NHỮNG yếu tố TÌNH cảm ẢNH HƯỞNG tới sự THAM GIA của SINH VIÊN vào HOẠT ĐỘNG nói ở TRÊN lớp một NGHIÊN cứu điển HÌNH về SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH năm THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG đại học tây bắc

In general, it can be affected by a variety of factors coming fromteachers’ side like teacher’s teaching methods, teachers’ characteristics, teachers’knowledge; students’ side such as mo

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales

The Department of English - Tay Bac University operates within the curriculumframework of the Ministry of Education and Training However, the fact shows that therehas not been a specific curriculum for English Departments, which makes it difficult forthe teachers to design their own syllabus based on general objectives of the Ministry ofEducation and Training After the course the students have to be able to communicatesuccessfully in social situations such as talking about life or career They have to take part

in discussion, negotiation or explanation of social issues, agree or disagree with others’opinions, They have to gain confidence in communicating successfully, usingcommunicative strategies to express their ideas, and feelings appropriately and fluently.However, there is a fact that the students do not gain these objectives

In order to achieve these objectives, the teachers have to invest a lot of time,energy, passion, intelligence and creativity into designing suitable lessons as well asfinding out how to teach speaking skill to help the students achieve the above objectives.Therefore, the teacher should begin analyzing students’ needs, and interests in learningEnglish during the process of designing lesson activities

After several years of teaching speaking skills, we have found that the first yearstudents are still quite passive in speaking English They do not actively participate inspeaking activities Students’ participation in classroom activities has been the centre ofvarious TEFL research In general, it can be affected by a variety of factors coming fromteachers’ side like teacher’s teaching methods, teachers’ characteristics, teachers’knowledge; students’ side such as motivation, attitudes, personality, learning styles, age,gender differences; and others including classroom environment, types and contents ofactivities, etc All the factors, even they are subjective or objective, are composed of social,cognitive and affective features These features are equally important for learners to learn

an L2

It can be seen from the fact of our teaching and learning that students’ learning ismuch affected by their feelings and emotion When being asked if they like learningEnglish or not one of the students who had poor participation in learning answered: “I

don’t really like learning English The reason why I’m here to study English is I have noother choice.” I was very surprised at what the student said This also helped meunderstand why that student didn’t participate actively in the speaking activities It can not

be denied that the student’s feelings and attitudes toward learning English affect hislearning process in general and his participation in learning activities in particular

Research on second/foreign language acquisition has identified a variety of factorshypothesized to account for some of the variance in the level of proficiency attained byindividuals learning a second language The factors considered may generally be classifiedinto two basic categories: cognitive and affective variables Cognitive variables are therelatively stable ability characteristics of learners that may affect the success with which anindividual learns another language These are factors such as aptitude, intelligence, andcertain cognitive style characteristics Affective variables, on the other hand, describeindividual characteristics relating to factors such as attitude and motivation

In fact there are quite a lot of affective factors other than motivation and attitude,but in this study I limit the concept to four factors: attitude, motivation, anxiety, andpersonality Although there have been many studies on affective factors conducted invarious contexts, especially factors causing anxiety in second/foreign language learning,not a single one has ever been done on students in the mountainous areas This study is anattempt to explore this issue in relation to speaking English

In conclusion, the study is of great value in terms of both theoretical and practicalaspects From the theoretical angle, it provides us with the knowledge about the factors andaffective factors affecting students’ participation in speaking activities, and also the studycan be an implication for teachers who want to enhance learners’ participation in theirlearning

1.2 Aims of the study

The study was carried out to find out some of the affective factors affecting the firstyear students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and why these factors affecttheir participation in classroom activities In order to find out a theoretical framework orthe investigation in this thesis, the literature on the factors affecting second languagelearning, theoretical foundation of affective factors in second language learning, affective

factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and learners’participation and related issues is reviewed.

