BOOK OF ABSTRACTS - 2011
Yunus Emre Akbana
A Corpus Based Study On L2 English Conditional Adverbial Clauses
(Granger, 2009) defines learner corpus (LC) studies being situated at the crossroads of four interrelated subjects: corpus
linguistics, linguistic theory, second language acquisition, and foreign language teaching (p. 12). She also stresses the significance
of learner corpus in the field: ‘using main principles, tools and methods from corpus linguistics, it aims to provide improved
descriptions of learner language used for a wide range of purposes in foreign/second language acquisiton research and also to
improve foreign language teaching’ (2002, p. 4). A LC, like International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE), contributes to these
fields with the abundance of hands-on material enabling the researchers to examine various variables that could affect English
interlanguage (Can, 2010, p. 16). Dependent clauses consisting of three main structural clauses - relative clauses, adverbial
clauses and complement clauses - is one of the types of linguistic complexity in grammatical variation studies. These structural
clauses have their sub-divisions, in this study, ‘adverbial clauses’ is the main theme which has three major meaning domains as
conditional (if), causative (because), and other clauses (e.g., after, before, while, until, as, since, so that) (Biber, 2006, p. 77 ). The
ultimate prupose of the study is to reveal any possible effects of interlanguage by the over and/ or underuse of conditional
clauses in argumentative essays of Turkish students written both in Turkish Language and English Language by native speakers
of English and EFL Turkish students, native speakers of Turkish in the light of three corpora: Louvain Corpus of Native English
Essays (LOCNESS), International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE) and Turkish International Corpus of Learner English (TICLE).
Key Words: Learner Corpus, Interlanguage, Conditional Clauses, LOCNESS, ICLE, TICLE
References:
Biber, D. (2006). University Language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (Pp.
77)
Can, C. (2010), A Turkish Learner Corpus of English in Second Language Acquisition Studies: TICLE as A Subcorpus of ICLE, (pp.
16), Language Journal, Sayı: 144 Nisan-Mayıs-Haziran 2010. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Basımevi
Granger, S. (2002): A bird's-eye view of learner corpus research. In: Granger, Sylviane; Hung, Joseph & Petch-Tyson, Stephanie
(eds), Pp. 4.
Granger, S. (2009). The Contribution of Learner Corpora to Second Language Acquisition and Foreign language Teaching. In K.
Aijmer, Corpora and language Teaching (pp.13). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hasan Bedir, Grażyna Kiliańska-Przybyło
Pre service teachers in Turkey and Poland: A comparison of teachers’ self-efficacy
Researchers on self efficacy have revealed that individuals’ belief about their personal efficacy plays a crucial role in shaping
their self-knowledge (Henson, 2002; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2007; Woolfolk Hoy, Davis, & Pape, 2006). Bandura
(1997) states that “people’s beliefs of personal efficacy affect almost everything they do; how they think; motivate themselves,
feel and have” (p. 19). This is derived from a mechanism of personal agency which greatly contributes to individuals’
psychological functioning. The more people believe themselves to be successful, the more willing they make things happen.
According to Pajares, (2002) self-efficacy is the root of the acquisition of new skills and the performance of previously learned
skills.
Teaching, on the other hand, is considered to be a complex activity. Thus, it is essential that teacher education programmes be
sophisticated enough to enable their prospective teacher to develop such skills and strategies as motivating students to learn,
creating a climate for teaching, using a variety of teaching skills, maintaining classroom discipline, diagnosing student difficulties
and adapting instruction to meet individual needs. Gorrell and Capron, (1990) suggest that "it is important to instil a sense of
efficacy in those who are being prepared to ensure that they have the confidence to attempt to apply their knowledge when the
appropriate time comes"(p. 15).
However, few studies have been conducted which compare pre-service teachers from different countries on the variable of
teacher self efficacy. Thus, this study aims to compare both the issue of pre service teacher education in Turkey and Poland and
the teacher self efficacy of Turkish pre service teachers and that of Polish pre service teachers.
References:
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Gorrell, J. & Capron, E.W. (1990). Cognitive modelling and self-efficacy: Effects on pre-service teachers' learning of teaching
strategies. Journal of Teacher Education, 41(50), 15-22.
Henson, R. K. (2001). The effects of participation in teacher research on teacher efficacy. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17,
819-836.
Pajares, M. F. (2002). Overview of social cognitive theory and of self-efficacy. Retrieved from http://www.des.emory.edu/
mfp/eff.html on March 1, 2011.
Tschannen-Moran, M., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2007). The different antecedents of self efficacy beliefs of novice and experienced
teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 944-956.
Woolfolk Hoy, A., Davis, H., & Pape, S. (2006). Teacher knowledge, beliefs, and thinking. In P. A. Alexander & P. H. Winne (Eds.),
Handbook of educational psychology (2nd ed. pp. 709-725). Mahwah, NJ: Macmillan.
Adriana Biedroń
Personality Factors According to the Five Factor Model in Accomplished Multilinguals
The purpose of the study reported herein was to analyze personality factors defined according to the “Five Factor Model”
(McCrae & Costa, 2003) in accomplished multilinguals. The factors include: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness,
Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. An instrument used in the study was The Revised NEO-FFI Personality Inventory
(Costa & McCrae 1992) - a Polish adaptation by Zawadzki et al. (1998). The results of 44 accomplished multilinguals were
compared to the results of 37 mainstream first-year English philology students. The analysis revealed that the factor of Openness
to experience was significantly higher in the accomplished multilinguals than in the mainstream L2 learners. The other factors,
that is Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Extraversion and Conscientiousness did not reveal statistically significant differences
between the samples. Openness is a relatively stable and the most genetically determined factor of all the Five Factors. It
includes a cognitive aspect, which means that people who score high on general cognitive ability tend to display openness to
new experience and intellectual curiosity and flexibility (Corno et al. 2002). A suggestion that openness to experience is a good
predictor of foreign language learning outcome is discussed.
Anna D. Biedrzyńska
Foreign Language maintenance in the teaching context
The primary focus of this paper is on factors which influence FL teachers’ motivation to maintain the FL in school contexts. The
discussion of the topic commences with aspects of FL development and maintenance by teacher trainees. It continues with the
presentation of FL maintenance efforts by FL teachers at primary to secondary educational levels. Finally, it draws attention to
affective factors which shape the FL maintenance effort, especially affective feedback received from the school environment,
attitudes to the teaching profession and self-perceived needs for professional development.
Joanna Bielska
In search for a relationship between belief and reality: predicting EFL teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs
Self-efficacy beliefs are appraisals of our ability “to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given
attainments” (Bandura 1997:3). Teacher’s sense of efficacy is concerned with teachers’ confidence in their competencies to
affect students’ performance and foster students’ learning and engagement. Teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching has been
observed to correlate with student and teacher achievement. It has also been found to be a significant determinant of affective
commitment and job satisfaction for teachers (e.g., Caprara et al. 2003, Bielska, in press). This paper presents a quantitative
study designed to investigate the sources of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, with special focus on the relationship between belief
and reality, which, as noted by Pajares (2002), are seldom perfectly matched. Are teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs systematically
related to their occupational skills? Do they correlate with their (perceived) proficiency level in English? What is the role of selfappraisal accuracy? The correlation patterns revealed are discussed and interpreted from the perspective of Bandura’s selfefficacy theory.
Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska
Student paper presentation – an analysis of face-related issues
Paper presentation is a face-threatening situation for the presenter. It is also stressful, especially for students for whom such a
situation is quite new. The paper is to deal with paper-presentations in the classroom situation (MA seminar), which involves
three parties: the student-presenter, the MA thesis supervisor and the student-audience. Due to the presence of the two types
of audience, the supervisor and the fellow students, self-presentation turns out to be a “tricky” task, and its realization may pose
a threat to the presenter’s face. I will analyse this type of situations in terms of self-presentation strategies employed and
potential face-threats.
References:
Baumeister, R.F. 1982. A self-presentational view of social phenomena. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 91, No 1: 3-26.
Bogdanowska-Jakubowska, E. 2010. FACE. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.
Goffman, E. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.
Leary, M. 2005. Wywieranie Wrażenia na Innych. O Sztuce Autoprezentacji. Trans. by A. Kacmajor and M. Kacmajor. Gdańsk:
Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne.
Leary, M.R. and R.M. Kowalski 1990. Impression management: A literature review and two-component model. Psychological
Bulletin, Vol. 107, No. 1: 34-47.
Schlenker, B.R. 2003. Self-presentation. In: M.R. Leary i J. Prince Tangney (red.) Handbook of self and identity, 492-518. New
York/London: The Guilford Press.
Schlenker, B.R. i B.A. Pontari. 2000. The strategic control of information: Impression management and self- presentation in daily
life. In A. Tesser, R.B. Felson, i J.M. Suls (red.) Psychological perspectives on self and identity, 199-232. Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.
