Richard Clément

Ethnicity, Contact and Communicative Competence in a Second Language

ABSTRACT A theoretical framework is presented which traces and relates the individuals acquisition, practice and maintenance of communicative competence in a second language to the social/structural characteristics of a community. These characteristics are mediated by a two-stage motivation process hypothesised to impact on fluency in a second language. Such competence will in turn, depending on structural aspects of the milieu, bring about integration or assimilation as social consequences. The implications of this formulation for future research are discussed and specific hypotheses outlined.

Perceptions of Teachers’ Communicative Style and Students’ Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

This study considers how students’ perceptions of their teachers’ communicative style, particularly the extent to which teachers are perceived to support students’ autonomy and to provide useful feedback about students’ learning progress, are related to students’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivational orientations. It also examines the link between these variables and various language learning outcomes, including effort, anxiety, and language competence. Students registered in a summer French immersion course (N = 78) completed a questionnaire that was used to assess the constructs described above. Correlational analyses determined that stronger feelings of intrinsic motivation were related to positive language learning outcomes, including greater motivational intensity, greater self-evaluations of competence, and a reduction in anxiety. Moreover, perceptions of the teacher’s communicative style were related to intrinsic motivation, such that the more controlling and the less informative students perceived the teacher to be, the lower students’ intrinsic motivation was. The implications of perceptions of teacher communicative style for motivation and language learning outcomes are discussed.

Sex and Age Effects on Willingness to Communicate, Anxiety, PerCeived Competence, and L2 Motivation Among Junior High School French Immersion Students

The students who participate in immersion education are an impressive group. In the present study we looked at students in a junior high school in Nova Scotia. In the local area, English is far and away the dominant language, though there are French-speaking communities within a 2-hr drive and Canada is an officially bilingual country. Therefore, the students are not in a “foreign” language-learning environment, but in all probability, they are not likely to encounter spoken French in their daily lives. The students have all the challenges of adolescence to contend with: moving from an elementary to a junior high school in grade 7, the wonders of puberty, growing academic expectations from teachers, demands from school administration to speak only French while at school, and the burgeoning social life of a newly minted teenager. On top of all this, participants in this research are required to give up their well-developed native language, English, and undertake to be educated in a second language, French. Impressive. The present study reports a cross-sectional investigation of second language communication among students in a junior high French late immersion program. The effects of language, sex, and grade on willingness to communicate (WTC), anxiety, perceived communication competence, and frequency of communication in French and on attitude/motivation variables are examined globally and at each grade level. Most of these variables have been widely studied among adult learners, most often at the university level. The present study attempted to look at a much younger group to examine the patterns earlier in the language learning process. We found that students’ second language WTC, perceived competence, and frequency of communication in French increased from grades 7 to 8 and that these increases were maintained between grades 8 and 9, despite a drop in motivation between grades 7 and 8 and a steady level of anxiety across the three grades. Gender differences in language anxiety were observed across the three grades. Contrary to our expectations, compared to girls, boys reported more anxiety in grade 9. However, the differences between WTC across the first and second language narrowed as students progressed through the program. [The present article first appeared in Language Learning, 52(3), 2002, 537–564]

Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language The Effects of Context, Norms, and Vitality

Past research has focused primarily on second language (L2) acquisition as a tool for promoting intercultural communication. The social context model, for example, stresses the importance of contact, L2 confidence, and identity in acquiring a L2. The willingness to communicate (WTC) model, however, emerged from a concern with the functions of L2 use. This study combines these two models to consider both contextual and individual difference variables in L2 use. Participants were 130 Anglophone (majority) and 248 Francophone (minority) students attending a Canadian bilingual university. Path analyses supported a model in which context, individual, and social factors were all important determinants of L2 use, although patterns of relations differed depending on the ethnolinguistic vitality of the group. The importance of subjective norms was further confirmed as moderators of the relationship between L2 confidence and identity among Francophones. Results are discussed within the context of current models of intergroup communication.