1.3 Research Questions

To achieve the aims which are mentioned above, the following research questionswere raised for exploration:

1 What are the students’ motivation and attitudes towards speaking English?

2 To what extent does anxiety affect their participation in speaking English?

3 What is the relationship between their personality and their participation inspeaking activities?

1.4 Scope of the study

Learners’ participation in language learning can be affected by many factors whichare closely related Among these factors, affective factors seem to be a complex one thatneeds to be studied However, the study only focuses on the first year students of English

at Tay Bac University because at this level learners often have more difficulties than those

of higher levels Further more, the study only focuses on speaking activities becausespeaking skill is one of the most important and difficult skills, and need developing fortheir future job as teachers

1.5 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study uses a survey questionnaire

as the sole research instrument for collecting data There have been many studies onfactors in second/foreign language learning which employed survey questionnaires as themajor method After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will

be drawn, and some suggestions will be made in the thesis

1.6 Design of the study

The study consists of four chapters: Chapter one includes the rationale, the aims,the research questions, the scope, the method and the design of the study

Chapter two provides a theoretical background of factors and affective factorsaffecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities such as anxiety,motivation, attitudes, personalities, teacher characteristics and classroom atmosphere; atheoretical foundation of affective factors and learner participation This is viewed as thetheoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter

Chapter three presents the study It includes the context of the study, the researchquestions, the research method, the participants and the findings of the study

Chapter four is the conclusion of the study, providing the summary of the findingsand some implications for teachers of English as a foreign language Some possiblesuggestions for further research are also discussed in this chapter

CHAPTER 2: RELATED LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Learner factors affecting second language learning

It is believed that learners have different characteristics which lead to more or lesssuccessful language learning For example, some teachers believe that extroverted learnersare better at acquiring communicative skills than introverted learners However, theidentification and classification of different individual factors has proved to beproblematic Different researchers use different labels to describe different set ofbehavioural traits So it is not easy to compare and evaluate the results of theirinvestigations Each factor is not a unitary construct but a complex of features which aremanifest in a range of overlapping behaviours It is, therefore, not surprising to find that anumber of terms have been employed to describe the phenomena such as ‘affective,cognitive, and social factors’ (Tucker et al 1976), ‘attitudinal and motivationalcharacteristics’ (Gardner 1976), ‘language aptitude, motivation, learning strategies,cognitive and affective factors’ (Skehan, 1989), and “age, social-psychological factors,personality, cognitive style, learning strategies’ (Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1991)

In an attempt to impose some order on this set of terms and concepts, Rod Ellis(1985) proposes to make an initial distinction between personal and general factors.According to him, personal factors are highly idiosyncratic features of each individual’sapproach to learning a L2 They include ‘nesting patterns’ (the need for a secure andorderly home base before learning can effectively begin), ‘transition anxiety’ (the stressgenerated by moving to a foreign place), and the desire to maintain a personal languagelearning agenda Schumanns (1977) found that such factors strongly influenced their SLA.The general factors are variables that are characteristic of all learners They differ not inwhether they are present in a particular individual’s learning, but in the extent to whichthey are present, or the manner in which they are realized General factors can be furtherdivided into those that are modifiable (likely to change during the course of SLA) such asmotivation, and those that are not modifiable (do not change in strength or nature as SLAtakes place) such as aptitude (Ellis, 1985) He also concludes that personal and generalfactors have social, cognitive and affective aspects Social aspects are external to thelearner and concern the relationship between the learner and native speakers of the L2 and

also between the learner and other speakers of his own language Cognitive and affectiveaspects are internal to the learner Cognitive factors concern the nature of the problem-solving strategies used by the learner, while affective factors concern the emotionalresponses aroused by the attempts to learn an L2 Different personal and general factorsinvolve all three aspects in different degrees For example, aptitude is thought of asprimarily cognitive in nature, but also involves affective and social aspects Personality isprimarily affective, but also has social and cognitive sides Age is a factor that may involveall three aspects fairly equally Also, learning style is composed of social, cognitive andaffective features.