Elly Brosig
The Three Components of Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning
From a psychological view second language acquisition and second language learning, as practically all learning, are promoted
by three components: a cognitive, an affective, and a conative component.
The cognitive component consists of conscious active learning. The affective one is composed of an emotional state (positive, for
example, wanting to communicate with a nice person, or negative, e.g. an insult which later can be repeated in court literally) or
need (being hungry or wanting to find the way to the station); in short: the motivation to learn. It is the task of the teacher to
create such an emotional state and motivation in students.
The conative component is the disposition and act to react physically by muscular activity, in this case by speaking using the
foreign language. Frequent use and repetition of a FL has long been known to be most effective in FL learning.
In the case of SLA, the affective and conative components are prevalent, the younger the person the more. In this case, if
motivation is there by emotion or need, the conative reaction comes almost automatically by imitation. Imitation plays a great
role in the learning of young children.
Thus, FL teachers and instructors should always consider all three components , especially in regard to the age of their students.
Cem Can
Modal Verbs in Stance Markers in Argumentative Essays of Turkish Advanced Learners of English as a Foreign Language
Although relatively new in scientific inquiry, studies in computer learner corpora have proven to reveal a wealth of information
identifying particular difficulties of language learners and consequently advised the developers of pedagogical materials to
address these problem areas. A learner corpus is a collection of the writing or speech samples produced by learners of a second
or foreign language. The first computer learner corpus is the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE). ICLE consists of the
argumentative essays written by advanced learners of English representing 16 different mother tongue backgrounds. This study
examines Modal Verbs in Stance Markers in Turkish subcorpus of ICLE (TICLE) and the comparable Louvain Corpus of Native
English Essays (LOCNESS).
Keywords: Corpus, Linguistics, Learner Corpus, Modal Verbs in Stance Markers, ICLE, LOCNESS, TICLE
Cem Can, Grażyna Kiliańska-Przybyło, Hasan Bedir
“When a foreign language learner becomes a foreign language teacher…” – A cross-cultural study into the affective domain of
teaching
Learning to teach requires the change of perspective from that of a learner into that of a foreign language teacher, which in
practical terms means the need to reconceptualize, restructure and redefine one’s self as a teacher. Current research into
foreign language education stresses the role of emotion in stimulating cognitive change (Borg, 2006; Golombek and Johnson
2004, Folsom 2005). According to Golombek and Johnson (2004: 322-4), emotions are a driving factor in teacher development,
as they promote self-analysis and self-inquiry. Additionally, emotions may facilitate understanding of one’s personal teaching
theory and enrich teacher’s personal interpretative framework. The aim of this paper is to characterize the emotions and
attitudes that Polish and Turkish students bring to the teaching training courses. In particular, the study is supposed to shed
some light on how the initial attitudes and emotions influence Polish and Turkish trainees’ perception and understanding of
teaching as well as affect their motivation to become teachers. The data collected for the study involve: verbal association tasks
and narratives produced by Turkish and Polish teacher trainees.
References:
Borg, S. 2006. Teacher Cognition and Language Education. Research and Practice. London: Continuum.
Golombek, P.R. & Johnson, K.E.2004. Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in
second-language teachers’ development. Teachers and Teaching, 10, 307- 328.
Folsom, Ch. 2005. Exploring a New Pedagogy: Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning (TIEL), Issues in Teacher
Education, Sept. 22, 2005;
Mustafa Çoban
The use of Relative clauses with the Relative pronoun which in Turkish university students' written English
Learner Corpus has become a growing research field providing the chance of comparing and contrasting native and non-native
speakers of a language in comparable materials. Can (2010) states that A Learner Corpus, like International Corpus of Learner
English (ICLE), contributes to these fields with the abundance of hands-on material enabling the researchers to examine various
variables that could affect English interlanguage (p.16). Granger (1998) suggests that native language and interlanguage
comparisons aim to uncover the features of non-nativeness of learner language. At all levels of proficiency, but especially at the
most advanced ones, these features will not only involve plain errors, but differences in the frequency of use of certain words,
phrases or structures, some being overused, others underused (p. 12-13). Dependent clauses are often considered to be a type
of linguistic complexity and as a result they have been associated with writing rather than speech. In the types of dependent
clauses, relative clauses are much more common in the written texts. According to Biber (2006) Relative clauses have two
primary functions: to specify the reference of the head noun, or to provide elaborating information. However, in many situations
the relative clauses with the relative pronoun which serves both functions (p. 76-77). This present study aims at examining the
use of relative clauses with the relative pronoun which in Turkish EFL learners’ written English and comparing it with the use in
comparable type of native English writing. The study will address the questions of whether Turkish learners use the relative
pronoun which to the same extent as native English students as regards to the frequency of overuse and underuse.
Marek Derenowski
The use of authentic materials in developing students’ motivation
Experts in psychology support the close relationship between learning and motivation. Some of them even affirm that
motivation affects learning. Dörnyei (2001) stated that “skills to motivate learners are crucial for language teachers”. Motivation
provides the primary impetus to embark upon learning, and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning
process. Although the psychological literature contains a great number of different definitions of human motivation, it is
generally accepted that the concept has both a qualitative and quantitative dimension. The first concerns the goal or the
direction of learning, the second the intensity of the effort invested. Thus, to provide a basic definition, motivation to learn a
foreign language involves all those affects and cognitions that initiate language learning, determine language choice, and
energize the language process (Dörnyei 2000). Language teachers can incorporate a variety of tools and techniques to increase
their students’ motivation. Incorporating the elements of the target language culture into foreign language learning process can
effectively increase students’ involvement, thus the main aim of the presentation was to focus more directly on one of these
tools and present how useful authentic materials can be in increasing students’ motivation during foreign language learning
process.
Małgorzata Foryś
Cognition and affectivity in Content and Language Integrated Learning
By its very definition Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is concerned with developing well-integrated, flexible and
easily accessible knowledge and skills. Therefore the CLIL classroom is perceived as a special educational setting in which content
and language mutually benefit each other in transforming input into intake. In my contribution I would like to consider a range of
cognitive and affective processes which come into play in the context of content-mediated language education. I will try to
demonstrate that getting a better understanding of the interaction of these mechanisms may greatly facilitate meaningful,
multifaceted and effective learning of both language and content. The discussion will revolve around the concept of patterning,
which is the brain’s natural ability to organize and categorize vast amounts of incoming information. The crucial function of
patterning is to boost memorization, creative thinking as well as problem solving skills. It needs to be stressed, however, that
patterning is to a great extent driven by intrinsic motivation, the brain’s response to meaningful vs. meaningless stimuli and
other affective factors (e.g. relaxed alertness or downshifting), which can either enhance or attenuate this intriguing mechanism.
These issues appear to be particularly relevant to CLIL, which inherently involves parallel learning of both language and content
and, thus, creates multiple opportunities for patterning and meaningful learning.
Danuta Gabryś-Barker
The affective dimension in multilinguals’ language learning experiences
Two basic assumptions can be made about multilingual language learning. The first assumption is that although learning any
subsequent language is a process similar to the previous one, various idiosyncratic factors also make it a different experience.
The second assumption is that any learning experience, like any life experience for that matter, is very much determined by the
way our affectivity filters it. Thus, in this presentation I intend to compare the experiences of learning the first foreign language
(L2) and the second foreign language (L3) in terms of the affectivity involved. The data comes from a group of fifty eight
multilingual language users, all university and teacher training college students, whose language achievement and learning
histories are fairly homogenous in terms of age, length of learning and the type of instruction received. They represent advanced
L2 (English) and beginning or pre-intermediate L3 (mostly German and French) competences. The data collection tool used in the
study was a retrospective association task in which the subjects recalled their perceptions of the more remote in time
experiences of L2 learning and closer in time exposure to L3 instruction. I intend to verify my initial hypothesis that affectivity
will play a more significant role in the later language learning (i.e. L3) and also that it might in many cases have detrimental
effects on L3 development.
Dagmara Gałajda
Anxiety and perceived communication competence as predictors of willingness to communicate (WTC) in ESL/FL classroom
Although communication is the basis of interpersonal relations, people differ in the degree of willingness to communicate.
According to MacIntyre et al. (2002: 1) willingness to communicate (WTC) can be defined as "the probability that an individual
will choose to initiate communication, more specifically, talking, when free to do so.” It is believed that people who are more
willing to talk tend to communicate more frequently in ESL/FL classroom. Thus, the question is why people vary in their
predisposition to willingness to communicate and to what extent variables such as anxiety and perceived communication
competence influence learner's WTC.
The primary aim of the study was to find the answers to the following research questions:
1. How is the reported WTC of university students, as measured by the WTC scale, related to reported frequency of L2 use
in the classroom?
