Understanding EAP learners’ beliefs about language learning from a socio‐cultural perspective: A longitudinal study at an EMI context in mainland China. ChiliLi, Springer Singapore, 2021 ISBN: 978‐981‐16‐0138‐5 Pages: xxii, 152 pp, Hardcover: 103,99 €

Author(s):  
Javad Zare ◽  
Ali Derakhshan
2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Cable ◽  
Patricia Driscoll ◽  
Rosamond Mitchell ◽  
Sue Sing ◽  
Teresa Cremin ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yihong Gao ◽  
Xiaoying Wang ◽  
Yan Zhou

AbstractAs part of a larger longitudinal study, this paper examines the development of Chinese students' EFL learning motivation throughout university undergraduate study, in an increasingly globalized local context. The study adopted a social constructivist perspective of language learning and combined research methods; the participants were over 1,000 undergraduates from 5 universities. The quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire (based on Gao et al. 2004) including motivational intensity and motivation types – instrumental, cultural, and situational, implemented annually from university entrance to graduation. The qualitative data consisted of individual and group interviews, student journals, and observations. Integrated data analysis revealed that sustained high-level long-term instrumental motivations coexisted with an increase of L2- oriented cultural motivations and situational motivation, particularly in the first and fourth year. The increased L2-oriented cultural motivations indicated neither ``ntegrativeness'' in the sense of becoming a member of the native English speaker community, nor a culturally neutral ``global identity.'' The increase of such L2- oriented cultural motivations was also accompanied by a sustained ``social responsibility'' motivation oriented to learners' home culture. Such complexities of motivational development call for further investigation in increasingly globalized EFL contexts.


2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ena Lee

While the commodification of English as a global language may give rise to varying degrees of political and economic benefits for language learners, a simultaneous “cost” of this return may be a continued perpetuation of various forms of hegemony. In this vein, this one-year case study investigated a Canadian post-secondary English as a Second Language (ESL) program that analyzed the interconnections between language and culture through a critical dialogic approach. Classroom observations, however, revealed that disjunctions existed between the pedagogy as it was conceptualized and the practices of the instructors teaching there and suggested that the “critical” discourses mediated within the language classrooms essentialized culture and, subsequently, the identities of the students. This paper presents the voices of students from Mainland China as they attempted to negotiate their local and global identities within the larger sociopolitical contexts of the English language, generally, and English language education, in particular. I argue that classroom discourses can (re)create subordinate student identities, thereby limiting their access not only to language-learning opportunities, but to other more powerful identities. This paper thus highlights how ESL pedagogies and practices might address and contest hegemonic discourses and concomitantly reimagine student identities in more emancipatory ways.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Mohsen Ghasemi Ariani ◽  
Narjes Ghafournia

<p class="apa">The objective of this study is to explore the probable relationship between Iranian students’ socioeconomic status, general language learning outcome, and their beliefs about language learning. To this end, 350 postgraduate students, doing English for specific courses at Islamic Azad University of Neyshabur participated in this study. They were grouped in terms of their socioeconomic status. They answered a questionnaire in which they indicated their beliefs about language learning in different contexts of language use. Besides, a general language test of proficiency (a Practice test of a TOEFL Test) was administered to all the participants to homogenize them in terms of general language proficiency or general language learning outcome. The quantitative data were subjected to a set of parametric statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The findings manifested a positive relationship between the students’ economic status and general language learning outcome. Besides, the findings manifested a significant relationship between the participants’ language learning outcome and their beliefs about language learning. The findings suggest if language instructors are equipped with the necessary information to assist language learners in coping with their negative beliefs, the process of language learning is not only accelerated, but also probable measurement errors may decrease.</p>


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