scholarly journals “It’s impossible that there’s no connection”

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-134
Author(s):  
Miri Tashma Baum

Despite the growing interest in language learning histories, autobiographical reasoning, a central concept in narrative psychology, has rarely appeared in second language acquisition research, despite the fact that autobiographical reasoning has been found to be central to identity formation, correlating with resilience, motivation, and well-being. This article conducts a narrative analysis of the language learning histories of two English as a foreign language (EFL) student teachers, focusing on three qualities of their autobiographical reasoning: integration, valence, and vividness. It shows how differences in their autobiographical reasoning correlate with differences in their motivation and confidence. It also argues that production of language learning histories can contribute to the development of more confident and motivated learners and teachers.

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.


1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 718-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bley-Vroman

AbstractWhile child language development theory must explain invariant “success,” foreign language learning theory must explain variation and lack of success. The fundamental difference hypothesis (FDH) outlines such a theory. Epstein et al. ignore the explanatory burden, mischaracterize the FDH, and underestimate the resources of human cognition. The field of second language acquisition is not divided into camps by views on “access” to UG.


2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-433

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2014 Christopher Brumfit thesis award is Dr Hilde van Zeeland. The thesis was selected by an external panel of judges based on its significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, originality and creativity and quality of presentation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Fitri Budi Suryani ◽  
Rismiyanto Rismiyanto

Microteaching lesson study, that is a variation of lesson study applied by student teachers in microteaching course, provides the environment for EFL student teachers to collaborate, engage, and reflect on their ideas, beliefs, and teaching experiences. Such condition is a fertile ground that enables the student teachers' beliefs of language learning to change. Recent studies show that some education programs have changed the beliefs of student teachers. However, no studies have discussed the changes of beliefs of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers experienced in microteaching lesson study. This present study aims to investigate the effect of microteaching lesson study on EFL student teachers� beliefs. The data were collected using a questionnaire on Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) adapted from Horwitz administered before and after microteaching lesson study. The participants were the EFL student teachers enrolling in a microteaching lesson study class at Universitas Muria Kudus. The study reveals that the beliefs of EFL student teachers did not change significantly after they experienced microteaching lesson study. Time seems to be one of the most influential factors in hindering the changes of beliefs of the EFL student teachers. Therefore, this study suggests that EFL student teachers be given more time to practise teaching in the microteaching course.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Françoise Raby

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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-159
Author(s):  
Jan H. Hulstijn

This paper predicts that the study of second language acquisition, as a young discipline of scientific inquiry in its own right, faces a bright future, but only if its scholarly community critically re-examines some notions and assumptions that have too long been taken for granted. First, it is time to reconsider familiar dichotomies, such as second versus foreign language and natural versus instructed language learning. Furthermore, it is worth checking whether and to what extent the puzzling phenomena to be explained by language acquisition theories do really exist (such as uniformity and success and fast acquisition rates in first language acquisition and universal developmental sequences in second language acquisition). The paper furthermore pleas for a multidisciplinary approach to the explanation of the fundamental puzzles of first and second language acquisition and bilingualism, including bridging the divide between psycholinguistic and socio-cultural theories.


2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (01) ◽  
pp. 38-44
Author(s):  
Dilrabo Babakulova ◽  
◽  
◽  

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is one of the debatable topics regarding to speed and effectiveness in adults or children foreign language learning. There have been several researches to solve the issue; however, the results are different and contradicting. In this research two volunteers participated in three staged survey which showed children’s priority in acquiring foreign language in a short period of time.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-60
Author(s):  
Carolin Fuchs

This case study explores cultural and contextual affordances in language massive open online courses (LMOOCs), especially the extent to which an LMOOC effectively promotes optimal language learning. Participants included 15 language student teachers of English as a second or foreign language in a spring technology elective course at a private university on the East Coast. Student teachers enrolled in language MOOCs and tracked and evaluated their learning process and progress through weekly logs and surveys. Data was collected from weekly reflection logs and pre- and post-surveys. Results indicate that the cultural affordances were more salient in the advanced Spanish MOOC and the Hindi MOOC, while in the beginning-level LMOOCs, contextual factors were lacking overall.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone E. Pfenninger ◽  
David Singleton

AbstractWhile there is a growing body of research on second language acquisition (SLA) in children, adolescents, young and more mature adults, much remains to be explored about how adults in later life learn a new language and how good additional language learning is for them. Our goal in this article is to survey and evaluate what is known about the linguistic, socio-affective, neurobiological and cognitive underpinnings of the second language (L2) learning process in older individuals, the extent to which L2 acquisition may be seen as contributing to healthy and active ageing, and how these phenomena are to be approached scientifically, methodologically and pedagogically. Our view is that a developmental enterprise as complex as L2 learning in senior adulthood and its effects in later life cannot be explained by a single theory or set of principles. Furthermore, we take it that L2 acquisition in the third age needs to be regarded not just as a goal in itself but as a means of promoting social interaction and integration, and that it is partly through the stimulation of social well-being that its cognitive effects may potentially be observed.


Author(s):  
Alberto Hijazo-Gascón ◽  
Reyes Llopis-García

Abstract This introduction provides an overview of the intersection between Applied Cognitive Linguistics and Second/Foreign Language Learning. First, the relevance of Cognitive Linguistics (CL) for Applied Linguistics in general is discussed. The second section explains the main principles of CL and how each relates to the acquisition of second languages: (i) language and human cognition, (ii) language as symbolic, (iii) language as motivated; and (iv) language as usage-based. Section three offers a review of previous literature on CL and L2s that are different from English, as it is one the main aims of this Special Issue to provide state-of-the-art research and scholarship to enhance the bigger picture of the field of Second Language Acquisition beyond English as the target language. Spanish as L2/FL in Applied Cognitive Linguistics is the focus of the next section, which leads to a brief overview of the papers included in the Issue, featuring Spanish as the L2 with L1s such as English, French, German and Italian. Polysemy, Motion Events Typology, Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar are the Cognitive Linguistics areas addressed in the contributions here presented.


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