Investigating the Role of Affective Factors in Second Language Learning Tasks

196 Pages·2022·3.457 MB·

by  Ágnes Albert

Second Language Learning and Teaching
Ágnes Albert
Investigating the Role
of Affective Factors
in Second Language
Learning Tasks
Second Language Learning and Teaching
Series Editor
Mirosław Pawlak, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz
University, Kalisz, Poland
The series brings together volumes dealing with different aspects of learning and
teaching second and foreign languages. The titles included are both monographs and
edited collections focusing on a variety of topics ranging from the processes under-
lying second language acquisition, through various aspects of language learning in
instructed and non-instructed settings, to different facets of the teaching process,
including syllabus choice, materials design, classroom practices and evaluation.
The publications reflect state-of-the-art developments in those areas, they adopt a
wide range of theoretical perspectives and follow diverse research paradigms. The
intended audience are all those who are interested in naturalistic and classroom
second language acquisition, including researchers, methodologists, curriculum and
materials designers, teachers and undergraduate and graduate students undertaking
empirical investigations of how second languages are learnt and taught.
Ágnes Albert
Investigating the Role
of Affective Factors
in Second Language
Learning Tasks
Ágnes Albert
Department of English Applied Linguistics
School of English and American Studies
Eötvös Loránd University
Budapest, Hungary
ISSN 2193-7648 ISSN 2193-7656 (electronic)
Second Language Learning and Teaching
ISBN 978-3-031-20220-9 ISBN 978-3-031-20221-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20221-6
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All the knowledge I possess everyone else can
acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
To my parents
Preface
Writing a book, just like learning a foreign language, is a long and tedious process,
which involves experiencing various emotions. Writing a book on the affective
aspects of language learning is no exception, and indeed, I went through a range
of emotions from curiosity through excitement, enjoyment, anger, and boredom to
anxiety. However, at the end of this process, a book was born, which faithfully
reflects the cognitive processes that were essential to its creation but tends to conceal
the affective ones. Despite the fact that my emotions in connection with writing
this book are probably not apparent in the final product, they will most likely have a
decisive role in determining whether I will embark on similar endeavors in the future.
As I pointed out above, I sense a close analogy between the process of writing
a book and learning an additional language when it comes to the role of affective
factors, but perhaps this analogy is not close enough even. After all, although my
negative emotions in connection with book writing might prevent me from volun-
teering to write another one, they would certainly not jeopardize the existence of the
book I have already written. This is not the case with language learning and use:
if the affective concomitants of the learning process are too negative, they might
prevent the person from using the language altogether, resulting in losing most of
what has been learnt before. This possibility clearly highlights why I thought that
writing a book on the role of affective factors in second language learning would be
so important.
The reason why I decided to concentrate on language tasks as a special focus is
because investigating learners’ performance on tasks offers the possibility of studying
the interaction of different aspects of language and determinants of language use in
close-up. I am convinced that such micro-level findings are needed to understand the
bigger picture of second language acquisition. However, these micro-processes are
always embedded in a context that influences them, but unfortunately, these micro-
and macro-levels are usually studied in isolation. This book then is also an attempt
at bringing together various levels of analysis and data sources to provide a more
comprehensive account of the language learning process than what a single study
can usually provide us with.
ix
x Preface
This book is made up of eight chapters: the first one is an introduction to the context
of learning English in Hungary, a Central-European, post-communist country, and to
the larger research project that served as the source of data for this book. The next three
chapters are theoretical, and their aim is to summarize the most important theories
and empirical work needed to contextualize and understand the empirical studies in
the three empirical chapters that follow. They focus on providing an overview of
the individual differences explored in the empirical chapters, a general introduction
to language tasks, and a summary of empirical task-based research carried out in
connection with the individual difference variables introduced earlier. As promised,
the task-based investigations presented in Chap. 6 are contextualized with the help of
a larger scale questionnaire survey discussed in Chap. 5 and a qualitative interview
study reported in Chap. 7. The final chapter of the book attempts to connect the
dots and offers conclusions at a more general level that are based on all the data
sources used. I hope that readers of this book, regardless of whether they are teachers,
researchers, or language learners, will find the picture emerging as intriguing as I
did when I was writing the book.
Budapest, Hungary Ágnes Albert
Acknowledgements
Since the empirical parts of this book are based on research that I carried out as a
member of a research team, designing the study, creating and piloting the research
instruments, and collecting the data were the results of collective efforts. Thus, first
and foremost, I would like to thank Kata Csizér, my co-researcher and friend, who
first planted the thought of writing a book about this project in my mind and has not
allowed me to forget about it for a moment since then, as well as other members of
the team Katalin Piniel, Brigitta Dóczi, Anna Zólyomi, Ádám Lajtai, Bogi Spissich,
and Dávid Smid for their invaluable help. My deepest gratitude also goes to all
the participating schools including their teachers and students for taking part in
interviews, filling out questionnaires, and performing language tasks. I would also
like to thank Eniko˝ Öveges, Head of the English Applied Linguistics Department
at Eötvös Loránd University, and Éva Illés, her Deputy, who both wholeheartedly
supported my request for a sabbatical which enabled me to write this book, and our
Dean, who granted my request. As a member of the MTA-ELTE Foreign Language
Teaching Research Group, writing this book was funded by the Research Program
for Public Education Development of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, so I
am grateful for their support. Special thanks are due to Zsuzsanna Abrams for her
insightful feedback and generous help in finalizing the manuscript. Finally, I am
immensely thankful for the support of my family, especially my daughters, who
witnessed all the emotions I experienced while writing this book.
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