It has been proved that learner factors play an important role in SLA In this study,

we would like to study affective factors only

2.2 Theoretical foundation of Affective factors in second language learning

of each individual

The glosses that other writers have provided for humanistic have been briefer.Medgyes (1986) cites Moskowitz, and says:

In both the Humanistic – Psychological Approach and the Communicative Approach, learners are seen not so much as full-time linguistic objects at whom language teaching is aimed, but rather as human individuals whose personal dignity and integrity, and thee complexity of whose ideas, thoughts, needs and sentiments, should be respected Foreign language teachers must contribute to the self-actualizing process (1986, p.109).

Richards and Rodger (1986), again citing Moskowitz, say that ‘In sum, humanistictechniques engage the whole person, including the emotions and feelings as well aslinguistic knowledge and behavioral skills’ (p.11) Terrell (1982) describes ‘affective-humanistic activities’ as those that explore the students’ values, ideas, opinions, goals andfeelings as well as their experiences’ (p.281) Roberts (1982) speaks of the “humanistic/psychological” or “whole engagement’ approach, a term that, for him, covers ‘ a range ofmethods and techniques which on the surface may seem unconnected’, but which he saysshare at least two significant assumptions:

That the affective aspects of language learning problems are as important as the cognitive aspects And therefore the learners should be treated in some sense as a ‘whole person’ (p.101)

That the answers to language learning problems are more likely to come from psychology than from linguistics (ibid).

Similarly, Bhanot (1983) says that ‘humanistic approaches draw their inspirationfrom psychology rather than from other disciplines such as linguistics’, and that ‘languagelearners are regarded as “whole persons” with emotional and intellectual needs’ (p.361).Brown (1980) derives his use of the term ‘humanism’ largely from references to the work

of Carl Rogers:

We can see in Rogers’ humanism quite a departure from the scientific analysis of Skinnerian psychology, and even from Ausubel’s rationalistic theory Rogers is not as concerned about actual cognitive process of learning since, he feels, if the context of learning is properly created, then human beings will, in fact, learn everything they need

to That is, there will be no irresponsible dilettanism resulting in incomplete coverage of the subject matter The teacher as facilitator must therefore provide the nurturing context

for learning and not see his mission as one of rather programmatically feeding students qualities of knowledge which they subsequently devour (1980, p.77).

David Nunan (1991) in his discussion of a number of methods which advocate adiverse range of classroom techniques believes that ‘if learners can be encouraged to adoptthe right attitudes, interests and motivation in the target language and culture, as well as inthe learning environment in which they find themselves, then successful learning willoccur, and that if these affective factors are not right, then no set of techniques is likely tosucceed, regardless of how carefully they have been devised or how solidly they based onthe latest theory and research’ (p 234)

Stevick (1990), who has taken up and extended the work of Curran, Gattegno andLozanow, became interested in applying principles of humanistic psychology to languagelearning and teaching after he became dissatisfied with both audio-lingual habit theory andcognitive code learning He came to the conclusion that success or failure in languageteaching depends not so much on whether one adopts inductive or deductive techniques forteaching grammar, nor whether one engages in meaningful practice rather than in patterndrills, but in the extent to which one caters to the learner’s affective domain

2.2.2 Towards a definition of affect

Among various definitions provided by scholars in the field of second languageacquisition we will turn our attention to the most relevant ones Arnold (1999) definesaffect in terms of “aspects of emotion, feeling, mood or attitude which conditionbehaviour”, whereas Dickinson (1987: 25) characterises it as being concerned with thelearner’s attitude towards the target language and its users, and with his/her emotional

responses Stevick (1999: 44) propounds the following interpretation (1982):

One’s ‘affect’ towards a particular thing or action or situation or experience is how that thing or that action or that situation or that experience fits in with one’s needs or purposes, and its resulting effect on one’s emotions … affect is a term that refers to the purposive and emotional sides of a person’s reactions to what is going on (Stevick, 1999: 55)

2.2.3 The Affective Filter Hypothesis

The Affective Filter hypothesis (Krashen, 1987) states how affective factors relate

to the second language acquisition process The concept of an affective filter was proposed

by Dulay and Burt (1977) They have suggested that attitudinal factors may relate tosecond language acquisition in the following ways: ‘performers with optimal attitudes havelower affective filter A low filter means that the performer is more open to the input, andthat the input strikes deeper Thus, having the right attitudes may do two things for secondlanguage acquirers: it will encourage them to try to get more input, to interact withspeakers of the target language with confidence, and also to be more receptive to the inputthey get.’

