1 LANE 622 APPLIED LINGUISTICS Prepared by Dr. Abdullah S. Al Shehri

2 LECTURE VI PERSONALITY FACTORS

3 In the previous two lectures.. We discussed two facets of the cognitive domain of language learning: Human learning processes in general. Cognitive variation in learning – styles and strategies.

4 In this lecture.. We will deal with the first facet of the affective domain of second language acquisition. (The second facet will be the topic of the next lecture). The first facet is the intrinsic side of affectivity; that is: Personality factors within a person that contribute in some way to the success of language learning.

5 Importance of the Affective Domain “Purely cognitive theories of learning will be rejected unless a role is assigned to affectivity” (1963: 267). In recent thinking, there is no doubt at all about the importance of examining personality factors in building a theory of second language acquisition (Arnold 1999). Investigation of the role of personality in L2 learning has already led to a greater understanding of the language learning process and to improved L2 teaching methodologies.

6 What is The Affective Domain? Affect refers to emotions or feelings. The affective domain is the emotional side of human behavior. The affective domain is juxtaposed to the cognitive side. The affective domain involves a variety of personality factors.

7 Further Definition of ‘Affectivity’ Affectivity process may be summed up in these five levels: Receiving Responding Valuing Organization of values into a system of beliefs Acquiring a value system

8 PERSONALITY FACTORS & How they Relate to Second Language Acquisition

9 Self-Esteem What is Self-Esteem? Self-esteem is the evaluation or judgment of the self. It expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicates the extent to which individuals believe themselves to be capable, significant, successful, and worthy.

10 Self-Esteem and L2 Learning How does Self-Esteem affect L2 learning? Studies have found that self-esteem correlated positively with performance on the oral production of L2. Self-esteem appears to be an important variable in L2 learning. High self-esteem and L2 success are both interacting factors, where one may cause the other.

11 Inhibition All human beings build sets of defenses to protect the ego. Those with higher self-esteem and strong ego have lower self defenses. Those with weaker self-esteem maintain walls of inhibition to protect their weak or fragile ego, and lack of self-confidence.

12 Inhibition and L2 Learning Meaningful language acquisition involves some degree of identity conflict. An adaptive language ego enables learners to lower the inhibitions that may impede L2 success. The alcohol / chemical relaxant effect: Because alcohol and other chemical relaxants are known to lower inhibitions, good performance on pronunciation test in L2 of subjects given alcohol or a dosage of Valium was significantly better than the performance of a control group.

13 Risk-Taking We saw earlier that: Impulsivity, as a learning style, could have positive effect on language success. Inhibitions can impede L2 acquisition. These two factors suggest that: Risk-taking factor is an important aspect of success in L2 acquisition, and can yield positive results.

14 Anxiety Plays an affective role in L2 acquisition. Associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry. Trait anxiety: more permanent predisposition and predictable. State anxiety: experienced in relation to a particular event or act, and pertains to language anxiety. L2 anxiety has three components: Communication apprehension – inability to express thoughts. Fear of negative social evaluation. Test anxiety. Debilitative anxiety harms L2 learning while facilitative anxiety helps L2 learning.

15 Empathy ‘Empathy’ is the process of “putting yourself into someone else’s shoes”. Human being is a social animal. Language is the chief mechanism for maintaining social bonds. Communication requires a sophisticated degree of empathy. Effective communication requires one to understand the other person’s affective and cognitive states. ‘Field dependence’ has been found to correlate highly with ‘empathy’.

16 Extroversion Extroversion and introversion are potential factors in L2 learning. Extroversion is the extent to which a person has a deep-seated need to receive ego enhancement and self-esteem. Introversion is the extent to which a person derives a sense of wholeness and fulfillment apart from a reflection of this self from other people.

17 MOTIVATION Motivation is probably the most frequently used term for explaining the success in L2. Many studies and experiments in human learning have shown that motivation is a key to learning.

18 Definitions of Motivation Behavioristic: Anticipation of reward. Desire to receive positive reinforcement. External forces in control. Cognitive: Driven by basic human needs (exploration, manipulation, knowledge, ego enhancement, etc.) Degree of effort expended. Internal forces in control. Constructivist: Social context. Community. Social status. Belonging. Internal interactive forces in control.

19 Instrumental and Integrative Orientations A famous study of the role of motivation in second language learning carried out by Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972) identified two types or orientations of motivation: Instrumental: acquiring language as a means for attaining instrumental goals: furthering a career, reading technical material, translation, etc. Integrative: learners who wish to integrate themselves into the culture of L2.

20 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Intrinsic Motivation: One for which there is no apparent reward except the activity itself. Intrinsically motivated behaviors are aimed at bringing about certain internally rewarding consequences, such as feelings of competence and self-determination. Extrinsic Motivation: Extrinsically motivated behavior is carried out in anticipation of a reward from beyond the self, such as money, prizes, grades, etc.

21 THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF AFFECT Using techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), some connections have been made between affectivity and mental/emotional processing in general, as well as L2 acquisition in particular (Schumann 1998). “Neurobiology”, including neuroanatomy, neurochemistry and neurophysiology, inform several areas of interest for language acquisition studies, e.g. plasticity, affect, memory and learning (Schumann 1999).

22 MEASURING AFFECTIVE FACTORS Most tests of the affective factors have been paper-and-pencil based self-rating tests. These tests present three problems: The problem of validity: Self-rating may not be as accurate as external assessment.. The self-flattery syndrome: Answers that make one look “good”. Ethnocentricity of tests: Tests of affective factors can be quite culturally ethnocentric and do not apply cross-culturally.