2. How is the reported anxiety of university students, as measured by the Personal Report of Communication
Apprehension (McCroskey 1982), related to reported frequency of L2 use in the classroom?
3. How is the reported perceived communication competence of university students related to reported frequency of L2
use in the classroom?
The subjects of the study (50 learners in total) were the first-year students of the English Department at the University of Silesia.
With the aim of gathering all necessary data, four types of questionnaires were administered to the subjects:
 WTC Scale (McCroskey 1992),
 Frequency of Communication Scale (MacIntyre & Charos 1996),
 Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (McCroskey 1982),
 Self-perceived Communication Competence Scale (McCroskey 1998)
The paper focuses on the presentation and analysis of the data based on students' questionnaires and published literature on
the subject.
Marcin Gliński
The problem of inhibition among children during culture-based classes
Language culture covers a large area of concern in the field of foreign language teaching. To learn a foreign language means
(among others) to explore its culture and express one’s own attitude towards its meanings. The teacher’s role is to help students
express themselves in a foreign language through a constant negotiation of different meanings within the frames of cultures,
both native and foreign. (Kramsch, 1993) The ability to express oneself may be somewhat handicapped among young inhibited
students. This is one of the major problems of the following study. The theoretical part of the paper presents the concept of
inhibition discussing its assumptions on the basis of the Affective Filter Hypothesis (by S.Krashen) and Social Comparison Theory
(by L. Festinger). The research part of the paper discusses the data collected during the study and answers the following
question:
-What are the most appropriate techniques for foreign culture teaching among young inhibited students?
The research was conducted among 18 students from 1st form, 23 students from 2nd form and 19 students from 3rd form. The
study was divided into three stages: introductory workshops which were to define students’ attitudes towards foreign culture
learning and diagnose the list of inhibited students; observation classes which were to define the reasons for the presence of
inhibition among the students; culture-based classes which were to reveal the most appropriate techniques to teach a foreign
culture among young inhibited students. There were 12 sessions devoted to every class. The treatment reported in the paper
shows that some carefully selected techniques of teaching applied by teachers during culture-based classes lower the degree of
inhibition among students, which will be discussed in the last part of the presentation.
Tammy Gregersen
Language Learning Vibes: The What, Why and How
This paper examines the primacy of emotion in cognition, especially in the language learning process. After first establishing the
pivotal role of affect as a precursor to thought and behaviour in the form of “vibes” (automatic, unconscious sensations evoked
by scanning our memories for related events that will colour any future thought or action), we will investigate applications from
the field of positive psychology to teaching language. Particular attention will be paid to the role of nonverbal communication.
Ewa Guz
L1 and L2 formulaic sequences in the speech of Polish advanced learners of English
Formulaic language has become an increasingly important topic in applied linguistics in recent years and many questions
concerning the second language use and acquisition of such language are still unanswered. The primary goal of the present study
is to investigate the extent to which Polish advanced learners of English utilize prefabricated language in their L1 and L2 oral
production. Our analysis is based on a 22,000 word dataset which includes speeches delivered in Polish and English by fifty three
Polish academic students enrolled at the second year of a three-year teacher training program. In the course of our investigation
we establish the proportion of text in the learner output which is built according to the idiom principle i.e. constructed from prepacked, ready-made formulaic sequences. We also calculate the proportion of text constructed according to the open choice
principle i.e. generated at the moment of speaking on the basis of grammatical rules. The central premise of our investigation is
that each speech sample constitutes a series of slots. Each slot-filling act is seen as a single lexical choice i.e. a single retrieval
from the mental lexicon which involves either a multiword formulaic sequence (or one or more of its elements) or a free
morpheme. The results of our analysis indicate that the overall values reflecting the proportion of slots and choices involving
parts of formulaic sequences in L1 and L2 output are very similar and equal approximately twenty per cent of the produced
speech.
Selected bibliography:
Cowie, A. P. (ed.) (1998) Phraseology: Theory, Analysis and Applications. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Erman, B. and Warren, B. (2000) “The idiom principle and the open choice principle.” Text 20(1), 29-62.
Müldner-Nieckowski, P. (2007) Frazeologia Poszerzona. Warszawa: Oficyna WydawniczaVolumen.
Namba, K. (2006) “Formulaicity in code-switching: theory.” Retrieved from http://yayoi.senri.ed.jp/research/re12/
06KNamba12.pdf 03/06/09.
Schmitt, N. (2004) Formulaic Sequences. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Sinclair, John M. (1991) Corpus, Concordance, Collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wray, A. (2000) “Formulaic sequences in second language teaching.” Applied Linguistics, 21 (4), 463-489.
Wray, A. (2002) Formulaic Language and the Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wray, A. (2008) Formulaic Language: Pushing the Boundaries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wray, A. and Namba, K. (2003) “Formulaic language in a Japanese-English bilingual child: A practical approach to data analysis.”
Japan Journal for Multilingualism and Multiculturalism 9/ I, 24-51.
Mansour Homilpour, Seyed Hossein Fazeli
The evaluation of the use and ranking of the English Language Leaning Strategies (ELLSS) among the Iranian university
students of the English language
Applying the proverb “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime” in language
learning, tells us that if the students are taught the strategies of language learning to work out, they will be empowered to
manage their own learning.
In fact, learning strategies are sensitive to the learning context and to the learner’s internal processing preferences. In such
situation, there is claim that the use of Language Learning Strategies (LLSs) helps the learners retrieve and store material, and
facilitate their language learning. In this way, the importance of encouraging Language Learning Strategies (LLSs) is undeniable.
In the present study, the researchers aim to assess the frequency of English Language Leaning Strategy (ELLS) use and ranking of
such strategies among the Iranian university students who study English as a university major.
Around five hundred of the students who study English as a university major from different universities were volunteer to
participate in the current study.
The results show different frequency of uses and rankings for all type of English Language Learning Strategies (ELLSs) of the
population that participated in the present study.
Karen Jacob
A transcultural approach to English language learning
Due to the use of English in a more global environment recent literature on English language learning and teaching (ELT)
proposes a change in the traditional ‘English as a foreign language (EFL)’ paradigm (Byram, 2008; Graddol, 2006; Risager, 2006,
2007). This paradigm change allows learners of English to reject the traditional tenets of EFL such as the ‘native speaker’
(linguistic competence) and ‘knowledge of specific cultural information pertinent to English-speaking countries’ (intercultural
competence)’, and encourages a more personalised use of English. Not only does this imply the adaptation of English to their
own individual requirements but it also allows English language speakers to broaden their cultural knowledge on a global level
and thus promotes international understanding through the use of a mutually intelligible linguistic form. This paper presents
work in progress which explores how two groups of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Poland and Spain are able to
negotiate cultural meaning between cultures in a virtual ‘third space’ and thus, develop an awareness of cultural diversity using
English as the mode of communication.
Małgorzata Jedynak
Affectivity in learning L2 phonology/phonetics – the role of self-concept in successful acquisition of English pronunciation
Self-concept is an important element in foreign language motivation. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with selfesteem and self-image. However, Burns (1976) points to a distinction between self-concept and self-esteem. The former is the
outcome of the processes of self-evaluation while the latter of self-worth. Undoubtedly, the measurement of self-concept poses
a great problem for two reasons. Firstly, self-perceptions based on a self-rating can be hardly called accurate. Secondly, it is
almost impossible to avoid self-flattery syndrome of respondents. External assessment involving interview, observation or
indirect methods seem to be more valid. Self-concept is shaped by a number of diverse factors which may be either inborn or
imposed by family environment. Affectivity seems to be relevant to any discussion on successful attainment in the
phonetic/phonological domain since learning L2 pronunciation is the most sensitive to the impact of human emotions. In the
study the researcher investigated the influence of learners’ self-concept on their pronunciation in English. Success in foreign
language pronunciation defined as the level of native-likeness was established by the native speakers of English on a four point
scale. Research findings show unequivocally that there is a strong positive correlation between the two variables.
Rafał Jończyk
Hemifield specialization for emotion: EFL study on the laterality of perception and memory
Research on cerebral lateralization of perception and memory for emotional verbal stimuli has so far produced inconclusive
results supporting either of the three models of emotion processing, i.e. the right hemisphere (RH) model (Borod et al. 1998),
the valence model (Ali and Cimino 1997), and the integrated model (Killgore and Yurgelun-Todd 2007).
The goal of the study is to explore the disparaging results so far obtained within the theoretical framework of cerebral laterality
of emotional verbal stimuli.
45 bilingual participants (undergraduates at the School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University) will be presented with positive,
negative and neutral verbal stimuli unilaterally in a lexical decision task to explore the hemifield specialization for perception of
emotion. Following the on-line task, a free-word recall task and subsequently a word recognition task will be administered to
investigate the laterality of memory for emotional verbal stimuli. Response latencies and accuracy rates data for the positive vs.
negative emotional valence of primes and targets in the right and left visual field will be elicited and contrasted.
