scholarly journals Exploring Third-Age Foreign Language Learning from the Well-being Perspective: Work in Progress

2019 ◽  
pp. 111-116
Author(s):  
Dorota Matsumoto

The third age in the life of many people in developed countries is considered to be a culmination; time for personal achievement and fulfilment after retirement. While much discussion is focused on the challenges of an ageing society, there are also opportunities. Popularity of language courses among third-agers, who do not seek further career advancement nor wish to live abroad, indicates that there are other aspects of learning a foreign language than attaining linguistic proficiency. This qualitative study will investigate third-agers’ perceptions, behaviours and emotions experienced when learning a foreign language, and how such experience contributes to their well-being. Through the lens of positive psychology, especially by exploring the concept of savouring, this study will aim to gain insights into how third-agers conceptualize their learning experience, what their savouring capacities are, and what impact these have on their overall well-being. First, an in-depth interview was conducted with a senior lifelong language learner. In the study that will follow, more data will be collected in a snowball fashion through personal connections.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 310
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Kacetl ◽  
Blanka Klímová

Foreign language learning in the third age is one of the popular activities among the elderly. The question remains as to how to teach a foreign language to older adults properly. The first objective of this review was to identify suitable pedagogical approaches, teaching methods, or strategies for teaching foreign languages to third-age learners. The second objective was to determine whether foreign language learning later in life is beneficial. The authors used a method of literature review to achieve these goals. The former objective was not fully achieved as there is no clear outcome, although some generalizations based on other review studies can be made. Namely, foreign language teaching among the older generation should be student-centred and a communicative method should be implemented with a special focus on talking about familiar topics and listening comprehension to facilitate a senior’s foreign language learning. In addition, the teaching methods ought to incorporate real life experiences and provide relevant content. Respect should also be paid to the fact that older adults have intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation to learn a foreign language. The latter objective was attained since older people can benefit from learning a foreign language at a later age in many ways, including areas like travelling, social inclusiveness, improvement of cognitive skills, and overall well-being.


Author(s):  
Olena Ivashko

The article tackles the problem of teaching foreign languages to seniors. The general trends in FL education for the third-age learners are outlined. The institutions in which seniors can study foreign languages in Poland are enumerated. The psychological, physiological, methodological and social peculiarities of teaching a foreign language to the third agers are analyzed. Special emphasis is laid upon educational needs of the Third Age learners. Some language learning strategies which help seniors’ foreign language learning are suggested.


Relay Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 459-463
Author(s):  
Sam Morris ◽  
Sarah Mercer

In our June 2019 LAB session on Teacher/Advisor Education for Learner Autonomy, our featured interview was conducted with Sarah Mercer, Professor of Foreign Language Teaching and Head of ELT at the University of Graz, Austria. Sarah has published a wealth of papers in the field of language and teacher psychology, and co-edited many books including, most recently, New Directions in Language Learning Psychology (2016), Positive Psychology in SLA (2016), and Language Teacher Psychology (2018). Sarah was awarded the 2018 Robert C. Gardner Award for Outstanding Research in Bilingualism in recognition of her work. We were delighted that she was able to share her knowledge on the topic of language learner and teacher well-being with us during the session.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 23-31
Author(s):  
Leila Najeh Bel’Kiry

The assessment of language proficiency from a psycholinguistics perspective has been a subject of considerable interest. Many literatures are devoted for the explanation of certain psychological phenomena related to first language acquisition and foreign language learning like language disorders/impairments, critical/sensitive period and language anxiety. This paper sheds the light on foreign language anxiety, which is in my conviction the hardest problem that concerns the foreign language learner as well as the teacher. The origin of this conviction is that foreign language anxiety hampers learner performance on one hand, and on the other hand effects, negatively, the classroom language assessment which in turn sharpens learner’s anxiety more and more. There is a significant negative correlation between foreign language anxiety and classroom language assessment. Three issues are to be tackled in this paper: (i) The implication of ‘anxiety’ as a psychological issue in foreign language learning, (ii) classroom language assessment in Tunisian schools and (iii) the relation between foreign language anxiety and classroom language assessment.


