scholarly journals Investment and motivation in language learning: What's the difference?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Darvin ◽  
Bonny Norton

The year 2020 marked the 25th year since Bonny Norton published her influential TESOL Quarterly article, ‘Social identity, investment, and language learning’ (Norton Peirce, 1995) and the fifth year since we, Darvin and Norton (2015), co-authored ‘Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics’ in the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. From the time Norton's 1995 piece was published, investment and motivation have been conceptually imbricated and often collocated, as they hold up two different lenses to investigate the same reality: why learners choose to learn an additional language (L2). In our 2015 article, we made the case that while it is important to ask the question, ‘Are students motivated to learn a language?’ it is equally productive to ask, ‘Are students invested in the language practices of the classroom or community?’ (Darvin & Norton, 2015, p. 37). We recognize that the relationship between language teachers and learners is unequal, and that teachers hold the power to shape these practices in diverse ways. Teachers bring to the classroom not only their personal histories and knowledge, but also their own worldviews and assumptions (Darvin, 2015), which may or may not align with those of learners. Relations of power between learners can also be unequal. As Norton and Toohey (2011, p. 421) note: A language learner may be highly motivated, but may nevertheless have little investment in the language practices of a given classroom or community, which may, for example, be racist, sexist, elitist, anti-immigrant, or homophobic. Alternatively, the language learner's conception of good language teaching may not be consistent with that of the teacher, compromising the learner's investment in the language practices of the classroom. Thus, the language learner, despite being highly motivated, may not be invested in the language practices of a given classroom.

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 36-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Darvin ◽  
Bonny Norton

ABSTRACTThis article locates Norton's foundational work on identity and investment within the social turn of applied linguistics. It discusses its historical impetus and theoretical anchors, and it illustrates how these ideas have been taken up in recent scholarship. In response to the demands of the new world order, spurred by technology and characterized by mobility, it proposes a comprehensive model of investment, which occurs at the intersection of identity, ideology, and capital. The model recognizes that the spaces in which language acquisition and socialization take place have become increasingly deterritorialized and unbounded, and the systemic patterns of control more invisible. This calls for new questions, analyses, and theories of identity. The model addresses the needs of learners who navigate their way through online and offline contexts and perform identities that have become more fluid and complex. As such, it proposes a more comprehensive and critical examination of the relationship between identity, investment, and language learning. Drawing on two case studies of a female language learner in rural Uganda and a male language learner in urban Canada, the model illustrates how structure and agency, operating across time and space, can accord or refuse learners the power to speak.


2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 209-211

05–459Abella, Rodolfo, Joanne Urritia & Aleksandr Schneyderman (Miami-Dade County Public Schools, USA), An examination of the validity of English language achievement test scores in an English language learner population. Bilingual Research Journal (Tempe, AZ, USA) 29.1 (2005), 128–144.05–460Chalhoub-Deville, Micheline & Gillian Wigglesworth (U of Iowa, USA; [email protected]), Rater judgment and English language speaking proficiency. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.3 (2005), 383–391.05–461Hudson, Thom (U of Hawai'i, Manoa, USA; [email protected]), Trends in assessment scales and criterion-referenced language assessment. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, UK) 25 (2005), 2–227.05–462Jamieson, Joan (Northern Arizona U, USA; [email protected]), Trends in computer-based second language assessment. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, UK) 25 (2005), 228–242.05–463Major, Roy C. (Arizona State U, USA; [email protected]), Susan M. Fitzmaurice, Ferenc Bunta & Chandrika Balasubramanian, Testing the effects of regional, ethnic, and international dialects of English on listening comprehension. Language Learning (Malden, MA, USA) 55.1 (2005), 37–69.05–464McKay, Penny (Queensland U of Technology, Brisbane, Australia; [email protected]), Research into the assessment of school-age language learners. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, UK) 25 (2005), 243–263.05–465Munro, Miles & Virginia Mann (U of Califormia, Irvine, USA; [email protected]), Age of immersion as a predictor of foreign accent. Applied Psycholinguistics (Cambridge, UK) 26.3 (2005), 311–341.


