scholarly journals Emotions in classroom language learning: What can we learn from achievement emotion research?

System ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 102121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaiqi Shao ◽  
Reinhard Pekrun ◽  
Laura J. Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Classroom Language ◽  
Achievement Emotion

The price of immersion: language learners as a cheap workforce in Malta’s voluntourism industry

Multilingua ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Semiramis Schedel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Voluntary Work ◽  
Island State ◽  
Classroom Language ◽  
Mediterranean Island ◽  
Efficient Alternative ◽  
Travel Industry

Abstract This contribution treats “language immersion” as a linguistic ideology and explores narratives, practices, and subjectivities pertinent to that notion in the context of language-motivated voluntourism. Voluntourism programs offer short-term sojourns abroad, which combine voluntary work with holidays while promising “immersion” as an efficient alternative to classroom language learning. In the Mediterranean island state of Malta, whose population is mostly bilingual in English and Maltese, voluntourism has become an attractive product for the booming English language travel industry. Since there is a lack of critical sociolinguistic and second language acquisition research on the language learning trajectories of voluntourists, this piece examines the promise of immersion through the example of a hostel that figures as a workplace. Drawing on ethnographic data, it investigates how learning English through immersion while working abroad is imagined and promoted, whether or not it occurs, and what gains (linguistic or otherwise) it generates and for whom. The article argues that the voluntourism industry appropriates the discourse of immersion to responsibilize English learners for their linguistic self-skilling, thereby constituting them as neoliberal subjects that can easily be exploited as a cheap workforce.

scholarly journals The Effect of Instructed Second Language Learning on the Acoustic Properties of First Language Speech

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Olga Dmitrieva ◽  
Allard Jongman ◽  
Joan A. Sereno
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Classroom Language ◽  
L1 Use ◽  
Russian Norms ◽  
Phonetic Study

This paper reports on a comprehensive phonetic study of American classroom learners of Russian, investigating the influence of the second language (L2) on the first language (L1). Russian and English productions of 20 learners were compared to 18 English monolingual controls focusing on the acoustics of word-initial and word-final voicing. The results demonstrate that learners’ Russian was acoustically different from their English, with shorter voice onset times (VOTs) in [−voice] stops, longer prevoicing in [+voice] stops, more [−voice] stops with short lag VOTs and more [+voice] stops with prevoicing, indicating a degree of successful L2 pronunciation learning. Crucially, learners also demonstrated an L1 phonetic change compared to monolingual English speakers. Specifically, the VOT of learners’ initial English voiceless stops was shortened, indicating assimilation with Russian, while the frequency of prevoicing in learners’ English was decreased, indicating dissimilation with Russian. Word-final, the duration of preceding vowels, stop closures, frication, and voicing during consonantal constriction all demonstrated drift towards Russian norms of word-final voicing neutralization. The study confirms that L2-driven phonetic changes in L1 are possible even in L1-immersed classroom language learners, challenging the role of reduced L1 use and highlighting the plasticity of the L1 phonetic system.

Email tandem learning and the communicative curriculum

ReCALL ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Woodin
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Classroom Language ◽  
Tandem Learning

This article describes an email project between undergraduate non-specialist learners of Spanish and English in England and Spain. Students took part in a discussion forum and worked with a tandem partner exchanging information, ideas and corrections of each other's language. The project revealed a range of experiences and a case study of one particularly successful participant is presented. The contribution of email tandem learning to CALL within the communicative curriculum is also discussed. It is proposed that such learning plays a different role from classroom language learning, providing a bridge between the classroom and the natural language setting.

scholarly journals The Plight in Foreign Language Learning in Tunisian Context: Classroom Language Assessment v.s Foreign Language Learning Anxiety

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 23-31
Author(s):  
Leila Najeh Bel’Kiry
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
Classroom Language

The assessment of language proficiency from a psycholinguistics perspective has been a subject of considerable interest. Many literatures are devoted for the explanation of certain psychological phenomena related to first language acquisition and foreign language learning like language disorders/impairments, critical/sensitive period and language anxiety. This paper sheds the light on foreign language anxiety, which is in my conviction the hardest problem that concerns the foreign language learner as well as the teacher. The origin of this conviction is that foreign language anxiety hampers learner performance on one hand, and on the other hand effects, negatively, the classroom language assessment which in turn sharpens learner’s anxiety more and more. There is a significant negative correlation between foreign language anxiety and classroom language assessment. Three issues are to be tackled in this paper: (i) The implication of ‘anxiety’ as a psychological issue in foreign language learning, (ii) classroom language assessment in Tunisian schools and (iii) the relation between foreign language anxiety and classroom language assessment.

scholarly journals ‘Trusting the Process’: Part Three of My Autoethnography as a Self-Directed Learner of French

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-369
Author(s):  
Robert Werner ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
French Language ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Learning History ◽  
English Class ◽  
Classroom Language ◽  
Authentic Language

This is the third part of an autoethnography about trying to enrich my vocabulary and improve my listening skills as a self-directed learner through French language songs. I followed the same Study Use Review Evaluate (SURE) learning cycle as my students in a self-directed English class at a university in Japan, and my work occurred at the same time as theirs, over a period of six weeks. Throughout the project and in the course of writing it up, I have been making comparisons and identifying connections between my learning and that of my students. This installment covers the final three weeks of the project. First, in continuing my language learning history, I discuss authentic language and the discrepancies between my classroom language learning and real-life experiences, especially with regard to understanding spoken language while in France. Next, the paper details how I evaluated my learning both during the project and months after it finished. After that, I describe my longtime interest in accents and dialects and how I chose my third song partly to study Nouchi, a French-based dialect spoken in Ivory Coast. The paper concludes with a description of how I felt my goals shifting at different points in the project and reasons I considered changing my focus from listening to reading. I also describe a way I have been able to continue practicing reading French on a daily basis and how students can benefit from this method too.

scholarly journals LANGUAGES AND THE SELF

Neofilolog ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 15-28
Author(s):  
Hanna Komorowska
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Self ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
Ideal Self ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Classroom Language ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour

The article looks into the meaning of concepts of L2 Self, L2 Ideal self and L2 Motivational Self Systems from the point of view of their usefulness for SLA/FLT research. Psychological and sociological terminology related to the Self, Identity, Storied Self, Social Identity and Ethnicity is then discussed as well as various types of the Self useful in the analysis of attitudes to first, second and foreign languages. Examples of linguistic decisions are offered that lead to language maintenance, language loss or changes of the dominant language. Linguistic behaviour is traced back to possible ways of presenting the Self as well as to different approaches to ethnicity, integration and assimilation. Conclusions and implications for classroom language learning and teacher education are also presented.

scholarly journals Language Policy in Non-Classroom Language Learning Spaces

2018 ◽  
pp. 156-178
Author(s):  
Katherine Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
Classroom Language ◽  
First Languages

As self-access centres become increasingly social in function, the language of the interactions which take place in such language learning spaces (LLSs) and the guidelines or policies which guide their use have become increasingly important. Despite this, little research has been conducted into language policy. This preliminary study surveyed 50 self-access language learning practitioners in 30 institutions around the globe about their language policies and how they are received by different stakeholders, including learners. A range of approaches to language policy are in place, from strict policies that only permit the target language, to more flexible ones that allow or encourage learners’ first languages. Around a third of institutions reported no official policy in place. The data reveals that LLSs with strict policies tend to be found more in EFL contexts, but the factors governing policy choice are complex and depend on local context. While support for all kinds of policies is present in the data set, there is a distinct trend towards flexibility and acknowledgement of the complexity of creating an environment which maximises learning opportunities for all users.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document