Hopeless Cases or Just Hard Nuts to Crack? Stories of “Difficult” Foreign Language Learners
Abstract
In accordance with the assumptions of the sociologically grounded labelling theory, an individual’s self-perception and, consequently, their actions, might be influenced by words used to describe them. Also, in the context of education, including the field of foreign language learning, such a process of defining learners in a simplified way, has been proven to have profound consequences of psychological nature. The main purpose of the article is to outline the results of a study in which 37 teachers of English shared the stories of their most
“difficult” students. The qualitative analysis of the gathered descriptions allowed the identification of some common features characteristic of, so-called, hopeless cases, among which motivation-related problems are the most often enumerated ones. Additionally, many teachers wrote about their struggles while teaching students with special educational needs. The views expressed by the participants of the study might help understand the way in which opinions about students are formulated as well as point to the need for significant changes to be made in the area of foreign language teacher education and training.
Keywords
difficult/problematic student; foreign language learner; formal labelling; informal labelling; labelling theory; teacher training
References
Baudson, T. G., & Preckel, F. (2016). Teachers’ conceptions of gifted and average-ability students on achievement-relevant dimensions. Gifted Child Quarterly, 60(3), 212–225.
Becker, H. S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. Free Press of Glencoe.
Bernburg, J. G. (2009). Labeling theory. In M. D. Krohn, N. Hendrix, G. P. Hall, & A. J. Lizotte (Eds.), Handbook in crime and deviance (pp. 187–209). Springer.
Biesta, G., Priestley, M., & Robinson, S. (2015). The role of beliefs in teacher agency. Teachers and Teaching. Theory and Practice, 21(6), 624–640.
Browne, K. (2005). An introduction to sociology. (3rd ed.). Polity Press.
Cooley, C. H. (1902). Human nature and the social order. C. Scribner’s Sons.
David, M. & Sutton, C. D. (2004). Social research: The basics. SAGE.
Dumora, B. (2000). Les intentions d’orientation. Aspects développementaux et psychosociaux [Future intentions: Developmental and psycho-social approaches]. HDR; Laboratoire de Psychologie de l’orientation, CNAM, INETOP.
Guichard, J., & Dumora, B. (2008). A constructivist approach to ethically grounded vocational development interventions for young people. In J. A. Athanasou & R. Van Esbroeck (Eds.), International handbook of career guidance (pp. 187–208). Springer.
Haralambos, M., & Heald, R. (1985). Sociology: Themes and perspectives. Bell & Hyman.
Hargreaves, D. H., Hester, S., & Mellor, F. J. (1975). Deviance in classrooms. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Lauchlan, F., & Boyle, C. (2020). Labelling and inclusive education. In U. Sharma (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from: https://oxfordre.com/education/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore9780190264093-e-1021
Lemert, E. (1967). Human deviance, social problems and social control. Prentice-Hall.
Liberman, Z., Woodward, A. L. & Kinzler, K. D. (2017). The origins of social categorisation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(7), 556–568.
Matsueda, R. L. (2014). The natural history of labelling theory in Farrington. In P. David & J. Murray (Eds.), Labelling theory: Empirical tests (pp. 13–44). Trans-action Publishers.
Nomi, T., & Pong, S.-L. (2010). Self-fulfilling prophecy. In G. Ritzer & J. M. Ryan (Eds.), The concise encyclopedia of sociology (p. 531). Wiley-Blackwell.
Rist, R. (1970). Student social class and teacher expectations: The self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Harvard Educational Review, 40(3), 411–451.
Rosenthal, R. & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. The Urban Review, 3, 16–20.
Rowe, W.G., & O’Brien, J. (2002). The role of Golem, Pygmalion, and Galatea effects on opportunistic behavior in the classroom. Journal of Management Education, 26(6), 612–628.
Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life. Harvard University Press.
Suchacka, J. (2013). Epidemia dysleksji w dużych miastach [An epidemic of dyslexia in big cities]. Wyborcza.pl, 25 April. Retrieved from: https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,13801495,epidemiadysleksji-w-duzych-miastach.html
Thompson, K. (2017). Teacher labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy. ReviseSociology, November 1. Retrieved from: https://revisesociology.com/2017/11/01/labelling-self-fulfilling-prophecy-education/
Triplett, R. A., & Jarjoura, G. R. (1994). Theoretical and empirical specification of a model of informal labeling. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 10, 241–276.
van Lier, L. (2004). The ecology and semiotics of language learning. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Pedagogical University of Cracow Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8315-2525
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Copyright Holders of the submitted texts are the Authors. The Reader is granted the rights to use the material available in the TAPSLA websites and pdf documents under the provisions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License: Attribution - Share Alike (CC BY-SA 4.0). The user is free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
1. License
The University of Silesia Press provides immediate open access to journal’s content under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s.
If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, graphs, maps), the author declares that the said works are of his authorship, they do not infringe the rights of the third party (including personal rights, i.a. the authorization to reproduce physical likeness) and the author holds exclusive proprietary copyrights. The author publishes the above works as part of the article under the licence "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International".
ATTENTION! When the legal situation of the illustrative material has not been determined and the necessary consent has not been granted by the proprietary copyrights holders, the submitted material will not be accepted for editorial process. At the same time the author takes full responsibility for providing false data (this also regards covering the costs incurred by the University of Silesia Press and financial claims of the third party).
3. User Rights
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, provided they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
4. Co-Authorship
If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
I hereby declare that in the event of withdrawal of the text from the publishing process or submitting it to another publisher without agreement from the editorial office, I agree to cover all costs incurred by the University of Silesia in connection with my application.
