scholarly journals Creating Motivational Language Learning Experiences during the “Critical Period”

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Junqing Jia
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Language Learning Motivation ◽  
Domain Expertise ◽  
High Level

Few studies have touched upon language learning motivation of advanced-level learners of Chinese, even fewer have proposed a pedagogical framework to understand and create motivational pathways. This paper aims to fill the gap by addressing a critical period of foreign language training where students are transforming from learning the foreign language to learning domain knowledge in the foreign language. Having drawn upon Confucian concepts and contextualized curricular examples, this paper proposes a framework suggesting that learners at this stage experience a less discussed psychological complexity due to their high level of language proficiency and lack of multilingual domain capacities. They are also gradually transforming into autonomous language users who expand their social milieu through demonstrating domain expertise. As such, the pedagogical implications place an emphasis on helping advanced-level Chinese learners to establish domain-specific vision and linguistic capability so that they can perform in multicultural contexts. In particular, motivational pathways during this stage should be constructed to encourage learners to constantly reflect on their recent past self and establish visions of the future one.

scholarly journals Directions for Using Historical and Pedagogical Experience to Improve Language Learning in a Post-Pandemic Society

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 316-327
Author(s):  
Nataliya Mukan ◽  
Marianna Havryliuk ◽  
Mariana Levko ◽  
Nadiia Kobryn ◽  
Mariia Zapotichna
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Lecture Material ◽  
New Information ◽  
International Environment ◽  
High Level

In the present times of globalization, the issues of a high level of proficiency in foreign languages are especially relevant in the context of the significant need for specialists capable of working in an international environment. Foreign language proficiency is a significant condition for establishing and maintaining international business contacts, intensifying professional interaction with foreign colleagues. According to the Bologna Convention, knowledge of foreign languages is an important component of today's mobility of students, teachers and scientists in the context of access to education, innovative research and teaching opportunities in the postmodern European space. All these factors justify the economic value of a knowledge of foreign languages and become one of the key components of the professional competence of future specialists in the postmodern space. Competitiveness of specialists is directly dependent on on the ability to process professional foreign literature, as well as on the usefulness of the ability to listen to lecture material and reports in a foreign language during conferences, round tables and seminars; from the ability to take part in an idiosyncratic conversation on professional and business topics; as well as the ability to search for new information on the Internet or in theoretical scientific sources of the world level; from the ability to prepare and conduct a presentation on a selected topic in postmodern society.

scholarly journals Online Foreign Language Learning in Higher Education and Its Correlates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 781
Author(s):  
Maria-Anca Maican ◽  
Elena Cocoradă
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Protective Role ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Student Relationship

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the online learning of foreign languages at higher education level has represented a way to adapt to the restrictions imposed worldwide. The aim of the present article is to analyse university students’ behaviours, emotions and perceptions associated to online foreign language learning during the pandemic and their correlates by using a mixed approach. The research used the Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) scale and tools developed by the authors, focusing on task value, self-perceived foreign language proficiency, stressors and responses in online foreign language learning during the pandemic. Some of the results, such as the negative association between anxiety and FLE, are consistent with those revealed in studies conducted in normal times. Other results are novel, such as the protective role of retrospective enjoyment in trying times or the higher level of enjoyment with lower-achieving students. Reference is made to students’ preferences for certain online resources during the pandemic (e.g., preference for PowerPoint presentations) and to their opinions regarding the use of entirely or partially online foreign language teaching in the post-COVID period. The quantitative results are fostered by the respondents’ voices in the qualitative research. The consequences of these results are discussed with respect to the teacher-student relationship in the online environment and to the implications for sustainable online foreign language learning.

scholarly journals Listening Skill Requires a Further Look into Second/Foreign Language Learning

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Bozorgian
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Listening Skill ◽  
Reading History

Current English-as-a-second and foreign-language (ESL/EFL) research has encouraged to treat each communicative macroskill separately due to space constraint, but the interrelationship among these skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is not paid due attention. This study attempts to examine first the existing relationship among the four dominant skills, second the potential impact of reading background on the overall language proficiency, and finally the relationship between listening and overall language proficiency as listening is considered an overlooked/passive skill in the pedagogy of the second/foreign language classroom. However, the literature in language learning has revealed that listening skill has salient importance in both first and second language learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of each of four skills in EFL learning and their existing interrelationships in an EFL setting. The outcome of 701 Iranian applicants undertaking International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in Tehran demonstrates that all communicative macroskills have varied correlations from moderate (reading and writing) to high (listening and reading). The findings also show that the applicants’ reading history assisted them in better performing at high stakes tests, and what is more, listening skill was strongly correlated with the overall language proficiency.

scholarly journals A Cross-Departmental Approach to Supporting Students with a Disability Affecting Foreign Language Acquisition

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Lys ◽  
Alison May ◽  
Jeanne Ravid
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Foreign Language Study ◽  
Foreign Language Requirement ◽  
Language Requirement ◽  
Important Objective