The following figure represents the affective filter and how it relates to secondlanguage acquisition:

Filter

Figure 1: Operation of the Affective Filter (Krashen, 1987: p.39)

‘The affective filter acts to prevent input from being used for language acquisition.Acquirers with optimal attitudes are hypothesized to have a low affective filter.Classrooms that encourage low filters are those that promote low anxiety among students,that keep students off the defensive’ (p.32)

It can be seen from the Affective Filter Hypothesis that the effect of affect is

outside the language acquisition device proper It still maintains that input as the primary causative variable in second language acquisition, affective variables acting to impede or

facilitate the delivery of input to the language acquisition device

To summarize, the Affective Filter hypothesis implies that our pedagogical goalsshould not only include supplying comprehensible input, but also creating a situation thatpromotes a low filter The effective language teacher is someone who can provide inputand help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety situation

Language Acquisition Device

2.2.4 Affective goal of second language competence

In the second language acquisition, the combinations of sounds, the formaldistinction, the numerous syntactic rules and semantic relationships are not only new and

in many respects unexpectedly different from the first language, but they often arouse anemotional response; they may appear puzzling, arbitrary, frustrating, confusing, sometimesamusing, and occasionally also attractive and pleasing One affective objective of languageteaching must be to overcome any sense of rejection of the language and its features on thepart of the learner

Stern (1992) in his discussion of affective goal of second language competencebelieved that ‘the learners should be encouraged to cultivate not only an intellectualunderstanding of what is obligatory, but intuitive sense of right or wrong, in other words,

or a feeling of being at home in the language It is part of affective goal that the learnershould engage in target language activities, and that he should do so with positive feelings;that is we should encourage the learner to use the language willingly and even withenjoyment.’ (p 87)

2.3 Affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities

Learners, in particular classroom learners, react to the learning situation, they findthemselves in a variety of affective ways For example, Schumann (1977) reports beingunable to settle down to study Farsi and Arabic until he had achieved order and comfort inher physical surroundings Bailey (1980) discusses a classroom crisis that occurred whenher French teacher administers a test that the class considered unfair Ellis and Rathbone(1987) studied and reported that one of the beginner learners of German was unable tolearn any German during a period because of a boyfriend problem These and other studiestestify to the complexity and dynamic nature of learners’ affective states and the influencethese have on their ability to concentrate on learning

Students’ participation can be identified as students’ involvement in classroomactivities, and in this case, speaking activities It is shown in interactions between studentsand students, and between students and teacher Students’ participation can be measured by

students’ sense of responsibility and cooperation in classroom activities for their ownlearning progress and of the whole class For instance, they are willing to share theirexperience and information about the related topics, volunteer to answer the teacher’squestions, volunteer to perform the tasks, etc.

It is not easy to study all the affective factors affecting students’ participation inoral activities It can be affected by different affective factors originating from students,teachers and other classroom related factors such as anxiety, personality, interests inlanguage learning, classroom interaction, classroom environment, motivation and attitudes

In the following sections, some of the factors will be discussed

2.3.1 Anxiety

Anxiety is one of several affective factors which can influence attention and hence lead

to deterioration in language performance There are different types of anxiety Adistinction can be made between trait anxiety, state anxiety, and situational-specificanxiety Scovel (1978) defines trait anxiety as ‘a more permanent predisposition to beanxious’ It is perhaps best viewed as an aspect of personality State anxiety can bedefined as apprehension that is experienced at a particular moment in time as a response to

a definite situation (Spielberger 1983) It is a combination of trait and situation-specificanxiety This latter type consists of the anxiety which is aroused by a specific type ofsituation or event such as public speaking, examinations, or class participation

