Search Results

Journal: Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition

Positive institutions: Case study

Katarzyna Budzińska

Language: EN | Published: 14-12-2018 | Abstract

Positive psychology was founded on three main pillars: positive emotions, positive character traits associated with good living and positive institutions that create conditions for students to flourish (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Nevertheless, the research in psychology so far has been concentrating on positive emotions and character strengths. Enabling institutions have been the least well studied of the three pillars. A salient additional perspective, as MacIntyre and Mercer (2014) propound, would be to concentrate on the context in which students can experience enjoyment and flourish in foreign language learning. I try to fill the niche by analyzing a language school in the further education context in Poland which seems to be a positive institution. I base my study around the two criteria: enabling success and promoting positive language learning environments or student well-being. The language school is analysed from three different angles: physical, pedagogical and psychological by means of an ethnographical research method and participant observation. The study is carried out in order to answer the research question: Can the school be labelled as a positive institution? The results demonstrate that the institution enables success as well as provides a positive learning environment and thus could be regarded as positive. The study is hoped to have contributed to positive psychology research by demonstrating what it means to be a positive institution in practice. 

2018-12-14



Journal: Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition

Do Girls Have All the Fun? Anxiety and Enjoyment in the Foreign Language Classroom

Jean-Marc Dewaele , Peter MacIntyre , Carmen Boudreau , Livia Dewaele

Language: EN | Published: 25-06-2016 | Abstract

The present study focuses on gender differences in Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) among 1746 FL learners (1287 females, 449 males) from around the world. We used 21 items Likert scale ratings reflecting various aspects of FLE (AUTHORS), and 8 items extracted from the FLCAS (Horwitz et al., 1986).  An open question on FLE also provided us with narrative data.  Previous research on the database, relying on an average measure of FLE and FLCA (AUTHORS) revealed significant gender differences.  The present study looks at gender differences in FLE and FLCA at item level.

Independent t-tests revealed that female participants reported having significantly more fun in the FL class where they felt that they were learning interesting things, and they were prouder than male peers of their FL performance.  However, female participants also experienced significantly more (mild) FLCA: they worried significantly more than male peers about their mistakes and were less confident in using the FL. Our female participants thus reported experiencing both more positive and more mild negative emotions in the FL classroom.  We argue that this heightened emotionality benefits the acquisition and use of the FL.

2016-06-25



Journal: Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition

Language Teacher Identity and Emotions in a Duoethnographic Narrative: The Perspective of Teacher, Parent, and Teacher Educator

Joanna Rokita-Jaśkow , Dorota Werbińska

Language: EN | Published: 21-07-2023 | Abstract | pp. 1-26

Teacher identity building rather than learning teaching in terms of skills and subsystems has recently been acknowledged as a priority in future teacher preparation. Several teacher identity models have been offered, including the 3A Language Teacher Identity Framework (3ALTIF) (Werbińska, 2017a) in which teacher identity comprises affiliation (teachers’ willingness to teach), attachment (teachers’ beliefs related to their teaching) and autonomy (teachers’ agentive, reflective, and resilient powers). With hindsight, it seems that the 3ALTIF, which
drew on other identity models available at the time of its conception, does not address the affective side of language teacher identity explicitly enough and therefore can hardly embrace the uniqueness of this profession. That is why we decided to explore the issue of emotions more deeply and conduct a lengthy duoethnographic narrative to consider the 3ALTIF’s ‘missing’ component for the future ‘improvement’ of the 3ALTIF. Duoethnography was chosen as a qualitative research method thanks to its novelty, its suitability for investigating identity issues and the opportunity it provides for us to explain and express ourselves. In our
duoethnographic dialogues we focused on our own emotions from three perspectives: former school language teachers, language teachers as parents, and language teacher educators, all of which are the roles we have played. The findings reveal our experience of emotions that once affected us and also suggest that emotions are not only psychological constructs but have social dimensions as well.

2023-07-21



Journal: Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition

The Sounds of Conflict: Lexical Representation of Anger in Listening Activities from Modern ELT Coursebooks

Łukasz Matusz

Language: EN | Published: 15-10-2024 | Abstract | pp. 1-18

Modern coursebooks serve a fundamental function in contemporary ELT practice. This paper discusses the problem of representation of anger in listening activities from selected ELT coursebooks issued by leading publishing companies. Thirteen coursebooks form three internationally-recognized ELT series for adult learners of English were analysed for the conflictive dialogues presented in their audio materials, as well as for the ways in which the anger of the Speaker(s) was expressed. The result of the analysis shows that interpersonal exchanges portrayed in the database coursebooks were largely oriented towards the expression of polite interpersonal beliefs, the culture of positivity and attitude of agreement and cooperation. In situations where conflict was presented in the recordings, anger was expressed primarily through prosodic features of speech, followed by the presence of exclamations and certain non-verbal vocalisations. No instances of swearing and expletive interjections, a common way of expressing negative emotions in everyday informal communication, were found in the database. The analysis confirms some of the observations and criticisms concerning the global ELT coursebooks. While understanding publishers’ caution and decidedly refraining from advocating unrestricted use of taboo language in recorded ELT materials, this paper points to the importance of realistic representation of conflictive and argumentative interpersonal communication, not just for the aim of presenting different contexts of English use, but also for the practical applications outside the realm of foreign language learning.

2024-10-15



Journal: Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition

Academics’ Motivation to Learn Foreign Languages: The Case of English

Katarzyna Morena

Language: EN | Published: 18-04-2025 | Abstract | pp. 1-21

Teaching and research are central aspects of university scholars’ work. To provide a high quality of teaching and research, scholars are required to continually learn and develop professionally. Only recently have some empirical studies that focused on academics’ motivations and emotions attempted to explain key outcomes related to their research, teaching, and professional development. This study adopted a self-determination lens to explore academics’ motivation to learn foreign languages, an area that has hardly been scrutinized due to an assumption that academics are highly motivated. The sample consisted of 593 academics (330 women) from nine public and one non-public higher education institutions in Krakow, Poland. The participants also self-rated their level of proficiency in English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian. The results from the Polish version of the Language Learning Orientations Scale—intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amotivation (LLOS-IEA) (Noels et al., 2000) showed that these university academics were characterized by both intrinsic motivation and the most internalized form of extrinsic motivation (identified regulation). These have been considered to be optimal forms of motivation with positive outcomes. Statistically significant differences were found between scholars’ motivation to learn languages and age, gender, and job seniority. The analysis performed for English indicated that scholars rated themselves as having a proficient level (C1) in reading and an independent level (B2) in writing skills.

2025-04-18