The results are expected to contribute to the research on cerebral lateralization of emotion in a two-fold manner. Firstly, they
will either validate, or fail to validate, the most recent verbal valence lateralization theories. Secondly, the obtained results will
extend the so far exclusively monolingual valence hemifield research to bilingual context.
References:
Ali, N. – C. Cimino (1997). Hemispheric lateralization of perception and memory for emotional verbal stimuli in normal
individuals. Neuropsychology, 11: 114-125
Borod, J.C. – B.A. Cicero – L.K. Obler – et al. (1998). Right hemisphere emotional perception: evidence across multiple channels.
Neuropsychology, 12: 446-458
Killgore, W.D.S. – D. A. Yurgelun-Todd (2007). The right-hemisphere and valence hypotheses: Could they both be right (and
sometimes left)? Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2: 240-250
Ali Asghar Kargar, Firooz Sadighi
Scaffolded Extensive Reading as an Anxiety Reducing Strategy in an Iranian EFL context
Foreign Language Reading Anxiety (FLRA), distinguished as a distinct phenomenon from general language anxiety, has been
shown to have a negative impact on reading comprehension skill especially for less proficient EFL learners. FLRA is believed to
originate from "unfamiliar writing system" or learners' difficulty in pronouncing words and sentences (Saito, Graza, and
Horwitz,1999). Slow or word by word readers are often anxious while trying to read unfamiliar words. In addition, readers
experience anxiety when they want to relate texts' message to their background knowledge; FLRA comes from "unfamiliar
cultural materials". Pedagogical implications of FLRA studies usually suggest anxiety free situations as well as anxiety
reducing strategies to help low level learners overcome their reading anxiety and better develop their reading skills. This
study was conducted to find the possible effect of an amalgamate of scaffolded and extensive reading (SER) to relieve FLRA.
Forty low-ability readers were divided into two groups, control and experimental groups. Experimental group read 10 story
books during ten weeks in a scaffolded environment, whereas control group continued their traditional reading class. Analysis of
the results of the study indicated that after treatment, the experimental group was significantly less anxious than the control
group and confirmed the effectiveness of the program to reduce FLRA of Iranian low proficient readers.
Sadeg Ebrhimi Kavari, Seyed Hossein Fazeli
The evaluation of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) of Rebecca L. Oxford among Iranian students of the
English language
Application of Strategy Inventory is one of the most efficient and comprehensive way to assess frequency of language leaning
strategy use. The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) version (ESL/EFL) of Rebecca L. Oxford (1986-1990), as the
most world-wide strategy inventory, is applied in the most of research works around the world to assess the frequency of English
language learning strategy use.
In the present study, the researchers aim to evaluate the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) version (ESL/EFL) of
Rebecca L. Oxford among Iranian university level students who study English as a university major. Such evaluation, as
psychometric qualities of SILL version (ESL/EFL), includes all six categories of 50-item SILL.
Around five hundred of the students from different universities who study English as a university major were volunteer to
participate in the current study.
The results show that SILL version (ESL/EFL) of Rebecca L. Oxford can be applied as a high reliable and valid strategy inventory to
assess the frequency of language learning strategy use among Iranian university level learners of English language as a university
major.
Ireneusz Kida
Relaxation and association techniques in Spanish listening comprehension classes
The aim of my paper is to discuss some relaxation techniques that I use in Spanish listening comprehension classes in order for
the students to get rid of negative and undesirable emotions and make the best of the classes in a pleasurable way. The classes
consist in listening to multiple authentic materials related to culture, adventure, history, and others. After every listening session
(there are usually 3 or 4 of them) students are expected to work in pairs, or on occasions in groups, in order to cooperate in
problem solving activities. While students are working in pairs or groups they are exposed to relaxing music of various kinds,
such as baroque, tai chi, etc. The music factor is supposed to increase the effectiveness of the learning process, to reduce the
load of negative and undesirable emotions that hinder learning, and to bring the element of pleasure into the classroom.
Oftentimes the kind of music that is played is adjusted to the kind of texts to which students are exposed. For example if a given
text is about sea life, the music needs to contain sounds connected with water, seagulls, etc. However, if a given text concerns
some sad matter, the music also needs to be sad. Such a technique enables students to associate the individual listening
comprehension classes with a given kind of music, which later on can help them in recalling the vocabulary items that appeared
in those classes. I drew basically on the assumptions of Lazanov’s Suggestopedia and adapt them to the needs of Spanish
listening comprehension classes.
Marcin Kleban
Speaking anxiety while using an online voice discussion board
Research indicates that oral production induces comparatively higher anxiety levels than other foreign language learning tasks.
Lowering learners’ anxiety may be claimed to have a positive effect on their performance. In this context, the paper describes a
study which compares students’ anxiety levels while completing two speaking tasks. These tasks required a group of
intermediate/upper-intermediate young adult students of English as a foreign language to record their spoken utterances using
an asynchronous online voice discussion board. The tasks differed in that in one of them the learners completed the exercise
under their real names while in the second the students were asked to take on a different identity. The students’ anxiety levels
diagnosed while performing the speaking tasks on these two conditions were compared. The study aims to answer the question
whether adopting a different identity might contribute to lowering the anxiety related to performing a speech recording task.
Additionally, pedagogical implications concerning organizing technology-supported speaking tasks are discussed.
Anna Klecha
Language and task switching in bilinguals: in search of common executive foundations
Recent research has demonstrated an advantage of bilinguals when contrasted with monolinguals on a variety of tasks testing
executive control (Bialystok and Martin 2004; Bialystok and Shapero 2005; Martin-Rhee and Bialystok 2008), which can be
divided into several components, such as updating of working memory, inhibition of distractors or competing responses and
shifting between mental sets (Prior and MacWhinney 2010). Pior and MacWhinney (2010) reported reduced switching costs for
bilinguals, when compared with monolinguals on a task-switching paradigm. The findings were interpreted as indicative of the
bilinguals' increased efficiency in shifting mental sets. However, very little, if any, attention has been devoted to individual
differences in bilinguals as for the development of such efficiency.
The bilingual advantage in executive control has been attributed to the constant need of controlling two competing language
systems and inhibiting the non-target one, especially in language switching. Task and language switching were considered similar
in terms of the need to resolve competition before responding, the presence of switching costs and switch cost asymmetries as
well as the engagement of the same brain regions (Prior and MacWhinney 2010). Still, it has been demonstrated that the degree
of difficulty involved in switching languages and cognitive processes that underlie it can be qualitatively and quantitatively
different, depending on the bilinguals' proficiency and the extent to which the two languages are balanced (Meuter and Allport
1999; Costa and Santesteban 2004; Costa et al. 2006).
The aim of the present study, then, is to test bilinguals on both language and non-linguistic task switching to detect possible
correlations between the efficiency of switching languages and the efficiency of shifting mental sets. First, bilingual participants
are to take part in a language switching experiment involving picture naming. Once the language switching cost is determined for
each participant individually, bilinguals will be tested on a task-switching paradigm, adapted from Prior and MacWhinney (2010).
It is hypothesized that bilinguals who exhibit lower language switching costs will correspondingly show higher efficiency in
shifting mental sets than bilinguals demonstrating high costs of switching between languages.
Selected bibliography:
Bialystok. E., Martin, M. and Viswanathan, M. 2005. „Bilingualism across the lifespan: the rise and
fall of inhibitory control.
International Journal of Bilingualism, 9, 103-119.
Bialystok, E. and Shapero, D. 2005. „Ambiguous benefits: the effect of bilingualism on reversing ambiguous
figures”.
Developmental Science, 8, 595-604.
Bialystok, E. 2009. „Bilingualism: The good, the bad and the indifferent”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 3-11.
Costa, Albert and Mikel Sanesteban. 2004. “Lexical access in bilingual speech production:
Evidence from language switching
in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners”, Journal
of Memory and Language 50: 491–511.
Costa, Albert, Mikel Santesteban and Iva Ivanova. 2006. “How do highly proficient bilinguals control their lexicalization process:
Inhibitory and language-specific selection mechanisms
are both functional”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory and Cognition 32, 5: 1057-1074.
Martin-Rhee, M.M. and Bialystok, E. 2008. „The development of two types of inhibitory control in
monolingual and bilingual
children”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 81-93.
Meuter, Renata and Alan Allport. 1999. “Bilingual language switching in naming: asymmetrical
costs of language selection”,
Journal of Memory and Language 40: 25–40.
Prior, Anat and Brian MacWhinney. 2010. „A bilingual advantage in task switching”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13:
253-262.
Anna Klimas
Goals pursuit in a foreign language classroom - students' perspective
It is widely acknowledged that in order to be a successful language learner, one needs to possess a number of attributes.
