Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2013, vol. 3, no. 1
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Item The link between Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity and Self-rated English proficiency among Chinese learners(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-03) Dewaele, Jean-Marc; Ip, Tsui ShanPrevious research has suggested that high levels of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) have a negative effect on foreign language learning (Horwitz, 2001; Lu & Liu, 2011) while moderate levels of Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity (SLTA) are believed to boost foreign language learning (Ely, 1995). There is prima facie evidence that both dimensions are inversely related as Foreign Language Learning contexts are full of ambiguities which may contribute to anxiety. However, the relationship between FLCA and SLTA has been under-researched. The present study is an attempt to fill this gap by investigating the link between SLTA and FLCA in English of 73 secondary school students in Hong Kong. They filled out an online questionnaire consisting of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986) and the Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (Ely, 1995). Statistical analyses revealed that FLCA, SLTA and Self-rated English proficiency predict half of the variance in each other; in other words, students who were more tolerant of second language ambiguity were less anxious in their EFL classes and they also felt more proficient.Item The Simpsons: Translation and language teaching in an EFL class(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-03) Pavan, ElisabettaMy point of departure for this paper is that translation, so long neglected in foreign language teaching, can not only improve students’ linguistic competences in both a foreign language and their mother tongue, but also their awareness of cultural and intercultural elements. It is a widespread popular assumption, among those not involved in language teaching, that linguistic competences are the key to learning a language and to communicating in a foreign language; consequently, they assume that translation ought to play a major role in the study of a foreign language. Indeed, late 20th century theories of language teaching, apart from the grammar-translation method, have largely ignored or criticized the role of translation. I will focus on a translation course I taught to a class of a year three Italian undergraduate students studying foreign languages, and discuss the advantages of using translation to improve students’ linguistic competences, in their mother tongue and in the foreign language, and to develop their intercultural communicative competences and their cultural (Bassnett, 2002, 2007) and intercultural awareness (Kramsch, 1993, 1998). The translated text was taken from The Simpsons, season 21, episode 16.Item The effect of emotional intelligence awareness-raising activities on L2 motivation(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-03) Barzegar, Reza; Sadr, Sajjad ArefThis article reports a study investigating the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) awareness-raising on Iranian university students’ overall as well as variable-specific L2 motivation. The 136 participants (107 males, 29 females) were divided into a control group and an experimental group, both of which completed the same motivation questionnaire at the beginning and end of the study, with the latter receiving EI awareness-raising in seven sessions over a seven-week period. The results of paired and independent sample t tests showed that EI awareness-raising did not have any statistically significant positive effect on Iranian university students’ overall L2 motivation, but they had a statistically significant positive effect on the Instrumentality- prevention aspect of L2 motivation. The study highlights the importance of becoming familiar with and applying three motivational strategies which may be considered as universal motivational strategiesItem The development of cohesion in a learner corpus(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-03) Neary-Sundquist, Colleen A.This study examines the use of cohesive devices (pragmatic markers and conjunctions) in a 24,000-word corpus of transcribed oral data from 47 learners and native speakers of English. Both of these cohesive devices increase with proficiency level, but not in the same way. Conjunction use seems to increase steadily, and only the differences between the highest and lowest proficiency levels were found to be statistically significant. Pragmatic marker use, however, remains fairly stable across the three lowest proficiency levels and rises drastically for the two highest proficiency levels, and the two higher proficiency levels are significantly different from the two lower levels in their use of pragmatic markers. The results are compared to native speaker rates of cohesive device use for the same tasks and under the same conditions.Item Self-, peer-, and teacher-assessment: An investigation into Iranian EFL students’ attitudes(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-03) Khonbi, Zainab Abolfazli; Sadeghi, KarimStudent-directed teaching and assessment techniques are gradually dominating educational systems almost all over the world. This study investigated a cohort of male and female Iranian EFL students’ attitudes toward self-, peer-, and teacher-assessment experiences. Sixty three students at Urmia University and Tabriz Islamic Azad University, in the form of three intact classes, experienced self-, peer-, and teacher-assessment activities for one academic semester (having taken a knowledge pretest, four assessment series, and a course achievement posttest). Of all the participants, 38 completed a 5-point Likert-scale attitude questionnaire. The application of ANOVA, across and within group dependent samples t tests, as well as some qualitative analyses, indicated that the three experimental groups had positive attitudes toward their assessment experiences. While the peer-assessment group was the most positive in this regard, slight differences were found in the groups’ attitudes and beliefs. Further findings and implications are discussed in the paper.Item Affective variables, parental involvement and competence among South Korean high school learners of English(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-03) Morris, Annie; Lafonataine, Marc; Pichette, François; de Serres, LindaThis study investigated the relationships between various affective variables and two measures of competence in English, for 190 South Korean high school students. A 55-item questionnaire was used to measure attitudes (Attitudes toward English Speakers and their Communities and Attitudes toward the English- speaking Culture), motivation (Motivational Intensity, Desire to Learn and Attitudes toward the Learning of English), amotivation, parental involvement (Active Parental Encouragement, Passive Parental Encouragement and Parental Pressure), parental disinterest and students’ competence in L2 (English- EXAM and English-SELF). Pearson product-moment coefficients indicate that active and passive forms of parental encouragement correlate with motivation to learn, as conceptualized by Gardner (1985, 2010), as well as with parental pressure, which suggests that South Korean students report undergoing forms of pressure when their parents actively or passively encourage them. Furthermore, the obtained correlations of the active and passive forms of encouragement with different variables suggest that the two forms represent two distinct concepts. While parental disinterest correlated negatively with motivational variables, parental pressure correlated only with motivational intensity, and only weakly. Therefore, parental pressure seems not to interact significantly with participants’ attitudes, motivation and competence. Multiple linear regression analyses confirm the importance of motivation to learn for students' L2 competence.Item Content, Notes(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-03)Item Editorial(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-03-01) Pawlak, Mirosław