Psychological definitions of anxiety refer to a “transitory emotional state or conditioncharacterised by feelings of tension and apprehension and heightened autonomic nervoussystem activity” (Spielberger 1972: 24), a state which can have both negative and positiveeffects, and which motivates and facilitates as well as disrupts and inhibits cognitiveactions such as learning

There are a lot of reasons for assuming that an anxious learner will not be a goodone Anxiety will distract from the task of attending to and remembering new items; it willdiscourage from the practice that will establish items A number of earlier studies failed tofind evidence of the effect of general anxiety on second language learning Bailey (1983)analysed the diaries of 11 learners and found that they tended to become anxious whenthey compared themselves with other learners in the class and found themselves less

proficient Bailey also identified other sources of anxiety, including test and learners’perceived relationship with their teachers Ellis and Rathbone (1987) reported that some oftheir diarists found teachers’ questions threatening These and other possible sources ofanxiety (like communication apprehension, tests, fear of negative evaluation) in the foreignlanguage classroom are reflected in the questionnaires which a number of researchers havedevised to measure learner anxiety such as Gardner and Smythe (1975), and Cope (1986).

When anxiety does arise relating to the use of second language learning, it seems to

be restricted mainly to speaking and listening, reflecting learners’ apprehension at having

to communicate spontaneously in the target language Anxiety manifests itself in speech in

a greater degree of pausing, in a lack of coherence, in the insertion of fillers, and in anincreased number of false starts

In short, there is sufficient evidence to show that anxiety is an important factor insecond language acquisition in general and in students’ participation in speaking activities

in particular Anxiety is best seen not as a necessary condition of successful L2 learning,but rather a factor that contributes in differing degrees in different learners Therefore,language educators should strive to promote a non-threatening learning environment and

“user-friendly” oral exams which students could prepare for well in advance, in order toprevent negative interactions between language anxiety and other personality variablessuch as learning styles, motivation, and personality types Teachers themselves couldeventually discover and apply the most effective techniques in controlling anxiety

2.3.2 Motivation

There has been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in secondlanguage learning The overall findings show that positive motivation is related to success

in the second language learning (Gardner, 1985)

It is a matter of common knowledge that motivation “is a very important, if not themost important factor in language learning” (van Lier, 1996: 98), without which even

‘gifted’ individuals cannot accomplish long-term goals, whatever the curricula and

whoever the teacher Therefore, the concept of language learning motivation has becomepivotal to a number of theories of L2 acquisition, and motivation has been widely accepted

by teachers and researchers as one of the key factors influencing the rate and success of

second/foreign language (L2) learning, often compensating for deficiencies in languageaptitude and learning It could be said that all other factors involved in L2 acquisitionpresuppose motivation to a certain degree.

Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can bedefined ‘as an affective factor alongside culture shock’ (Schumann, 1978) Motivation isdefined as emotions that constitute the source of the drive to expend effort required to learn

a second or foreign language (Atonia, 1981) It is also defined in terms of two factors:learners’ communicative needs and their attitude towards the second language community

If learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or tofulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the secondlanguage and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it Likewise, if learnershave favourable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire morecontact with them Gardner and Lambert (1972) identified motivation as integrativemotivation and instrumental motivation Integrative motivation involves an interest inlearning an L2 because of ‘a sincere and personal interest in the people and culturerepresented by the other language group’ (Lambert 1974: 98) And instrumentalmotivation refers to the practical value and advantages of learning a new language SLAresearch has shown that these types of motivations are a key factor in L2 learning In theearlier research (Gardner and Lambert, 1972), integrative motivation was seen as morepowerful predictor of achievement in formal learning situations than instrumentalmotivation In later research, Gardner (1985) has continued to assert the importance ofintegrative motivation, although he now acknowledges that instrumental motivation canalso lead to successful learning However, Gardner argues that whereas instrumentalmotivation emerges a significant factor only in some studies, integrative motivation hasbeen found to be invariably related to L2 achievement