Nevertheless, even without consulting research findings, we do know from our everyday experience that there is no learning if
there is no motivation to learn. Motivation can be analysed from many perspectives depending on the point of focus, but
practically all L2 motivation theories acknowledge the vital role of goals. Goal-setting seems to be a prominent constituent of
language learning because it affects the extent of learners’ effort, persistence, active involvement, and attitudes toward
learning.
The paper discusses the nature of goal-setting processes taking place in a secondary school classroom. Since achieving a goal is a
long-lasting and effortful experience, the research described in the presentation aimed at distinguishing and naming the factors
which may either enhance or inhibit goal attainment. It could be achieved by means of students’ observations, reflection, and
contemplation of everything that happened in the classroom as well as outside it.
Jolanta Latkowska
Interpersonal relationships from a bilingual perspective
The paper is concerned with how Polish/English bilinguals refer to interpersonal relationships in both their languages. Since the
data for the project were collected in formal and naturalistic settings, the paper offers insights into how the context of L2 use
influences the acquisition of relevant vocabulary and semantic distinctions, and whether these reflect the underlying conceptual
contrasts.
Aleksandra Łuczak
Analysing Legal English students’ present and learning situation. On needs, wishes, wants, musts, lacks, aims, strategies, strengths, weaknesses
University students who attend Legal English courses have not much choice. They usually follow a course structured by their
teachers who try to satisfy not only the students but also school authorities, ministry requirements, as well as take their own
comfort, potential and experience into consideration.
It is believed that university students are too young and professionally inexperienced to be aware of their occupational target
language needs. Therefore, the heaviest burden of responsibility for structuring language courses is shifted onto the shoulders of
the language teachers.
However, the students, especially those who are proficient in English (at least B2 CEFR) when they enrol at university, are
experienced language learners who are aware of their weaknesses and strengths, wishes and wants, lacks and musts.
The paper will present the results of the present needs analysis conducted among linguistically advanced law students attending
a 360 hour course leading towards TOLES (Test of Legal English Skills) examination. The research will investigate the present
learning situation trying to explore the most effective techniques, strategies, examples of good practices that motivate students
to learn Legal English. The paper will also concentrate on identifying the possible demotivators which discourage learners from
improving Legal English skills.
Andrzej Łyda
Disciplinary cultures and emotions. Emotive lexis in research articles.
“I feared that my thesis would be inconclusive” and “The results were surprising” are only two of a multitude of expressions that
supervisors of a degree theses continually find in their students texts. And equally often they face a dilemma whether to cross
these expressions out or tone them down into an emotion-free formulations, as recommended by authors of academic writing
handbooks. This paper examines the use of emotive expressions in two corpora of research papers from the domain of language
and communication and biology and attempts to show the extent to which emotions are conventionally lexicalized in the
metatext of allegedly objective and neutral academic texts.
Beata Malczewska-Webb
International Students’ attitudes towards life in Australia
Australia is one of the world’s main destinations for students who pursue their education outside their home countries. Over half
a million of international students choose to study in Australia every year and this internationalisation process has been rapidly
changing the status quo of the Australian education system. The greatest increase in international student numbers occurs at a
tertiary level. Much research has focused on issues related to students’ linguistic and academic performance and issues related
to these. Little research has been done to examine affective factors stemming from the students’ experience of life in Australia
beyond their studies. In the past twenty years, up to fifty per cent of students at Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia, have
come from overseas. This paper examines Bond University international students’ attitudes towards various aspects of everyday
life and routines and their perceptions of other related issues such as the level of preparation for ‘the international experience’.
It is hoped that the outcomes of this research will assist universities in developing strategies improving the international
experience for all involved; students, teachers and administrators.
Zbigniew P. Możejko
The role of affective factors in CLIL provision in the secondary school
The aim of the paper is to investigate which affective factors play a significant role in shaping institutionalized English language
teaching at the lower-secondary school level.
The paper will outline those affective factors which seem especially pertinent in the learning and teaching of young adolescents
(aged 14 – 16). It will also discuss CLIL provision at the lower-secondary school level in Poland, highlighting the areas of potential
difficulty and conflict.
The third part of the paper presents empirical results of a study conducted on three groups of respondents: lower-seconadry
school pupils (ca. n=40), their parents (ca. n=40) and content-subject teachers (n=4), whose aim was to offer a tri-partite
perspective on those affective dimensions which play an important role in CLIL instruction.
Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak
Willingness to communicate and the Ideal L2 Self in the Polish educational context
Willingness to communicate (WTC), perceived as either a personality trait or/and a context-related feature, seems to be capable
of accounting for a person’s first and second language communication. Definitely, among the factors shaping one’s WTC the
language of discourse appears to play one of the most significant roles. If the language of communication is changed, numerous
factors become immediately affected, thus contributing to changes in WTC. The model of WTC developed by MacIntyre et al.
(1998), which aimed to describe, explain and predict L2 communication, regards the concept of motivation, traditionally split
into the integrative and instrumental motives. However, with the emergence of the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei 2005)
the model has been reexamined and the construct of the Ideal L2 Self has been included in the analysis of learners’ readiness to
contribute to target language discussions (e.g. Yashima 2009). The present paper reports the results of a survey conducted
among university students of English tapping the relations between their L1 and L2 WTC, level of proficiency and the Ideal L2
Self. The analysis of the collected data reveals that L2 WTC is not solely a result of increased proficiency, neither is it dependent
on L1 WTC. Moreover, it appears that the self-related model of motivation is able to account for differences in the students’
desire to communicate in the target language.
Joanna Nijakowska
Politeness in written academic discourse: the case of EFL methodology textbooks
The paper presents the results of a pilot case-study – an analysis of discourse strategies used by academics to present, criticize
and support scientific claims in EFL methodology textbooks. Methodologically, the study draws from the framework of linguistic
politeness (Brown and Levinson, 1987), informed by the metadiscourse framework (Hyland, 1998, 2000, 2005; Myers, 1989,
1992).
The study uses the apparatus offered by the politeness theory, to address the issue of the affective dimension in language
learning with reference to EFL methodology textbook readers. Apparently monologic but in fact dialogic relation that holds
between the writer and the reader is no less complex than any human social interaction grounded in interpersonal discourse
whose critical component is a series of politeness strategies. The way writers position themselves in their texts and the way they
get readers involved can, at least to some extent, determine the feelings and emotions, which translate into particular
motivations and attitudes readers (teacher trainees) develop towards the text they encounter.
Linguistic politeness refers to the decisions made with reference to language use, to linguistic choices that secure one’s desire to
be liked, accepted, respected, appreciated by others and one’s need to have freedom from imposition and ability to act as one
chooses. Employed by discourse participants, linguistic politeness strategies enable promoting and enhancing self-image and
self-worth (face) and reduce social pressure and friction resulting from power differential, degree of imposition and social
distance.
While written academic discourse has been extensively analyzed, there seems to be a gap in research concerning detailed
analysis of the academic written discourse practiced in foreign language teacher education with regard to methodology
textbooks written with pre- and in-service teachers in mind. The type and number of expressions of solidarity, restraint and
avoidance of imposition are directly linked to social determinants, namely the relationship between the writer and the reader as
well as the potential “imposition” of the content. Greater social distance, power differential and ratio of imposition produce
more salient threats to face that need to be mitigated and compensated in the use of redressive language and appropriate
linguistic strategy in order to satisfy the face needs of discourse (in fact, text) participants.
My attempt in this paper is to establish how these mechanisms are reflected in textbooks aimed at foreign language teachers
and trainees. The research questions I seek answers to are as follows: What are the facework patterns and regularities that
govern the relation between the writer and the reader in methodology textbooks in the field of foreign language teaching (EFL)
and teacher education? Is there a preference towards the use of particular politeness strategies?
Agnieszka Otwinowska-Kasztelanic
CLIL lessons in the upper-primary: the interplay of affective factors and CALP
According the Council of Europe, CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is one of the most powerful and convincing
new approaches in education. When carefully implemented, CLIL can be really successful in increasing learners’ basic
conversational skills (BICS) and academic skills (CALP), as recent research shows. While many teachers and educators in Poland
still look upon CLIL as something almost exotic, private schools try to introduce this ‘current trend’ even at the primary level. The
way of implementing CLIL strongly affects the way it is perceived by children and their parents. Their perceptions, in turn,
influence motivation to learn.
The paper will present the results of a survey carried out on upper-primary children (10 and 11-year olds), concerning their
emotions and attitudes towards their CLIL lessons of mathematics and science. The survey task consisted in finishing a set of
sentences within a given time limit. The results of the survey will be interpreted in accordance with Cummins’s BICS/CALP
theory. The qualitative results will then be confronted with the results of a quantitative study which concerned the children’s
and their parent’s beliefs on learning English and CLIL. Conclusions will be drawn concerning the organisational and
administrative aspects of implementing CLIL at the primary level, its aims, methodology, and problems related to this approach.