Second Language Proficiency and Acculturation: An Investigation of the Effects of Language Status and Individual Characteristics

The present study investigates the relationship between language status and individual differences in attitudes and motivation as they relate to proficiency and acculturation in a second language. All respondents were Francophone university students with either a minority (n = 110) or a majority background (nn = 183). They were requested to fill out a questionnaire including measures of ethnolinguistic vitality, attitudes and motivation as well as to participate in an interview aimed at assessing their oral proficiency in English as a second language. Analyses of the data show that minority group members evidence more self-confidence in their ability to use the second language and greater proficiency in the second language than majority group members. Level of acculturation was a function of proficiency in the second language and an interactive function of language status and frequency of contact. Correlational analyses revealed that proficiency and acculturation were most strongly associated with self-confidence. Attitudes and motivation neither had an important influence on language outcome nor were they influenced by language status. These results are discussed for their theoretical implications and with reference to second language education programmes.

Aptitude, Attitude and Motivation in Second Language Proficiency: A Test Of Clément's Model:

This article presents a test of Cléments model of second language proficiency using the causal modelling technique. Data pertaining to attitudes, aptitude, motivation and second language proficiency were collected from 1,180 francophone students enrolled in grades 7, 9 and 11 in schools of eastern Québec (Canada). The results of the analysis using the LISREL V computer package support the hypothetical constructs and causal sequence posited by Clément. Furthermore, the generality of the model is supported by the cross-grade replicability of the obtained statistical solution. Finally, additional causal links and correlations obtained through refinement of the model suggest avenues for future study. These results are discussed within the context of current social psychological models of second language proficiency.

Language, Identity, and Adjustment The Role of Linguistic Self-Confidence in the Acculturation Process

Research in both cross-cultural psychology and the social psychology of language has examined the changes in identity and language behavior that occur when two ethnolinguistic groups come into contact. This study attempted to integrate these two fields of inquiry through an investigation of the relations between identity, interethnic contact, linguistic self-confidence, and psychological adjustment in 179 Chinese university students. The findings indicated that exclusive identification with either the first or second language group was the most commonly endorsed identity. Correlational and path analyses of the relations between interethnic contact, self-confidence in using the English and Chinese languages, Chinese and Canadian identities, and adjustment variables supported the proposed model in which communication variables mediate the influence of interethnic contact on identity and adjustment. The results are interpreted within the context of current formulations of acculturation and intercultural communication.

Towards a Situated Approach to Ethnolinguistic Identity: The Effects of Status on Individuals and Groups

Much research has been concerned with the relationship between identity, language and the status of ethnolinguistic groups. Likewise, much attention has been devoted to the acculturative consequences of contact between two cultural groups. The present research was an attempt to bring together these two traditions of research within the context of English-French relations in Canada. Accordingly, Francophone and Anglophone students originating from majority and minority settings, attending a Canadian bilingual university were requested to fill out a questionnaire containing indices of identification to first and second language groups. The results showed that, at the individual level, both the immediate and the North American status of the respondents were related to their identity. At the group level, similar results were obtained with the qualification that the ethnolinguistic evolution of status would appear to be of some importance. Finally, important inter-situational variations were noted for all groups, supporting the approach to situated identity adopted here. These results are discussed in terms of their implication for the relationship between language and identity as well as for current theories of acculturation.

Interethnic Contact, Identity, and Psychological Adjustment: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Communication

Social psychological theories of second-language communication posit a relationship between second-language competence/usage and social identity. Identity and adaptation outcomes of intercultural contact have also been central issues for cross-cultural psychology. The studies described here are at the junction of these two research traditions. Based on a situated-identity approach, they show the mediating and moderating roles of second-language confidence for identity change and adjustment among minority- and majority-group members. Two studies involving Canadian francophone and anglophone university students illustrate the relationship between relative status and identity as well as the mediating role of communication in determining identity and adjustment. The third study, involving participants of East Indian descent, shows that incongruities among aspects of identity are related to the experience of collective discrimination and stress. Furthermore, these relations are moderated by second-language confidence. The conclusion discusses theoretical and practical implications for policy.

Willingness to communicate: Antecedents & consequences

Willingness to communicate (WTC) is examined at the trait and state levels, which are viewed as complementary. Measures of trait WTC, extraversion, emotional stability, self‐esteem, communication apprehension, and competence were administered to 226 male and female university students. A structural equation model examined the hypothesized antecedents to WTC and revealed a good fit to the data. Seventy of the participants also volunteered for a communication laboratory. Trait WTC was related to volunteering for the lab portion of the study and state WTC was related to initiating a difficult communication task. Also, state perceived competence predicted both time and number of ideas on an easy speaking task; state anxiety predicted time and number of ideas on a difficult speaking task.