Harmer divides motivation into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.Extrinsic motivation is caused such outside factors as passing an exam, the hope offinancial reward, good career, or the possibility for future travel, etc In contrast, intrinsicmotivation is caused by inside factors like the enjoyment of the learning process itself or

by a desire to learn the target language

In order to make students motivated in learning, we have to understand the sources

of motivation According to Harmer, the sources of motivation are diversified They may

derive from the society we live in, parents of old siblings, the teacher and the method.Among these sources, the teacher and the method may be of the most importance For theteacher, his or her attitudes and enthusiasm help create a positive classroom atmosphere.For the method, it means involving both teacher and students’ confidence shown in theway of teaching and learning.

With a view to helping teachers realize whether a learner is motivated or not, Ur(1996) points out some typical characteristics of a motivated learner which include:

● Positive task orientation: The learner is willing to tackle tasks and challenges,and has confidence in his or her success

● Ego-involvement: The learner finds it important to succeed in learning in order tomaintain and promote his or her own positive self-image

● Need for achievement: The learner has a need to achieve, to overcome difficultiesand succeed in what he or she sets out to do

● High aspiration: The learner is ambitious, goes for demanding challenges, highproficiency, top grades

● Goal orientation: The learner is aware of the goals of learning, or of the specificlearning activities, and directs his or her efforts towards achieving them

● Perseverance: The learner consistently invests a high level of effort in learning,and is not discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack of progress

● Tolerance: The learner is not disturbed or frustrated by situations involving atemporary lack of understanding or confusion; he or she can live with these patiently and

in the confidence that understanding will come later

Downs (2000) also points out some conditions that help increase students’motivation He says that motivation increases when students feel acknowledged andunderstood, when students are confident they can succeed, when language has acommunicative purpose, and when students take responsibility for their own learning

Clearly, motivation plays an important role in the success of language learning ingeneral, but we may wonder how much or to what extent motivation accounts for students’participation in oral activities We may not give the correct answer but it can be concludedwith certainty that the degree of motivation is directly proportional to the level ofinvolvement in oral activities To be more concrete, the more motivated the learners are,the more actively they will participate in oral activities

To some up, integrative (or intrinsic) motivation has been shown to be stronglyrelated to L2 achievement It combines with instrumental (or extrinsic) motivation to serve

as a powerful predictor of success in formal contexts Learners with integrative motivationare more active in class and are less likely to drop out However, integrativeness is notalways the main motivational factor in L2 learning, some learners may be more influenced

by other factors like self-confidence, friendship or attitudes Therefore, we, teachers, must

be responsible for sustaining their motivation otherwise it may be weak and die Whenstudents are motivated either extrinsically or intrinsically as long as their motivation isenough sufficient intensity they will have in themselves a force that pushes them toparticipate more actively in classroom activities in general and oral activities in particular

2.3.3 Attitudes

Another important facet of the learning process is that of students’ attitudes to learning.There have been numerous definitions given to attitudes and beliefs, starting fromdictionary definitions to those given by psychologists and education researchers

According to Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), “attitude is seen as “a

complex mental orientation involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions toact in certain ways”, whereas Collins Cobuild Student’s Dictionary states: “Your attitude

to something is the way you think and feel about it” Psychological theories on attitudesrefer to an evaluative, emotional reaction (i.e the degree of like or dislike associated with

the attitudinal object) comprising three components: affect, cognition, and behaviour, these

components undergoing change when there is “dissonance” or disagreement between them(Rajecki 1990; Zimbardo & Lieppe 1991)

Research into the relationship between attitudes and second language achievementwas carried out as early as the 1950s by Gardner and Lambert, and later by Schumann(1975) There are two significant kinds of attitude, Gardner believes: attitudes to the peoplewho speak the target language, and attitudes to the practical use to which the learnerassumes he or she can put the language being learned Gardner suggests that the effects ofthe two kinds of attitudes are different; ‘whereas the first set of attitudes is fairlyconsistently related to achievement, the second shows more variable set of relationships’(op.cit: 39)

Attitude refers specifically to states of emotions and thought relating to the targetlanguage, to the learning of the target language, and to the culture of the target language.