Katarzyna Ożańska-Ponikwia
Different languages = Different selves? Why some people feel different while using a foreign language and some don’t?
Languages may create different words for their speakers who feel that their selves change with the shift to a different language
(Pavlenko, 2006) what was widely confirmed by autobiographical insights (Barańczak, 1990; Besemeres, 2002, 2004; Hoffman,
1989; Parks, 1996; Wierzbicka, 1997, 1999). The notion of ‘feeling different’ while operating in a foreign language was
empirically addressed for the first time by Dewaele and Pavlenko (2001-2003) in their online questionnaire on Bilingualism and
emotions, resulting in over 1,000 multilingual responses. A preliminary analysis of the responses showed that almost half of
respondents said that they always felt different; with others saying that they felt different sometimes or occasionally. However,
about a third said that they never felt different. So why some people feel different and some don’t while operating in a foreign
language?
The very issue was took up by Wilson (2008) who in her study researched the feelings that individuals express about operating in
a foreign language with reference to specific personality traits. What she found was that a number of independent variables,
including personality traits, perceived proficiency and when and how the language was acquired, can influence how individuals
feel about foreign language use. Our study goes a step further and is the first one that incorporates both higher order
personality traits (Big Five) and lower order personality traits like trait emotional intelligence (TEIQue) into research on ‘feeling
different’ while operating in a foreign language. We have found that a number of personality traits and emotional intelligence
facets influenced perception of possible behavioral changes occurring while conversing in a foreign language. Thus, it could be
speculated that reporting self-perceived changes in personality while operating in a foreign language is more the matter of
self/social awareness as well as emotional intelligence than the existence of these changes as such. Consequently, it is our
personality that enables us to notice them and that could explain why some people ‘feel different’ while using a foreign language
and some don’t.
Katarzyna Papaja, Arkadiusz Rojczyk
Motivation from the perspective of a CLIL teenage learner
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an innovative approach which refers to educational settings where a
language other than the learners’ mother tongue is used as the medium of instruction. The other language can be found in use
from kindergarten to tertiary level, and the extent of its use may range from occasional foreign language texts in individual
subjects to covering the whole curriculum. Naturally, they must have some basic knowledge of the language they are learning
and be capable of understanding the content. As knowledge of the language becomes the means of learning content, the learner
is highly motivated and language acquisition becomes crucial.
CLIL classrooms are not typical language classrooms due to the fact that language is the medium through which content is
“transported”. Non-linguistic content is used to teach a language and learners acquire new knowledge but in a foreign language.
Motivation is an important affective variable to consider in the CLIL classroom. It refers to the driving force in any classroom
situation. In the CLIL classroom, the motivated individual expends effort to learn both content and language. He/she also
expresses desire to succeed and will strive to achieve success. On the other hand, such an individual enjoys the task of learning
content through a foreign language and considers it to be fun.
Bearing in mind the importance of motivation in learning and teaching a second language as well as in any kind of subject, we
decided to conduct a research among the young CLIL learners from a Lower Secondary Education. This target group seemed to
be very interesting because on the one hand, it is driven by the instrumental motivation and on the other hand by the
integrative motivation. The intent of this address is to discuss the role of the CLIL learner in understanding the motivation to
learn subjects through a foreign language. In order to guide this discussion, attention will be directed toward the socioeducational model of second language acquisition, which will be presented in detail.
Mirosław Pawlak
The dynamic nature of motivation in language learning: A classroom perspective
When we examine the empirical investigations of motivation in second and foreign language learning, even those drawing upon
the latest theoretical paradigms, such as the L2 motivational self system (cf. Dörnyei 2009), it becomes clear that many of them
still fail to take account of its dynamic character and temporal variation. This may be somewhat surprising in view of the fact that
the need to adopt such a process-oriented approach has been emphasized by a number of theorists and researchers (e.g.
William and Burden 1997; Ushioda 1998; Dörnyei 2000, 2001) and it lies at the heart of the model of second language
motivation proposed by Dörnyei and Ottó (1998). It is also unfortunate that few research projects have addressed the issue of
how motivation changes during a language lesson as well as a series of such lessons, and what factors might be responsible for
fluctuations of this kind. The present paper aims to rectify this problem by reporting the findings of a classroom-based study
which investigated changes in the motivation of 32 upper secondary school students as a function of the tasks performed, the
aims and stages of a lesson, and a sequence of lessons over the period of four weeks. The analysis of the data collected by
means of questionnaires, observations and interviews showed that motivation is indeed subject to considerable variation on a
minute-to-minute basis and this fact has to be recognized even in large-scale, cross-sectional research in this area.
Aneta Pavlenko
PLENARY PAPER: Nie widziałam cię już od miesiąca: The role of affect and desire in second language learning
Once upon a time, a young girl in Kiev opened a volume of Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska and fell under the magic spell of Polish
poetry… But what does it mean to fall in love with a language? What role does affect, be it positive or negative, play in our
language choice and use? How can we understand the interplay between desire for language and desire for an alternative
identity? The purpose of this talk is to discuss ways in which recent research both challenges and expands our understanding of
affective dimensions of second language learning allowing us to move from traditional constructs of ‘attitudes’, ‘motivation’,
‘language loyalty’, and ‘anxiety’ to the entire gamut of human emotions.
Liliana Piasecka
Identification and verbal expression of emotions by users of English as a foreign language
Human cognitive activity as well as social life revolve around emotions which may be expressed overtly, covertly or entirely
suppressed. They may be shown non-verbally, by getures, facial expressions or body language, but also verbally. In the context
of learning a foreign language, linguistic means employed to indicate an emotional state of a language user are of particular
interest. Among many questions that appear in this context, some pertain to whether L2 learners can identify their emotions
and whether they have acquired a linguistic repertoire to express them. Thus, the aim of this talk is to discuss, on the basis of a
study carried out in English as a foreign language context, what feelings L2 users have when they are put in emotionally loaded
situations and how they express their feelings linguistically.
Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel
Self-efficacy beliefs and FL achievement in the context of the Polish secondary grammar school
Self-efficacy is one’s belief that they can accomplish a task or a set of tasks (Bandura 1997). The key role of such beliefs in human
functioning is that ‘people’s level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they believe than on what
is objectively true’ (Bandura, 1997, p. 2). They provide the foundation not only for human motivation, but also for personal
accomplishment and well-being. It had been proved that people with high levels of self-efficacy exert more effort, persistence
and attention; they also set more challenging goals, which leads to enhanced performance (Pajares, 1996).
The empirical research, though extremely scarce (e.g., Gorsuch, 2009; Griffee, 1997; Templin, Guile & Okuma 2001), show that
self-efficacy in the foreign language process may be a critical variable meriting thorough investigation.
The aim of the study is to analyze the relationship between self-efficacy and L2 achievement in the context of a Polish secondary
school. It is expected that also in the Polish educational context self-efficacy may turn a significant variable explaining the foreign
language student’s success or failure.
Aleksandra Raźniak
Activating affective hemisphere in lower-primary classes
Language learning is a process that involves both cognitive as well as affective factors. In the case of adults the cognitive factors
are prevailing due to the left hemisphere dominance. However, affective factors have an inevitable impact on language learning.
As Selinker and Gass claim, an affective filter acts as a barrier to learning (2008:402) In the case of young learners both cognitive
and affective factors play a vital role as a consequence of not completed lateralisation and both right and left hemisphere
involvement. Recent research indicates that more right hemisphere involvement is present in young learner process of language
learning. In addition, the affective filter is not present or active (Selinker, Gass 2008:402). Thus, activating right hemisphere in
lower primary classes seems to have a significant impact on acquiring and learning L2. The paper will consider two ways of
activating right hemisphere by using songs and nursery rhymes: traditional and alternative one and some implications for further
teaching and learning process.
Heidemarie Sarter
PLENARY PAPER: Attitudes, emotions, motivations, and the teaching of foreign languages
After a short introduction, the talk will start out with some considerations concerning the motivation of young students who
want to become foreign language teachers. This part is based on a questionnaire, asking students why they choose this option as
their future profession, and what – in their opinion – should be the competencies a foreign language teacher has to have. As the
field of emotions related to language teaching is large and diversified, we will take a closer look at different aspects of it in the
second part of the talk in order to relate them to motivations and attitudes involved in teaching foreign languages.
