The present contribution offers an overview of a new area of research in the field of foreign language acquisition, which was triggered by the introduction of Positive Psychology (PP) (
MacIntyre and ...Gregersen, 2012
). For many years, a cognitive perspective had dominated research in applied linguistics. Around the turn of the millennium researchers became increasingly interested in the role of emotions in foreign language learning and teaching, beyond established concepts like foreign language anxiety and constructs like motivation and attitudes toward the foreign language. As a result, a more nuanced understanding of the role of positive and negative learner and teacher emotions emerged, underpinned by solid empirical research using a wide range of epistemological and methodological approaches. PP interventions have been carried out in schools and universities to strengthen learners and teachers’ experiences of flow, hope, courage, well-being, optimism, creativity, happiness, grit, resilience, strengths, and laughter with the aim of enhancing learners’ linguistic progress. This paper distinguishes the early period in the field that started with
MacIntyre and Gregersen (2012)
, like a snowdrop after winter, and that was followed by a number of early studies in relatively peripheral journals. We argue that 2016 is the starting point of the current period, characterized by gradual recognition in applied linguistics, growing popularity of PP, and an exponential increase in publications in more mainstream journals. This second period could be compared to a luxuriant English garden in full bloom.
With the progress of globalization, global competence (GC) is becoming crucially important for the younger generation. Many researchers have suggested that foreign language learning might be ...conducive to GC. To confirm the universality of previous findings, we conducted two studies using a sample of 177440 (Study 1) and 122942 (Study 2) participants from 27 countries to explore the relationship between foreign language learning and GC in different cultures. In our Hierarchical Linear Models, foreign language acquisition and foreign language use both positively predicted GC at the individual level, but these effects cannot be enhanced by cultural individualism. However, people in individualistic cultures tend to have a higher mean GC score than those in collectivist cultures. Foreign language learning has the potential to cultivate GC. We propose that cultural knowledge should be integrated into foreign language curriculum to foster both linguistic and cultural competence.
•We explored the relationship between foreign language proficiency and GC in different cultures.•We examined the role of cultural individualism between foreign language proficiency and GC.•Frequency of foreign language use and foreign language learning positively predicted GC at the individual level.•People in individualistic cultures tend to have a higher mean GC score compared to people in collectivist cultures, but the relationship between foreign language proficiency and GC not be enhanced by cultural individualism.•Our results highlight the crucial role of foreign language proficiency in an individual’s GC.
In the last ten years, positive emotion in foreign language learning has been increasingly investigated in many research areas, including Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE). FLE has been defined as a ...positive emotion felt when an individual's psychological needs are met. This study investigates the relationship between perceived levels of Subjective Well-Being (SWB) and Stress (PS), as well as the degree of multilingualism (DM) and their effect on FLE when learning an additional language.
The data were collected from 68 students (35 trilingual and 33 bilingual) who were learning an additional language (Italian or French). Statistical analyses showed that SWB and PS were unrelated. The strongest predictors of the FLE was SWB, with PS having a small but significant effect. Trilingual subjects were found to have significantly more FLE, whereas there was no statistically significant difference for SWB and PS. The findings are discussed in light of previous research on FLE, which confirms that SWB and DM, as well as a low level of stress, play an important role in enjoying learning a new language. The implication of this study is discussed both for language teaching and language policy formulation.
Research and experience have long indicated that the acquisition of the mother tongue is different from the acquisition of a non-native language. Also, the efforts and the cognitive impact of ...language learning are different in childhood compared to adulthood, whereas young people and adults differ in the way they learn and should be taught a foreign language. Learning a new language at the level of a native speaker is a dream all students share, but it may well be impossible and also irrelevant in the context of the ever-changing landscape of a living language. Furthermore, it is common knowledge that the acquisition of a foreign language due to natural exposure or immersion offers better results than its acquisition in a formal learning environment. To complicate matters even further, studies show that acquiring a second language is usually much more difficult than acquiring a third language, for example. Despite all these though, the job of a language teacher, especially of adult students, needs to serve its purpose as well as possible. This article will look into some of the modern trends of teaching not just a foreign language (English), but a specialized one (Business English) to undergraduates in the context of a Romanian university. How can a teacher better accomplish this task? How useful can Business English prove to be to students taking it as a compulsory subject, not by choice? Are there methods to improve its acquisition, especially in the context of the current pandemic? The article will take a closer look at all these, with practical examples of good practices.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different instructional sequences when learning Chinese as a foreign language. Six English-speaking individuals (two male adults, three ...female adults, and one male student) participated in this study. Combined listener instruction consisted of auditory-visual matching for textual stimuli (i.e., "Point to name of Chinese character) and visual-visual matching for textual and picture stimuli (i.e., "Match name of Chinese character). Combined speaker instruction consisted of textual and tacting responding in Chinese. The researcher taught six stimulus sets (a total of 30 Chinese vocabularies), with each set randomly assigned to either the Listener-Speaker or Speaker-Listener instructional sequence. Results indicated that four participants required fewer trials to criterion with Speaker-Listener instruction; the other two participants' learning trials between the two instructional methods were comparable. Five participants demonstrated greater emergent listener responses for stimulus sets taught with combined speaker instruction than emergent speaker responses for stimulus sets taught with combined listener instruction. One participant's emergent speaker and listener responses were at a high level and not differentiated between the two instructional methods.