Learner attitudes to the second language can be represented by the continuum in thefollowing figure:

Feels good and confident about L2

Recognizes tolerates, and accepts L2

Acknowledges and differences and difficulties

Has no marked sense of discomfort or disorientation

Finds it hard to accept L2

L2 strange

Feels uncomfortable and disoriented about most aspects of L2

Feels L2 is odd, annoying, confusing, and ugly

Discussing the student attitude to the L2 learning, Stern (1992) gives the belowfigure describing student’s attitudes to L2 learning as an affective goal

Very positive Positive Neutral Negative Very negative

Enthusiastic about Tackles L2 Accepts L2 Learning L2 Hates having Learning L2 learning with without treated as to learn L2

confidence and enthusiam unpleasant Resists learning

Is willing and Avoids L2 co-operative learning Handles Is irritated difficulties by L2 learning

in a positive spirit Wants to drop out

Figure 3 Range of student attitudes to learning L2 expressed as learning outcomes

(Stern, 1992: 92)

It can be seen that only A and B can be regarded as successful learners If largenumbers of students respond to instruction with C, D, or E on the continuum, the reactionwould indicate failure with possible serious consequences

Furthermore, student attitudes to the teacher and course materials have also beeninvestigated in some work Students often have very different views of the kind of teacherthey think is best for them Some prefer a teacher who, in Stevick’s (1980) term, creates

‘space’ for them to pursue their own learning paths Others prefer a teacher who structuresthe learning tasks much more tightly Bailey (1980) states a definite preference for ademocratic teaching style She notes that student-student interaction in class rose sharplyafter a sense where the students had protested to the teacher about an unfair test JohnSchumanns also expresses a desire for a personal learning agenda in language learning Heobserves: “I discovered that I like to have my own agenda in second language learning Ilike to do it my way However, I found my agenda is often in conflict with my teacher’s”(1978: 246) Many students comment adversely on the problems of having to abidesomeone else’s teaching plan (Mcdonough, 1978) Pickett’s (1978) study of successfullanguage learning reveals greater diversity in attitudes towards the role of the teacher.Some learners wanted the teacher to act as ‘informant’, but others praise teachers whowere logical, clear, and systematic The main generalization to emerge from Pickett’s study

is that learners need to feel sympathy for their teacher, and also want him or her to bepredictable

Learners also have different attitudes to teaching materials In general, adultlearners dislike having a coursebook imposed upon them in a rigid way They prefer avariety of materials and the opportunity to use them in ways they choose for themselves.For instance, Mcdonough’s students often object to the pace and intensity of the short five-week courses they took part in They are unable to cope with external pressure.

In short, these studies dealt with learner attitudes in language learning and sharedthe conclusion that learner attitudes are an important factor affecting second languagelearning process It is therefore essential for language teachers to pay attention to learners’attitudes We need to design and implement our lessons on the language-learning processwhich would incorporate attitude-change methods If need be, we should change curricula

in order to maintain and improve students’ attitudes It is also essential to help students getrid of ineffective and harmful preconceived notions on language learning

2.3.4 Personality

In the eyes of many language teachers, the personality of their students constitutes amajor factor contributing to the success or failure in language learning Learners alsoconsider personality factors to be important Personality has been explored in terms of anumber of personal traits such as extroversion/introversion, risk-taking, empathy, tolerance

of ambiguity, self-esteem, inhibition In Eysenck’s (1982) theory extroverts are sociable,like parties, have many friends and need excitement; they are sensation-seekers and risk-takers, like practical jokes and are lively and active Conversely introverts are quiet, preferreading to meeting people, have few but close friends and usually avoid excitement (p.154)