Shiva Seddighi, Firooz Sadighi
The Effect of Glossing on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension
Following the studies done on the relationship between glossing and reading comprehension (e.g. Davis, 1989; Jacobs, 1994;
Hulstijn, Hollander, and Greidanus, 1996), this study using quantitative measures, investigates how glossing can affect Iranian
EFL learners’ reading comprehension. To achieve such a goal, 50 students studying at Shiraz University participated in this study
in the Fall semester, 2009. Half of them were randomly assigned to read the text with glosses and the other half read the text
without glosses. Then, they were asked to take a multiple-choice reading comprehension test. The results of the quantitative
analyses indicated that the second language (L2) gloss condition significantly affected students' reading comprehension. In this
study, the students have had enough knowledge in English enabling them to remember the meanings of the glossed words and
apply them to the reading text. The research null hypotheses hypothesizing that there is no relationship between glossing and
the degree of comprehension and of the text, the test methods, and vocabulary learning were rejected by the application of a ttest.
Keywords: Glossing, English glosses, reading comprehension, vocabulary learning, test methods
David Singleton
PLENARY PAPER: Affective dimensions of second language ultimate attainment
This paper addresses ultimate attainment in second language acquisition through the lens of affectivity. The paper claims an
important role for affective dimensions in this context, thus diverging from the customary assumption that the almost exclusive
determinant of ultimate attainment is a maturationally based critical period with an early, predictable and abrupt offset point
(cf. Muñoz & Singleton 2011). The paper considers recent work which points to the impact of a wider range of factors in this
connection, notably of those which are affective in nature. It concludes that a loosening of the association between ultimate
second language attainment research and Critical Period Hypothesis issues would lead to more light being shed on second
language attainment in terms both of the comprehensiveness and of the acuity of the insights made available.
Reference:
Muñoz, C. & Singleton, D. (2011), A critical review of age-related research on L2 ultimate attainment, Language Teaching 44 (1),
1-35
Maria Stec
The affective aspects in early language learning and syllabuses
The paper will focus on the affective aspects in the context of early foreign language learning. The aim is to investigate a
teacher’s role in developing children’s emotional competencies and analyse a selected number of English syllabuses. The
question is How far should we act as moral guides as well as being teachers of foreign languages? The additional aim is to enrich
the practice of supporting young learners’ emotional intelligence.
Agnieszka Strzałka
Taboo/non-conventional content as an attitude and emotion sensitive tool
Affect in language learning, understood as an emotional reaction to the subject, learning environment, methods and contents,
shows among learners at all levels of advancement and of all age groups. Positive affect, such as a feeling of interest,
pleasantness (or usefulness) of tasks and satisfaction with one’s performance, results in increased motivation to learn the
language, while negative emotions, such as boredom, tension or fear, typically lead to negative attitudes and, as a consequence,
low results of learning. As some learners, especially adult ones, tend to conceal their emotional reactions to the learning
situation, not always may language teachers recognise the sources of the difficulties they experience.
It has been an interest of the authors to study young adults’ affective response to an alternative to typical ELT content, which is
“safe”, “universal”, “politically correct” material, in the form of “sensitive“, “nonconventional” or even “taboo” topics.
Classroom research conducted in an institution of higher education showed increased interest, higher task motivation and
active involvement on the part of the students with many years of English learning experience (sometimes fed up with same or
similar content) whose teachers decided to use some “off record” themes to practice language skills in their classrooms.
Anna Studenska
Temperament and autonomy support by teachers and parents as correlates of self-motivating strategies use by foreign
language learners
Control over emotion and motivation is an important part of learning self-regulation. There is a need of the research concerning
personal and environmental characteristics related to the use of self-motivating strategies by foreign language learners. There
were two aims of the study. The first was to investigate which self-motivating strategies are used most frequently and which
least frequently by foreign language learners participating in the research. The second aim was to test the hypotheses
concerning the relationship between temperamental factors, autonomy support by teachers and parents and the use of selfmotivating strategies by foreign language learners. High secondary school students (N=240) and university students (N=64) took
part in the research. EAS Questionnaire was used to measure temperamental factors. The participants completed also 5-item
scale measuring parental autonomy support (Cronbach alpha 0,81) and a scale consisting of 11 items concerning autonomy
support by their foreign language teachers (Cronbach alpha 0,85). To measure the frequency of self-motivating strategies use
27-item inventory constructed for the purpose of the research was administered. The inventory consists of four scales measuring
self-motivating in learning through: planning (Cronbach alpha 0,77) , maintaining focus on learning (Cronbach alpha 0,73),
associating positive emotions with learning (Cronbach alpha 0,73) and imagining consequences of actions (Cronbach alpha 0,69).
Conclusions for foreign languages teaching will be drawn from the research findings.
Aleksandra Szymańska
Affective factors as intervening and interfering variables in participant observation.
The author of the present paper plans to conduct a study (participant observation) in which she investigates the situation of
teaching English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). With the rise in the number of speakers of English as an international, rather than
ethnic language, it is considered important to introduce adjustments to the more traditional approach to teaching English.
Throughout the last century the English language has transformed itself into World Englishes and it is no longer possible to talk
about 'standard English' or the ownership of English. These transformations, which are very dynamic and prevalent, need to find
a reflection in a foreign language classroom. The author of this paper intends to introduce elements of English as a Lingua Franca
into a didactic process to evaluate its quality. In the present paper she plans to consider to what extent affective factors (e.g.
emotional attitude towards the language) may intervene and interfere when designing and conducting participant observation.
Agnieszka Ślęzak-Świat
Let’s face it: micro expressions – macro effect on foreign language learning and teaching
The paper will be devoted to the presentation of the outline of the longitudinal study devoted to the effect of skilful recognition
of micro expressions on language learning and teaching. Micro expressions appear on the face depending on which out of the
seven universal emotions (disgust, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and contempt) are experienced. We will present
some of preliminary results obtained from METT (Micro Expressions Testing Tool) Advanced, both pre-test and post-test, which
were used to verify hypothesis concerning training in recognizing micro expressions and its impact on students’ academic and
professional performance.
Artur Świątek
Anxiety in the acquisition of English articles by Poles
The aim of my presentation will be the never-ending problem of Polish learners related to the acquisition of English article
system. This time I would like to present it in the light of anxiety as one of several affective factors influencing learners` attention
and very frequently leading to a deterioration in language performance. Anxiety mainly manifests itself in introvert personality
traits, a lack of self-confidence or in awareness of limitations in a particular language skill area.
My presentation will commence with a theoretical part reminding the recipients a little about the theory concerning test anxiety.
Subsequently I will demonstrate why the articles are so challenging and troublesome for L2 learners, why the subjects are so
anxious about using them properly despite the passing years and gaining language experience.
In the final part of my paper I will present the results of my research ( article test ) and prove that the subjects show a test
anxiety in case of articles.
I hope the content of my presentation will provoke the addressees to relevant and constructive scientific discussions.
Ewa Tomczak, Anna Ewert
Fictive motion in Polish and English
The present study compares the processing of fictive motion, real motion (e.g. John climbs up the hill.) and static depictions (e.g.
The path is up the hill.) by English monolinguals, Polish monolinguals and near-native Polish speakers of English. The main
hypotheses of the study were that (1) fictive motion sentences will take longer to process than real motion and static depictions,
and that (2) fictive motion sentences will be processed faster when primed with verbs. The first hypothesis was confirmed in all
the groups. However, the monolingual groups differed in their responses to fictive motion sentences. English monolinguals
displayed shorter reaction times in response to fictive motion sentences primed with verbs in all experimental conditions, while
Polish monolinguals showed no facilitation of verb primes, which points to vast differences between the languages in the
conceptualization of motion. The near-native speakers of English showed a mixed pattern in both of their languages, thus
displaying bidirectional transfer from English into Polish and from Polish into English in their figurative language processing. In a
follow-up study we are going to look into differences in the processing of fictiveness and factiveness between Polish and English.
Anna Turula
Affect in b-learning: anxiety, motivation deficit, ego boundaries and other affective factors in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)
The paper is going to look at the affective dimension of blended learning with special regard to Virtual Learning Environments
(VLEs) in teacher training. It will be argued that VLEs are first and foremost learning environments and, as such, they show all
characteristics of traditional in-class learning milieus. This means that they include all of the offline affect-related problems such
as social anxiety, motivation deficits or problems related to thick ego boundaries to mention just a few issues. The paper is an
attempt at a preliminary description of the affective dimension of VLEs, carried out in the hope of initially staking the relatively
virgin territory of affect in VLEs rather than fully blueprinting it, and the presentation is actually going to pose more questions
than answers. The argument will be based on a number of own studies as well as the author’s four-year experience in teacher
training via e-learning platforms (the Moodle) and social software (Wikis, among others).
Agnieszka Turzańska
Communication strategies and self-efficacy in a student with hearing impairment – case study
The study aims to show the effects that a pronunciation and speaking training exerts on both psychological sphere and practical
abilities of a learner with hearing deficiency.
