Thriving? Or Surviving? An Approach–Avoidance Perspective on Adult Language Learners’ Motivation

2020 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALASTAIR HENRY ◽  
SOFIA DAVYDENKO
Author(s):  
Nilüfer Bekleyen ◽  
Serkan Çelik

The present study focuses on the attitudes of adult language learners towards an Internet-based computer program designed to prepare the users for a language test. The participants were the attendees of a YDS (National Foreign Language Examination offered by the Turkish Council of Higher Education) preparation course which was conducted at a state university in Turkey. Sixty participants contributed to the study. Their attitudes towards Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) were measured via two different instruments: a questionnaire and an interview. The results indicated that lower level learners had significantly better attitudes towards CALL compared to higher level learners. In general, the participants found computers to be more interesting, motivating and encouraging but did not consider the traditional classroom teaching substitutable with CALL. The findings revealed no significant changes pertaining to the participants' attitudes towards CALL after their language learning experience with computers for four months.


Author(s):  
Raichle Farrelly ◽  
Iuliia Fakhrutdinova

This chapter builds on the pedagogical knowledge base of educators who work with refugee-background adult language learners. The chapter introduces refugee-background adults who have experienced interruptions in their formal education. The authors present a framework for pedagogical scaffolding that emerges from a sociocultural perspective on learning. An overview of research underscores the benefits of recognizing and building upon learners' strengths, lived experiences, and oral traditions. Classroom-based approaches that integrate pedagogical scaffolding into meaningful learning opportunities to enhance the language and literacy practices of adult learners are highlighted. The chapter sustains innovation and conversation among educators working with refugee-background adults, ideally in collaboration with the learners themselves, to cultivate pedagogical practices that foster learner success in the classroom and beyond.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
T’łat’łaḵuł Patricia Rosborough ◽  
čuucqa Layla Rorick

The authors’ respective experiences as Indigenous people, scholars, language activists, and Kwak’wala (Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw/Kwakiutl language) and ḥiḥiškʷiiʔatḥa (Hesquiaht dialect of the Nuu-chah-nulth/Nootka language) adult language learners and teachers are discussed in relation to the literature on spirituality and the supernatural. Using dialogic and autoethnographical voices, the authors highlight the long-term effects of metaphysical interaction on learning, as well as acknowledging its role in Indigenous research as a foundational and continuous part of Indigenous search for knowledge. Indigenous cultural principles and the narrative research practice of Indigenous scholars guide the authors in drawing on the traditions of teaching through story, centering relationships, and practicing reciprocity in the context of where Indigenous researchers stand in continual relationship to their Indigenous communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-264
Author(s):  
Arzu Ekoç

Mobile language learning applications have changed how language is learned and have opened new windows for potential learners. At the convenience of our time, place, comfort and pace, we can learn or revise a language through our mobile gadgets. From the reviewed literature, it is evident that more data is needed to understand the users’ views about mobile applications. Instead of focusing on a single mobile application, the researcher attempted to elicit the general perceptions of Turkish adult learners about mobile language learning apps. In line with this thought, a selfadministered questionnaire was sent to potential mobile app users and 231 participants replied to the questionnaire. The aim of this study is to find out what perceptions adult learners in Turkey have and what their suggestions are to enhance future mobile language learning applications. For the close-ended questions, frequencies and percentages were taken, while for the open-ended question, content analysis was done. Easy access was considered as the greatest strength, while internet connection requirements and scarcity of interactivity were considered among the shortcomings. The participants offered some suggestions which can yield new paths for application developers, teachers and practitioners in the field of English language teaching and adult learning.


In previous studies, it seems that the classification of ADHD did not appear to interfere with learners’ performance in foreign language courses. In this empirical investigation, a group of 43 adult language learners diagnosed with ADHD were asked questions relating to their language learning process, in particular to the difficulties encountered when partaking language courses, as well as subjective opinions as to progress and success relating to the language learning and also what the participants felt could have assisted the learning to make it more effective, efficient and successful. A control group of 43 adult language learners who had not been diagnosed with ADHD were asked the same questions. The findings indicated some significant negativity from the ADHD group with regards to their progress and success with the language learning, as well as an extremely significant statistical difference between the ADHD group and the control group in relation to the difficulty concerning attention while learning. This finding concludes that in fact, language learners diagnosed with ADHD report their difficulty with attention and this would corroborate the attention deficit symptom inherent to this neurobehavioral disorder.


Cortex ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 74-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilli Kimppa ◽  
Yury Shtyrov ◽  
Suzanne C.A. Hut ◽  
Laura Hedlund ◽  
Miika Leminen ◽  
...  

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