There are two major hypotheses regarding the relationship betweenextroversion/introversion and L2 learning The first, which has been the most widelyresearched, is that extroverted learners will find it easier to make contact with other users

of second language and therefore will obtain more input and do better in acquiring basicinterpersonal communication skills The rationale for this hypothesis is that sociability willresult in more opportunities to practise, more input, more success in communicating in L2

It is believed that extroversion is helpful in acquiring oral skills The second hypothesis isthat introverted learners will do better at developing academic language ability Therationale for this hypothesis comes from studies which show that introverted learners

typically enjoy more academic success, perhaps they spend more time reading and writing(Griffiths, 1991b).

Studying personality factors, Ely (1986a) describes that risk-takers show lesshesitancy, are more willing to use complex language, and are more tolerant of errors Theyare less likely to rehearse before speaking, and comes to conclusion that risk-takingpositively related to voluntary classroom participation

A study by Adelaide Heyde (1979) found that a high level of self-esteem wasassociated with second language proficiency Self-esteem refers to the degree to whichindividuals feel confident and believe themselves to be significant people Presumably,learners with high self-esteem are less likely to feel threatened when communicating in astrange language or in an unfamiliar situation They may also be more ready to risk makingmistakes or projecting a reduced image of themselves It is concluded that self-esteem ispositively correlated with oral production

In conclusion, learners’ affective factors are obviously of crucial importance inaccounting for individual differences in learning outcomes Whereas learners’ beliefs aboutlanguage learning are likely to be fairly stable, their affective states tend to be volatile,affecting not only overall progress of the language learning but particular learningactivities and skills Their affective factors have been investigated in many studies whichmay prove most effective in exploring how these factors are brought about and what effectthey have on learning

2.4 Learner participation

It has been hypothesized that opportunities for using L2 resources are important foracquisition (Ellis, 1994) It is not surprising to find that learner opportunities forparticipating productively in the L2 classroom are constrained, then it would seem thatlearning may be inhibited in the classroom

Ellis considers participation from the point of views of both quantity and quality.Quantity refers to the amount of learner classroom participation A number of studies haveexamined the relationship between the amount of learner classroom and L2 proficiency,and the results are mixed While the amount of participation may not be a key factor in L2acquisition, a stronger case can be made for the importance of high-quality participation

Swain’s (1985) comprehensible output hypothesis claims that acquisition is promotedwhen there are opportunities for pushed output, not just any kind of output

One of the factors that seems to determine the quality of learner participation inclassroom settings is the degree of control the learners exercise over the discourse.Cathcart (1986) studied the different kinds of communicative acts performed by eightSpanish-speaking children in a variety of school settings She found that situations wherethe learners had control of the talk were characterized by a wide variety of communicativeacts and syntactic structures, whereas the situations where the teacher had control seemed

to produce single-word utterances, short phrases, and formulaic chunks Other researchershave also found marked differences in the quality of learners’ participation depending onthe kind of activities they are involved in Other studies of House (1986) found thatlearners confined themselves to an ‘interactional core’ in the discussion, failing to use

‘discourse lubricants’ such as topic introducers and various kinds of supportive andamplifying moves In contrast, the role-play conversations sounded much more natural Inany cases where participation is strictly controlled, there may be few opportunities forlearner interactions Ellis (1994) identified a number of factors that may affect the nature

of the interactions in practice sessions, for example whether the learners’ responses arevolunteered or nominated, the teacher’s policy regarding the distribution of practiceopportunities, and individual learner differences that affect the degree of anxietyexperienced

In general, the importance of learner participation in L2 acquisition has beenproved in a number of studies The quantity and quality of leaner participation variesaccording to task and is affected by different factors such as student attitudes, teacher’spolicy, learner differences as mentioned above Therefore, it is important for teachers of L2

to take into consideration the nature of learner participation

CHAPTER 3 THE STUDY