The subject of the case-study is a thirteen-year-old learner who was diagnosed 80% hearing impairment at the age of three. She
is very fluent in lip reading therefore she participates in public education and gains higher school results than average pupils at
her age without deficiency of this kind. She has good command of English grammar and vocabulary. Despite these abilities she is
unable to conduct a proper conversation in this language for three main reasons:
1. she cannot produce a proper utterance consisting of more than one sentence due to applying avoidance strategies,
2. she is unable to lip read English sounds what results in lack of understanding the foreign speech,
3. she has a low self-efficacy level resulting in judging herself as a poor speaker of English.
Having diagnosed these problems, the study will present the data collected during the course of a 17-week training in one-toone context which focuses on discussing the following issues:
1. methods of pronunciation teaching,
2. teaching lip reading in English supported by the cued speech method,
3. teaching compensatory strategies,
4. changing self-efficacy concept held by the learner as the user of a foreign language.
Ewa Waniek-Klimczak, Andrzej Porzuczek, Arkadiusz Rojczyk
Affective dimensions in SL pronunciation: A large-scale attitude study
The paper reports on a large-scale attitude study investigating affective dimensions in second-language pronunciation. Ultimate
success in learning foreign language speech has been found to be significantly correlated with affective factors that may
facilitate or hinder the process of learning. These factors are not easy to tap with groups of subjects that are limited in number.
The current study, which is a collaborative work organised at University of Łódź and University of Silesia, is based on a
questionnaire surveying a large population of Polish students of English at universities and colleges. The results are analyzed
using a multifactorial design that controls for variables such as learning experience, self-rated proficiency, or gender. The
research is expected to demonstrate how, and to what extent, affective dimensions are correlated with different aspects of
pronunciation learning. Any such correlations are an important factor in tailoring pronunciation courses that will be more
successful in providing more efficiently for affectivity in learners.
Danuta Wiśniewska
Interest and interest-enhancing strategies in the EFL classroom
Interest in learning activities is an affective state which arises from learners’ perception of these activities and which influences
learners’ engagement in learning and their achievement. Inevitably, not all classroom tasks are perceived by learners as
interesting. When the learners experience boredom, they either give up an activity or make an attempt to enhance its
interestingness. The present paper reviews some of the recent theories of interest and reports the results of a study aimed at
exploring interest in the context of EFL learning. The main goals of the study were 1) to find out how learners in junior high
school perceive EFL classroom activities in respect to their interestingness, and 2) to identify what kind of interest-enhancing
strategies these learners employ when they experience boredom. A two-part close-ended questionnaire was devised and
administered to two hundred learners from five junior high schools. The data were analysed quantitatively, taking also into
consideration such variables as gender, learners’ achievement and school context. The results of the study are expected to draw
teachers’ attention to the problem of interest and its counterpart, boredom, in the EFL classroom.
Ewa Witalisz
MA projects vs. published research: a corpus-based study
Working on their MA projects, Polish graduate students of English may be seen as L2 writers with two aspirations. Firstly, as
advanced L2 learners, they are approaching near-nativeness and do not wish to reveal their L1 identity. Secondly, by following
the conventions of disciplinary writing within a specific research area, they try to become legitimate members of the academic
community. Recent research into both near-native competence and ESP writing has largely benefited from corpus-based studies
that make it possible to examine recurring patterns, preferences and prosodies in texts and to identify more subtle features of
non-native or non-expert writers, such as patterns of underuse or overuse rather than errors.
The data-driven study discussed in this paper aimed to find out in what way the lexical patterns in MA projects written by Polish
graduate students differ from those of published authors. To examine these differences two corpora were compiled: a corpus of
MA projects and a corpus of articles published in the leading academic journals. Since writers’ lexical choices are not only genredependent, but they are substantially affected by the topic, the research area was narrowed down to a single topic, namely
errors in language learning and teaching. The corpora were analysed by means of the freeware concordance program AntConc
3.2.1. The tools used were Word list, Keyword list, Clusters (4-grams), Concordance and Collocates. The most interesting
patterns of overuse or underuse were examined in more detail in order to make some recommendations concerning L2 writing
instruction.
Teresa Maria Włosowicz
The role of motivation in multilingual acquisition and multilingualism research
The purpose of this paper is an analysis of several aspects of motivation relevant to multilingual acquisition and multilingualism
research methodology, as well as the presentation of some solutions and suggestions. The term ‘multilingual acquisition’ is used
here in reference to the process of becoming multilingual, irrespective of the order – simultaneous or consecutive – in which the
languages are learned or acquired.
In general, motivation plays an important role not only in the level of proficiency attained but also in the organisation of the
multilingual system. As Müller-Lancé (2003) has shown, the organisation of multilingual competence also depends on
psychological factors, hence, for example, the monolinguoid, or a person multilingual only ‘on paper’, does not use his or her
foreign languages due to a high level of anxiety and, arguably, lack of motivation to communicate in them, which leads to their
largely separate representation. Indeed, anxiety and motivation constitute not only important but also interdependent factors in
foreign language learning (Herdina and Jessner, 2002). As attribution theory (Weiner, 2000) shows, learners attribute their
success of failure to internal (e.g. language aptitude) or external (e.g. bad luck) factors, which influences their motivation.
However, multilingual acquisition is not only more complex than L2 learning from the point of view of linguistic competence but
it also requires higher motivation, which can be actually more difficult to achieve if the learner’s L2 is English, the global
language, as he or she may perceive no need to learn further languages. In such cases, instrumental motivation may be more
effective than integrative motivation (Gardner’s terms, 1985, in Dörnyei and Skehan, 2003), so learners should be given
examples of career opportunities for multilinguals (Wlosowicz, 2010a). Still, learners should also be encouraged to discover the
target language(s), for example, by using positive transfer in inferencing (Slodzian, 1997). According to Vollmer (2001), English
should actually serve as a stepping-stone towards multilingualism.
Motivation, especially executive motivation (Dörnyei, 2003), must also be taken into account in multilingualism research. It is
very important in inferencing tasks (Müller-Lancé, 2003) and, as Wlosowicz (2008/2009) has shown, automatic cognate form
assumption (cf. Hall, 2002) in the case of false friends may make the learners attribute their comprehension problems to the text
and not to their own insufficient vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, in studies on modularity in cognitive processing, motivation
can strongly affect the interpretation of the results. As has been supposed elsewhere (Wlosowicz, 2010b), ‘uncommentated’
responses, which Singleton (1993) regards as some evidence of unconscious intramodular processing, may also be due to a lack
of motivation. Therefore, it is advisable to encourage subjects to verbalise in think-aloud protocols not only their reasoning but
also their emotions related to the task.
In conclusion, motivation should be considered in multilingualism research as a more complex set of factors (rather than a single
factor, given the different types of motivation identified, for example, by Dörnyei, 2003) than in SLA research, hence
introspective techniques such as think-aloud protocols should be used in a variety of contexts and tasks. At the same time,
promoting multilingualism should involve motivational strategies (Dörnyei, 2001) in foreign language teaching, including
instrumental motivation and what can be called ‘discovery motivation’ (Wlosowicz, in press), or a form of curiosity aimed at
discovering the target language.
Monika Wołoszyn-Domagała
Selected Affective Factors as Presupposed Determinants of Acculturation Process of Polish Heritage Speakers in New England
in North-Eastern US
This article discusses and analyzes the role of affective factors in culture and language acquisition of Polish heritage speakers in
New England, in North-Eastern US. It presents the results of the pilot study of the project on “The Prototypes of Linguistic
Assimilation and Acculturation of Polish Heritage Speakers in New England, in North-Eastern US on Stimulation of American
Economy”.
The affective factors such as ego-permeability, motivation, language shock and culture shock have been selected for the purpose
of the pilot study. The main focus of the pilot study was the impact of selected affective factors on evaluation of the prototypes
of acculturation and linguistic assimilation of Polish heritage speakers in New England as the presupposed determinants of the
acculturation process.
The representatives of the three generations of Polish heritage speakers have been selected arbitrary and the questionnaire was
distributed to collect data and find out which affective factors are the determinants of the process of acculturation and linguistic
assimilation to mainstream American life.
The results were discussed with reference to three generations of Polish heritage speakers in New England, in North-Eastern US.
The pilot study conducted proved no significant difference in the impact of selected affective factors on acquisition of target
culture and language between generation two and three but proved a significant difference between third generation of Polish
heritage speakers in comparison to results of generation one and two.
The paper concludes with a number of questions and implications for future research on prototypes of acculturation and
assimilation of Polish heritage speakers in New England, in North-Eastern US.
Marzena Wysocka
The role of soft skills in FL learning
The paper constitutes an attempt to define the role of soft skills in the process of FL learning. The data derive from the
questionnaire distributed among the English philology students, and reveal the subjects’ attitudes to the qualities under
investigation, as well as their strengths and weaknesses within the competences given. Having identified the students’ needs,
the author of the project suggests ways of developing and promoting soft skills when shaping FL competence.