Thanks to the significant achievements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Translation (MT), in general, and Google Translate (GT), in particular, have been extensively used in all facets of ...life, including language learning. However, faced with a plethora of research evidence on GT’s educational contributions, erroneous translations create disparity regarding its use in language learning. To address this lacuna, the present study systematically reviewed 10 databases, namely, Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, ScienceDirect, Taylor & Francis Online, Wiley Online Library, SAGE Journals, Springer Link, Springer Open, and DOAJ. Additionally, it hand searched the reference lists of 44 studies selected to be included in the synthesis from database search along with references cited in three previous systematic reviews on similar topics to capture a comprehensive view of the literature related to the use of GT in language learning between 2010-2021. It reviewed 50 studies witnessing a rise in the number of studies in this area. Studies reported that although significant improvements in the quality of GT led to pedagogical gains and more tendency to implement it in language learning, instructors still distrust it. Accordingly, this research provides pedagogical implications and suggests avenues for future research on the use of GT in language learning.
Despite the increasing research on the benefits of using corpora in language teaching and learning, Data-Driven Learning (henceforth, DDL) research has been criticized for its lack of contribution to ...second language theories. This paper intends to address this gap by examining the assumptions of Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) using two DDL tasks with different cognitive loads. Learners were assigned to one of two conditions: reading only or translation. Based on ILH, translation is more effective than reading in learning vocabulary, as it induces more cognitive involvement (Laufer & Hulstjin, 2001). The two groups received a pretest to ensure their unfamiliarity with six target words. Each group underwent one instructional session under one of the two conditions. After the session, students took three immediate post tests on the six target items: active recall of form, passive recall of meaning, and production. Contrary to the expectations of ILH, the results of the immediate post tests showed no statistically significant difference in the mean of vocabulary knowledge between the two groups. In addition, in the delayed test, the reading-only group showed statistically higher scores in the active recall of form than their translation peers. The findings highlight some important theoretical and pedagogical implications for using DDL tasks, particularly for EFL vocabulary learning.
The article deals with an issue which continues to draw increasingly more attention in LSP teaching, i.e., collocations, with a particular focus on legal collocations and legal English. The aim of ...the text is to offer an overview of the treatment given to specialised legal collocations in legal English textbooks used in tertiary level institutions in Poland. The methodology employed for selecting the textbooks is presented in detail in the Aims and Methodology section. The selected textbooks were then reviewed in terms of their collocation focus and the extent to which they follow pedagogical recommendations regarding teaching phraseology. Bearing in mind the importance of familiarizing students with natural and accurate language in order to help them master the legal genre, it appears that there is still a need to place more focus on phraseology and extend the formats and number of exercises centred on collocations.
Safety, which is currently recognized as the leading condition for the organization of the educational space, remains little studied in relation to language training. Meanwhile, its representation in ...the minds of subjects of learning a foreign language allows us to predict the vectors of efforts to improve their activities. The aim of the study was to identify personal meanings of safety in the minds of professional francophones. The respondents were teachers and graduate students of the French language. The methods used in the study included: directed statements, content analysis and scaled survey. The study revealed the following semantic groups of the category safety in the educational space of learning the French language: (1) the environmental parameter of the educational process; (2) the characteristics of the interaction of the subjects of the educational process (teacher and students); (3) the internal state of the subjects as a predictor of learning a foreign language; and (4) the expectation of French language proficiency. The situations of its binding by professional francophones to the educational space of learning the French language are established, namely: the organization of the educational space; the construction of methodological approaches to teaching the language; the implementation of educational interaction; and the French language acquisition. Based on the results of the study, the significance of the category of safety for professional francophones was confirmed in three aspects of the organization of the educational space for learning the French language, i.e., general methodological, general linguistic and private linguistic ones. In the process of teaching the French language, it seems appropriate to take into account the safety needs relevant to the modern educational space, to highlight in it the features that are significant in general for the practice of language training as a direction of pedagogical activity, as well as the nuances that are characteristic exclusively for teaching a particular language.
This paper attempts to explore the motivational effects that stem from the use of authentic materials in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning contexts. Additionally, it provides some ...suggestions with respect to how educators can frame materials to increase students’ understanding and subsequently keep up and improve their motivation. Authentic materials have nowadays become an important part of second language classes mainly because they provide semantic input to students and enable them to interact with a wide variety of information that allows them not only to find inspiration but also to become motivated learners. Foreign language teachers use a wide variety of authentic materials, from menus, leaflets and magazine articles to audio materials, such as recorded radio programs, TV shows and movies. There are many reasons why these materials are used, but EFL teachers mostly view them as a means to provide students with real-world language input that is able to motivate them.
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