Jurnal KATA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Alpino Susanto

<p>The learning of Vocabulary is important part in foreign language learning. The meanings of new words are very frequently emphasized, whether in books or in verbal communication. Vocabulary is considered as the central in language teaching and is of paramount importance to a language learner. Vocabulary is a basic of one learns a foreign language. Few  research indicate that teaching vocabulary can be considered as problematic, as some teachers are not really sure about the best practice in the teaching and sometimes not really aware how to start forming an instructional emphasis on the vocabulary learning (Berne&amp; Blachowicz, 2008). Through this article, the writer summarizes the related research that focus on the importance of vocabulary and explaining many techniques used by some English teachers and lecturer when teaching English, as well as writer’s personal view of the issues.</p>


Neofilolog ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 103-117
Author(s):  
Ariadna Strugielska

The role of affective factors in the process of foreign language learning and teaching is undeniable. Still, despite growing interest in the role of attitudinal variables in foreign language training, the problem has not been much researched from the perspective of multidimensional cognition. Thus, the focus of the article is the architecture of foreign language learners’ cognition situated within a multimodal framework and shaped by particular socio-linguistic experience. It is postulated that the conceptual system of a foreign language learner is unique in being highly susceptible to processing in terms of affective parameters. This hypothesis is corroborated by the results of a pilot study which show that concrete words in the conceptual systems of foreign language learners are associated with affect more than in the case of native speakers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-128
Author(s):  
Morana Drakulić

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has long been recognized as a factor that hinders the process of foreign language learning at all levels. Among numerous FLA sources identified in the literature, language classroom seems to be of particular interest and significance, especially in the formal language learning context, where the course and the teacher are often the only representatives of language. The main purpose of the study is to determine the presence and potential sources of foreign language anxiety among first year university students and to explore how high anxiety levels shape and affect students’ foreign language learning experience. In the study both the questionnaire and the interviews were used as the data collection methods. Thematic analysis of the interviews and descriptive statistics suggest that most anxiety-provoking situations stem from the language classroom itself.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena Pylypenko ◽  
Liubov Kozub

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Ukraine, like other countries, to move to distance education. The study aims to analyze the distance learning experience of Ukrainian philology students, to find out the pros and cons of distance education, those things that motivate students, and the challenges they face while studying online. The survey consisted of a questionnaire and embraced 105 respondents. The survey goal was to collect data that would allow concluding about the effectiveness of distance education for Ukrainian philology students at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, particularly for the study of foreign languages. The significant results of the survey include: obtaining reliable data on the effectiveness of distance learning of Ukrainian philology students through their feedback in questionnaires, online testing, a variety of writing assignments, and assessment in the online classroom, finding out the most effective distance learning tools, the main features of teacher – students interactions in a distance-learning environment. The research proves that Ukrainian philology students overall positively evaluate their distance learning experience. It does not negatively impact students’ foreign language learning motivation. Despite a positive attitude to distance learning, Ukrainian philology students face particular challenges connected with access to devices, lack of information and communications technology skills, Internet connection, and lack of communication with their peers. The finding reveals, whatever are the benefits of distance education, it cannot entirely replace face-to-face learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 382-393
Author(s):  
Saltanat Meiramova ◽  
Akniet Zhanysbayeva

It is known that the language classroom is the place where teachers and learners come together for interaction and students can learn English in natural settings. Group work is a teaching strategy at all levels of education and researchers have observed that group based assignments and discussions are a common feature of tertiary education. The effective use of group work in the language class can provide a valuable learning experience to students and give them the opportunity to practically experience the language exposure of the ideas presented and strengthen their learning. In this regard, this paper attempts to identify the efficiency of individual and group work teaching strategy of the students to excel at foreign language learning. Then, the paper aims to define the effect of individual and group work of students’ value participation in academic communication. Finally, the paper tries to determine the most effective methods for working in a group and individually with the help of the data obtained with the help of a purpose-designed questionnaire to assess their preference for different teaching methods.


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