Abstract
The study involved extra-linguistic factor of attitude in learning a second language among foreign students at five universities in Malaysia. The objectives in this study are to identify factors that influence students' attitudes toward learning a foreign language and analyze the main factor in instrumental and integrative attitude by foreign students surveyed. In this study, researchers found that the positive attitude of foreign students in studying languages other than Malay language as a second language. The respondents consisted of a group of foreign students from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The total of the sample was 150 people from 27 countries. This basic attitude is divided into instrumental and integrative. If someone is learning to recognize a nation, understand the culture through the language of the nation, it is called integrative. While instrumental refers to the desire to learn the language without they want to be part of the nation or for a purpose. The results of observations and field studies showed that foreign students choose Question 5 as variable integrative dominant attitude. This suggests learning the Malay language is very useful and encouraging them. Overall, integrative attitude among foreign students are at the highest level against the instrumental attitude.