Amy S. Thompson

Anxiety and EFL: Does Multilingualism Matter?.

The current study is motivated by the gap in the current literature about foreign language classroom anxiety, namely the underlying construct of FL anxiety with regard to the understudied relationship between anxiety, proficiency, and multilingualism. The evidence for the effect of language anxiety on achievement is well-documented. More recently, there has been evidence that anxiety is inversely proportional to the number of languages studied; however, this notion of the relationship between multilingualism and anxiety is under-researched. This study analyzes the anxiety profiles of low-level multilingual (LLM) versus high-level multilingual (HLM) learners of English, using 123 EFL college students in Korea. The participants completed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS); a factor analysis, and subsequently discriminant function analyses show the differences in language learning anxiety from a variety of perspectives. An intriguing new factor emerged from the data: fear of ambiguity in English, a factor which has previously not been discussed in the language anxiety research. Additionally, the English language anxiety profiles of the LLM versus the HLM participants were also distinct, answering the question of the effect of various levels of multilingualism on language learning anxiety.

Foreign language anxiety in Turkey: the role of multilingualism

As part of a larger study on individual differences and language learning in Turkey, this study explores the relationship between foreign language anxiety and two operationalisations of multilingualism: any experience with a third language and Perceived Positive Language Interaction; it also illuminates connections among the aforementioned constructs and tolerance of ambiguity. This study addresses the anxiety profiles of 156 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Turkey, an under-studied context. Using the data from the Turkish version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, an exploratory factor analysis (Maximum Likelihood with a Direct Oblimin rotation) and subsequent one-way analyses of variance indicate significant group differences in both operationalisations of multilingualism. Influenced by the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism, the analysis indicates that a participants multilingual profile is constantly changing as a result of the interconnected elements in the linguistic systems. As such, this paper offers a fresh approach to operationalising multilingualism, as well as the connection of multilingualism to foreign language anxiety. The discussion also offers an analysis of the use of factor analysis itself and the implications thereof.

Multilingualism and emergent selves: context, languages, and the anti-ought-to self

This study examines motivation and multilingualism using quantitative data from 468 language learners in China. More precisely, the point of inquiry was to investigate the language-specificity of t...

The Role of Teaching a Novel Language in an SLA Content Course

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) courses are often part of MA TESOL, or other similar language teacher preparation MA programs; however, evidence suggests that the future language teachers in these classes oftentimes have trouble connecting the theoretical aspects of the SLA course to their future language classrooms. This chapter illustrates an innovative approach to helping future language teachers better internalize SLA concepts by integrating a hands-on experience of language learning as part of the SLA course, which in turn will help to inform their future language teaching. The language lessons are beneficial to all students, regardless of their previous experiences with language learning; the language lessons give all of the students a shared experience to be used in class discussions and also ensure that each student has a recent language learning experience on which to actively reflect. The novel language of instruction in the SLA course described in this chapter is Turkish, but any language (preferably one with which the majority of the students aren’t familiar to enhance the “we’re all in this together” mentality) would work just as well. With a specific theme each week in the SLA course described in this chapter, the students (N = 14) wrote reflective journals synthesizing their understanding of the SLA concepts presented in class with past and current foreign language learning experiences, focusing on the novel Turkish language learning experiences integrated into the class. Although many themes arose from the reflective journals, this chapter specifically focuses on student versus teacher beliefs, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), conceptualizing an ideal teacher self, and positive interactions between languages with connections made between the SLA concepts and their careers as future educators. The data indicate that through the reflective journals, the students in the class internalized the theoretical SLA concepts presented, and thus, were cognizant of the benefits of the assignment.

Native and non-native speaker teachers: Contextualizing perceived differences in the Turkish EFL setting

Abstract Although extensive research exists on learner perceptions of native and non-native English speaker teachers (NEST/NNEST), whether prior language learning experiences impact learner beliefs about these teachers has not been investigated. This study explores the beliefs of Turkish EFL students (n = 160) via the Beliefs about Language Teachers (BALT) questionnaire, focusing on beliefs about NESTs/NNESTs regarding ease of communication, teaching style, and classroom practices. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) performed on the BALT resulted in a four-factor solution. The beliefs of multilinguals and bilinguals, categorized in two ways (experience with more than one foreign language vs. perceived positive language interaction [PPLI]) were compared using one-way ANOVAs, which revealed significant differences for some of the factors. There was not much of a difference in bilinguals’ and multilinguals’ beliefs of NESTs and NNESTs. The perceived effectiveness of the NESTs by the PPLI learners can be explained by those learners’ high tolerance of ambiguity in the classroom, whereas the perceived effectiveness of the NNESTs by the NPPLI learners can be explained by the desired to interact in the L1 for ambiguous situations. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to foreign language education policies and teacher education programs.

THE LANGUAGE OF LANGUAGE: CORE CONCEPTS IN LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS (2nd ed.)

THE LANGUAGE OF LANGUAGE: CORE CONCEPTS IN LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS (2nd ed.) . Madalena Cruz-Ferreira and Sunita Anne Abraham . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006. Pp. iii + 266.

Second language learners' beliefs about grammar instruction and error correction

32.00 paper. This 12-chapter volume is designed to introduce a student with no previous experience to the field of linguistics. The chapters are arranged to focus on the various facets of language, with each chapter building on the preceding one. Chapter 1, “Language and Linguistics,” and chapter 2, “Language and Languages,” offer an introduction to language as a concept. Chapters 3 and 4 have a word-level focus, whereas chapters 5 and 6 focus on sounds. Chapters 7 and 8 synthesize the previous chapters to discuss language on the sentence level. Chapters 10–12 use the discussion of language structure presented in the previous chapters to direct the readers attention to the meaning of language as a whole. These last four chapters discuss language meaning, discourse, and the relationship between language and humans.