2011 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. vi-vii
Author(s):  
Charlene Polio

With this volume of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL), I continue the tradition of my predecessors of producing a volume on the topic second language pedagogy about every five years. Although applied linguistics encompasses more than the teaching and learning of second languages, articles on these topics tend to be among the most downloaded from the ARAL web site. I decided, however, to break with the tradition of focusing mostly on specific skill areas. Because language teaching is a situated activity that cannot be separated from its contexts and learners, the first section is devoted to language learning in or for specific contexts (secondary school settings, online, the workplace, the Asia-Pacific region, and study abroad), and the second section focuses on specific learners (young learners, adult emergent readers, and hearing learners of sign language). These are followed by a section on integrated approaches and includes articles on language-literature instruction, content and language integrated learning, the application of corpus research to language teaching, and multimodal literacy. The final section includes articles on more specific skill areas including teaching non-Roman writing systems, collaborative writing, and pragmatics.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882091235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Bielak ◽  
Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak

The regulation of language learners’ emotions by affective, or emotion-regulation strategies has received limited research attention. This gap is being filled among others by researchers who have developed and are applying a new research tool called Managing Your Emotions for Language Learning (MYE). It is based on the vignette methodology to investigate both positive and negative language learner emotions, emotion-regulation strategies that language learners employ, and language teachers’ interpersonal learner-directed emotion-regulation strategies used in a range of familiar language learning situations. In this study teachers’ interpersonal emotion-regulation strategies and their learner- and teacher-perceived effectiveness were investigated by means of MYE ( n = 64: English-major learners) and semi-structured interviews with learners ( n = 16) and teachers ( n = 9). The results revealed a rich context- and participant-dependent list of language teachers’ interpersonal emotion-regulation strategies, the frequency of which was perceived differently by language learners and teachers, who, however, agreed on their good effectiveness. The strategies belonging to the categories of ‘cognitive change’, ‘situation modification’ and ‘competence enhancement’ were used the most often, but some gaps in teachers’ strategic repertoires were also identified. Pedagogy-wise, MYE seemed to be suitable for closing the gap between learners’ and teachers’ perspectives on teachers’ learner-directed emotion-regulation strategy use. Teachers and their pedagogical practice would benefit from training in the area of emotion-regulation strategies and support of educational authorities.


2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-210

04–413 Biber, Douglas and Cortes, Viviana (Northern Arizona U., USA). If you look at…: lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics (Oxford, UK), 25, 3 (2004), 371–405.04–414 Davies, C. E. (U. of Alabama, USA), Developing awareness of crosscultural pragmatics: The case of American/German sociable interactionMultilingua (Berlin, Germany), 23, 3 (2004), 207–231.04–415 Kaufman, Dorit.Constructivist issues in language learning and teaching. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, UK), 24 (2004), 303–319.04–416 Kern, Richard, Ware, Paige and Warschauer, Mark. Crossing frontiers: new directions in online pedagogy and research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, UK), 24 (2004), 243–260.04–417 Liszka, S. A. (U. of London, UK; Email: [email protected]). Exploring the effects of first language influence on second language pragmatic processes from a syntactic deficit perspective. Second Language Research (London,UK), 20, 3 (2004), 212–231.04–418 McArthur, T. Is it world or international or globalEnglish, and does it matter?English Today (Cambridge, UK), 20, 3 (2004), 3–15.04–419 Ying, H. G. (U. of Colorado at Denver, USA; Email: [email protected]). Relevance mapping: a study of second language learners' processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences in English. Second Language Research (London,UK), 20, 3 (2004), 232–255.04–420 Zegarac, V. (U. of Luton, UK; Email: [email protected]). Relevance Theory andthein second language acquisition. Second Language Research (London, UK), 20, 3 (2004), 193–211.


Author(s):  
Jacek Fisiak

The development of contrastive studies (CS) in recent years, judging by the proliferation of projects and published materials, has been accompanied since the late sixties by vigorous discussions and controversies concerning the theoretical status of CS, their form and their place in both general and applied linguistics.Many linguists and language teachers have gone so far as to reject the validity and usefulness of CS (cf. Alatis, 1968). It seems that this attitude results from a number of misunderstandings created by such factors as the peculiar methodological status of CS, the lack of a clear-cut distinction between theoretical and applied CS (Stockwell, 1968:25; Fisiak, 1971:88ff), and the lack of any precise formulation of the different aims of theoretical CS and applied CS, as well as the confusion of the relationship between CS, psycholinguistic theories of interference and errors, and the theory of second language learning (Zabrocki, 1976). Some confusion also stems from the misunderstanding of the relationship between CS and linguistic theory.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salla Kurhila ◽  
Lari Kotilainen ◽  
Inkeri Lehtimaja