Abstract In order to enhance mobility, competitiveness, and opportunities for work, the European Union lists the ability to communicate in a foreign language and to understand another culture as an important objective in their language education policy. Knowledge of a foreign language is also an important objective for many American universities, which require students to study a foreign language as a prerequisite to graduate. Students with documented disabilities affecting the learning of a foreign language or students with poor foreign language learning skills, therefore, pose a significant challenge, since a foreign language requirement may prevent such students from graduating unless universities are willing to make special arrangements such as having students graduate without fulfilling the requirement or letting them take substitution classes. The question of what to do with such students is at the heart of this article. It describes how one mid-sized private university with a two-year language proficiency requirement has approached the problem to ensure that policies are implemented fairly. Rather than pulling students out of the foreign language classroom, the university succeeded in keeping students engaged with foreign language study through advising and mentoring across departments

scholarly journals PREPARATION TECHNIQUE FOR WRITING ESSAYS AT INTERNATIONAL EXAMS IN ENGLISH

2020 ◽  
Vol 224 ◽  
pp. 72-79
Author(s):  
E.V. Bessonova ◽  
◽  
I.K. Kirillova ◽  
YU.A. Tarabarina ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Task Orientation ◽  
Preparation Technique ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
High Level ◽  
International English

Today experts with a high level of proficiency in a foreign language are considered in demand in the labour market. The level of foreign language proficiency is confirmed by a high test result of international exams in a foreign language. The essay is a mandatory part of international English language exams such as TOEFL, IELTS, and Cambridge Advanced English. We examined the requirements and assessment criteria for the essay writing exam task. The task assesses the level of speech skills formation necessary to create your own pieces of writing in a foreign language. As part of the research, we developed a technology for teaching writing based on a product-oriented approach. According to the technology we have identified the following stages of text production: task orientation, text planning, text writing, and text self-editing. We have also proposed a set of exercises aimed at developing following skills: task understanding, formulating the author’s point of view and its proving with relevant examples, planning a cohesive and coherent text, text division into paragraphs, highlighting of the paragraph’s main idea, development of the idea in the text, expressing ideas in the text logically in accordance with the rhetorical structure of English essay, usage of lexical cohesive means, text self-editing. This technology was tested during experimental training; its results prove the effectiveness of the proposed technology for teaching essay writing according to international English language exams requirements.

scholarly journals Forging new pathways for research on language learning motivation

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Françoise Raby
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning Motivation ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Cognitive Ergonomics ◽  
Language Learning Motivation ◽  
Methodological Difficulties

Abstract Research on motivation in the field of applied linguistics seeks to better understand how and why learners become involved in learning activities and maintain their efforts in this regard. Dörnyei provided a seminal model drawing essentially from cognitive and social psychology (Dörnyei, 2001). In the wake of his reflection, and after investigating motivation in a range of academic contexts, we are now able to present our own model, which is dynamic, weighted, and polytomic (Raby, 2007). After presenting cognitive ergonomics as a new pathway for research in second language acquisition, we shall present the results of our investigations in foreign language learning motivation in technologically enhanced contexts, outlining major methodological difficulties pertaining to this sort of this grounded research.

scholarly journals Year of Intensive Language Learning, A Special Program to Rocket Hungarian Students’ Foreign Language Proficiency: A Success Story?

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-174
Author(s):  
Enikő Öveges
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Secondary School Education ◽  
School Year ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Contact Hours

Summary Hungary has witnessed several major attempts to improve the foreign language proficiency of students in primary and secondary school education since the political changes of the 1990s, as both international and national surveys reflect a dramatically low ratio of Hungarian population that self-reports to communicate in any foreign language at any level. Among other initiatives, a major one to boost students’ foreign language competence has been the Year of Intensive Language Learning (YILL), introduced in 2004, which allows secondary schools to integrate an extra school year when the majority of the contact hours are devoted to foreign languages. The major objectives of YILL are as follows: 1) to offer a state-financed and school-based alternative to the widely spread profit-oriented private language tuition; thus 2) granting access to intensive language learning and 3) enhancing equal opportunities; and as a result of the supporting measures, 4) to improve school language education in general. YILL is exemplary in its being monitored from the launch of the first classes to the end of their five-year studies, involving three large-scale, mixed-method surveys and numerous smaller studies. Despite all the measures to assist the planning and the implementation, however, the program does not appear to be an obvious success. The paper introduces the background, reviews and synthesizes the related studies and surveys in order to evaluate the program, and argues that with more considerate planning, the YILL ‘hungaricum’ would yield significantly more benefits.

An investigation into the relationship of foreign language learning motivation and sign language use among Deaf and hard of hearing Hungarians

2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edit H. Kontra ◽  
Kata Csizér
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Learning Motivation ◽  
Language Learning Motivation ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The aim of this study is to point out the relationship between foreign language learning motivation and sign language use among hearing impaired Hungarians. In the article we concentrate on two main issues: first, to what extent hearing impaired people are motivated to learn foreign languages in a European context; second, to what extent sign language use in the classroom as well as outside school shapes their level of motivation. The participants in our research were 331 Deaf and hard of hearing people from all over Hungary. The instrument of data collection was a standardized questionnaire. Our results support the notion that sign language use helps foreign language learning. Based on the findings, we can conclude that there is indeed no justification for further neglecting the needs of Deaf and hard of hearing people as foreign language learners and that their claim for equal opportunities in language learning is substantiated.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document