumental orientation than African students, and had more positive attitudes towards learning the languages than Spanish students. There were many more differences attributable to the language being studied. Overall, affective variables were more positive for both Spanish and English than for Catalan, with little difference between Spanish and English. A factor analysis demonstrated that integrative motivation was generally language specific, but that orientations, language anxiety and parental encouragement tended to apply generally to the three languages, forming three distinct factors.
