INTRODUCTION
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Chapter 4 and 5 dealt with two aspects of the cognitive domain of language learning:
1. human learning processes
2. cognitive variations in learning-style and strategies.
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This chapter and Chapter 7 deal with two facets of the affective domain of SLA
1. The intrinsic side of affectivity: personality factors within a person that contribute to
the success of language learning.
2. The extrinsic factors - sociocultural variables that emerge as the second language
learner brings not just two languages into contact but two cultures, and in some
sense must learn a second culture along with a second language.
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SELF-ESTEEM
AFFECTIVE FACTORS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
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Self-Esteem
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Attribution Theory and Self-Efficacy
carried out without some degree of self-esteem, self-confidence, knowledge of
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Willingness to Communicate
yourself, and self-efficacy-belief in your own capabilities to successfully perform
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Inhibition
that activity.
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Risk Taking
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Anxiety
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Empathy
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Extroversion
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Motivation
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It could easily be claimed that no successful cognitive or affective activity can be
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SELF-ESTEEM
SELF-ESTEEM
The following is a well-accepted definition of self-esteem (Coopersmith, 1967, pp.4-5):
People derive their sense of self-esteem from the accumulation of experiences with
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By self-esteem, we refer to the evaluation which individuals make and usually maintain
themselves and with others and from assessments of the external world around them.
with regard to themselves;
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it expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicates the extent to which
Levels of Self-Esteem:
individuals believe themselves to be capable, significant, successful and worthy.
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1. General or global self-esteem
In short, self-esteem is a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the
attitudes that individuals hold toward themselves.
2. Situational or specific self-esteem
It is a subjective experience which the individual conveys to others by verbal reports
3. Task self-esteem
and other overt expressive behavior
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SELF-ESTEEM
SELF-ESTEEM
1. General or global self-esteem
2. Situational or specific self-esteem
• It is relatively stable in a mature adult
• It is one's self-appraisals :
• in particular life situations, such as social interaction, work, education, home,
• It is resistant to change except by active and extended therapy
• or on certain traits, such as intelligence, communicative ability, athletic ability,
• It is the general or prevailing assessment one makes of one's own worth over time
• or on personality traits like gregariousness, empathy, and flexibility.
and across a number of situations.
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The degree of specific self-esteem a person has may vary depending upon the
situation or the trait in question.
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SELF-ESTEEM
SELF-ESTEEM
3. Task self-esteem
Study:
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Adelaide Heyde (1979) studied the effects of the three levels of self-esteem on
It relates to particular tasks within specific situations.
performance of an oral production task by American college students learning
For example,
French as a foreign language.
• within the educational domain, task self-esteem might refer to one subject-
Findings:
matter area (e.g. Mathematics).
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Specific self-esteem might encompass SLA in general, and task self-esteem might
All three levels of self-esteem correlated positively with performance on the oral
production measure
refer to one's self-evaluation of a particular aspect of the process: speaking,
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writing, a particular class in a second language, or even a special kind of
The highest correlation was between task self-esteem and performance on oral
production measures.
classroom exercise.
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SELF-ESTEEM
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SELF-ESTEEM
What we do not know at this time is the answer to the classic chicken-or-egg
Heyde (1979) found that:
question:
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Does high self-esteem cause language success, or does language success cause
certain sections of a beginning college French course had better oral production
and self-esteem scores than other sections after only eight weeks of instruction.
high self-esteem?
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This finding suggests that teachers really can have a positive and influential
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Clearly, both are interacting factors.
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It is difficult to say whether teachers should try to "improve" global self-esteem or
• the linguistic performance
effect on both :
simply improve a learner's proficiency and let self-esteem take care of itself.
• the emotional well-being of the student.
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ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND SELF-EFFICACY
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ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND SELF-EFFICACY
Based on the work of psychologist Bernard Weiner (1986, 1992, 2000), attribution
theory focuses on how people explain the causes of their own successes and failures.
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Two of those four factors are internal to the learner: ability and effort;
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and two are attributable to external circumstances outside of the learner: task
Weiner and others (Slavin, 2003; Dornyei, 2001b; Williams & Burden, 1997) describe
difficulty and luck.
attribution theory in terms of four explanations for success and/or failure in achieving a
According to Weiner, learners tend to explain, that is, to attribute, their success on
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personal objective:
a task on these four dimensions.