Abstract The modern work life is interactionally challenging. For many, work consists of short-term projects executed in transient team combinations. An increasing number of work communities operate in multilingual environments, and many professionals conduct their work in a language which is not their first or strongest. The flux of interactional and linguistic settings in workplaces requires communication practises that acknowledge the difference in the participants’ language skills. In this paper, we explore such practises in a Finnish non-governmental organisation, using Conversation Analysis as our method. We focus on instances in which the professionals explicitly orient to their own or their co-participants’ role as language learners during workplace meetings. The paper aims to determine how this topicalisation is performed and what consequences it has for the construction of the (professional) identity of the second language speaker. The data consist of approximately 40 h of video-recorded meetings with Finnish, Russian and English as the main languages. The analysis reveals that instances where the language learner role is oriented to are usually related to practical questions of choosing the language for the meeting or a sufficiency of linguistic resources to conduct professional activities, yet they can also be used as means to construct one’s professional identity. These instances share certain features, such as prior topicalisation of language issues and the use of contextualisation cues that can help to soften the potentially problematic nature of referring to the (co-participant’s) limitations. The article contributes to our understanding of how to support participation and professional language learning in transient work settings.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aree Manosuthikit ◽  
Peter I. De Costa

AbstractSLA research on age in naturalistic contexts has examined learners’ ultimate attainment, while instructed research has emphasized the rate of learning (Birdsong 2014. Dominance and age in bilingualism. Applied Linguistics 35(4). 374–392; Muñoz 2008. Symmetries and asymmetries of age effects in naturalistic and instructed L2 learning. Applied Linguistics 29(4). 578–596). However, both streams of research, which view age as a biological construct, have overlooked this construct through an ideological lens. To address this gap, and in keeping with Blommaert’s (2005. Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) call to examine language ideologies and related ideologies in an era of superdiversity, our paper explores the ideology undergirding age-based research and examines it in conjunction with the practice-based approach to better understand the use of Burmese as a heritage language, a language characterized by a hierarchical and an age-determined honorific system. Drawing on data from a larger ethnographic study involving Burmese migrants in the US, analyses of the bilingual practice of address forms of generation 1.5 Burmese youth demonstrated that age was relationally constructed. While these youth strategically adopted ‘traditional’ linguistic practices ratified by Burmese adults when interacting with their parents, such practices were invoked and subverted in interactions involving their siblings and other Burmese adults less familiar to them. In focusing on the social and linguistic struggles encountered by these transnational multilingual youth, this paper also addresses the complexities surrounding heritage language learning.


2021 ◽  
pp. 231-247
Author(s):  
Hülya Şen ◽  
Mümin Şen

Advising in language learning (ALL) can be defined as “the process of helping someone become an effective, aware, and reflective language learner” (Kato & Mynard, 2016, p. 1). In order to promote learner autonomy, a learning advisor conducts an intentionally structured reflective dialogue, the purpose of which is to engage the learner in reflective processes so that the learner can reach a deeper sense of understanding and control of language learning (Carson & Mynard, 2012; Kato & Mynard, 2016). The main role of the learning advisor in this process is to “activate learners’ reflective processes through a one-to-one dialogue” (Kato & Mynard, 2016, p. 104). To encourage active and critical reflection, learning advisors need to be provided with proper training. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of the experienced English language teachers regarding the effectiveness of the learning advisory training program (LATP) they have attended and its effects on the teachers’ professional and personal lives. To achieve this aim, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaires and interview findings. The results suggest that the teachers who attended the LATP developed a deeper awareness of how to promote learner autonomy.


Relay Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 212-217
Author(s):  
Sin Wang Chong ◽  
Jo Mynard ◽  
Hayo Reinders

The notion of language learner autonomy, which is defined as ‘a capacity to control important aspects of one’s language learning’ (Benson, 2013, p. 839), is now widely considered a key educational goal in language teaching programmes around the world (Reinders & Benson, 2017). Despite the increasing number of studies on language learner autonomy, autonomy researchers are still grappling with its complexity and multidimensional manifestation as a theoretical construct and major challenges remaining in determining its most appropriate implementation in the classroom. In particular, there is significant difficulty in designing appropriate and effective research instruments and materials for assessing learner autonomy, which is ‘not a single, easily describable behaviour’ (Little, 1990, p. 7), either by researchers or by teachers. In addition, there is an emergence of new practices of autonomous language learning, particularly in view of the rapid development of educational technologies, which warrants a renewed conceptualization of language learner autonomy (Benson & Reinders, 2011). The understanding of learner autonomy is of paramount importance to language teachers because learners gain greater potential opportunity to access language-rich environments through the Internet and mobile language learning environments. By becoming knowledgeable in the notion of learner autonomy and characteristics of autonomous learners, pre-service and in-service language teachers are in a better position to provide self-access resources to develop learners’ self-regulated learning and encourage students to initiate their own ‘language learning program’ beyond the classroom, which is a key 21st century learning skill.


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