1. Ability
Thus, failure to get a high grade on a final exam in a language class might for
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2. Effort
some be judged to be a consequence of their poor ability or effort, and by others
3. Perceived difficulty of a task
to difficulty of exam, and perhaps others to just plain old bad luck.
4. Luck.
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ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND SELF-EFFICACY
ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND SELF-EFFICACY
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This is where self-efficacy comes in.
So,
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If a learner feels he or she is capable of carrying out a given task, (has a high
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It is essential for learners to believe in themselves in order to succeed at tasks.
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The prospect of learning a second language is itself potentially so overwhelming.
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One of the most important roles of successful teachers is to facilitate high levels
sense of self-efficacy), an appropriate degree of effort may be devoted to
achieving success.
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A learner with low self-efficacy may quite easily attribute failure to external factors
of self-efficacy in their students.
or to an initial lack of ability.
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Both of the latter attributions can create a self-fulfilling sense of failure at the
outset.
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WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE
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WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE
Willingness to communicate (WTC) may be defined "the intention to initiate
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MacIntyre et al. proposed a number of cognitive and affective factors that underlie WTC:
communication, given a choice" (Maclntyre et al., 2001,p. 369).
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Motivation
In an earlier study on WTC, MacIntyre et al. (1998) found that a number of factors
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Personality
appear to contribute to predisposing one learner to seek, and another learner to
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Intergroup climate
avoid, second language communication.
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Two levels of self-confidence:
Noting that a high level of communicative ability does not necessarily correspond
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State communicative self-confidence (a situational self-esteem)
with a high WTC.
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L2 self-confidence
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RISK TAKING
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RISK TAKING
In Chapter 5, we saw that one of the characteristics of good Language learners,
Beebe (1983, p. 40) described some of the negative ramifications that foster fear of risk taking both in
according to Rubin and Thompson (1982), was the ability to make intelligent guesses.
the classroom and in natural settings:
In the classroom
Impulsivity was also described as a style that could have positive effects language
These ramifications might include a bad grade in the course, a fail on the exam, a reproach from the
success.
teacher, a smirk from a classmate, punishment or embarrassment imposed by oneself.
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Inhibitions, or building defenses around our egos, can be a harmful.
Outside the classroom
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These factors suggest that risk taking is an important characteristic of successful
Individuals learning a second language face other negative consequences if they make mistakes. They
learning of a second language.
fear looking ridiculous; they fear the frustration coming from a listener's blank look, showing that they
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have failed to communicate; they fear the danger of not being able to take care of themselves; they fear
Learners have to be able gamble a bit, to be willing to try out hunches about the
the alienation of not being able to communicate and thereby get close to other human beings. Perhaps
language and take the risk being wrong.
worst of all, they fear a loss of identity.
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RISK TAKING
RISK TAKING
According to Dufeu (1994, pp. 89-90),
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Does this mean that high risk takers are the most successful in SLA?
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We may be tempted to assume with Ely (1986) that high risk taking will yield positive results in
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the classroom treatment to such fears is to establish an adequate affective
second language learning; however, such is not usually the case!
framework so that learners "feel comfortable as they take their first public steps in
the strange world of a foreign language.
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Beebe (1983, p. 41) cited a study which claimed that “persons with a high motivation to
achieve are ... moderate, not high, risk-takers. These individuals like to be in control and like
To achieve this, one has to create a climate of acceptance that will stimulate self-
to depend on skill. They do not take wild, frivolous risks or enter into no-win situations”
confidence, and encourage participants to experiment and to discover the target
language, allowing themselves to take risks without feeling embarrassed.
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Successful second language learners appear to fit the same paradigm.
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As Rubin & Thompson (1994) noted, successful language learners make willing and accurate
guesses.
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RISK TAKING
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The silent student in the classroom is one who is unwilling to appear foolish when
mistakes are made.
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Self-esteem seems to be closely connected to a risk-taking factor: when those foolish
mistakes are made, a person with high global self-esteem is not daunted by the
possible consequences of being laughed at.
Thank you
The implications for teaching are important.
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In a few uncommon cases, overly high risk takers, as they dominate the classroom with
wild gambles, may need to be "tamed" a bit by the teacher.
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But most of the time our problem as teachers will be to encourage students to guess
somewhat more willingly than the usual student is prone to do, and to value them as
persons for those risks that they take.
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