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The scope of individual learner differences is broad, yet there is no current, comprehensive, and unified volume that provides an overview of the considerable amount of research conducted on various language learner differences, until now.
Over the past decade, the focus of inquiry into the psychology of SLA has shifted from the analysis of various characteristics within individuals towards a greater consideration of individuals’ dynamic interactions with diverse contexts. This revisit of the bestselling The Psychology of the Language Learner reflects on these developments by challenging some of the assumptions upon which the original text was based, maintaining the familiar structure of the original, while situating the discussion within a very different theoretical framework. Written in a lively, accessible style, the book considers how the field has evolved and maintains a keen eye on the future, suggesting exciting new directions for the psychology of SLA. The Psychology of the Language Learner Revisited will appeal to students and researchers in a wide range of disciplines, including applied linguistics, second language acquisition, modern languages, and psychology.
Offering a timely snapshot of current theory and research in the field of psychology in foreign language learning, this book is accessible to both specialists and non-specialists. Each chapter focuses on a different psychological construct and provides an overview of current thinking in the area drawing on insights from educational psychology.
This edited volume brings together large-scale research as well as case studies from a range of geographical contexts and represents a variety of educational settings involving second language learners and users. Its aim is to explore the interrelated issues of psychology and technology use in second language learning settings as well as in more autonomous environments. As language learning professionals continue to devote more time and attention to making various technological tools an integral part of the classroom, it is just as important to understand the influences that these tools have on the psychological state of the learners who use them. In consideration of this objective, the volume examines factors such as learner attitudes and motivation, emotion and behaviour, and the cognitive processes that are at play in the minds of the language users. This volume will be of interest not only to language teachers but also to researchers working in second language acquisition (SLA), applied linguistics, and educational psychology.
This edited volume brings together both established and emerging researcher voices from around the world to illustrate how complexity perspectives might contribute to new ways of researching and understanding the psychology of language learners and teachers in situated educational contexts. Chapter authors discuss their own perspectives on researching within a complexity paradigm, exemplified by concrete and original examples from their research histories. Moreover, chapters explore research approaches to a variety of learner and teacher psychological foci of interest in SLA. Examples include: anxiety, classroom group dynamics and group-level motivation, cognition and metacognition, emotions and emotion regulation strategies, learner reticence and silence, motivation, self-concept and willingness to communicate.
This book explores the contributions that cognitive linguistics and psychology, including neuropsychology, have made to the understanding of the way that second languages are processed and learnt. It examines areas of phonology, word recognition and semantics, examining 'bottom-up' decoding processes as compared with 'top-down' processes as they affect memory. It also discusses second language learning from the acquisition/learning and nativist/connectionist perspectives. These ideas are then related to the methods that are used to teach second languages, primarily English, in formal classroom situations. This examination involves both 'mainstream' communicative approaches, and more traditional methods widely used to teach EFL throughout the world. The book is intended to act both as a textbook for students who are studying second language teaching and as an exploration of issues for the interested teacher who would like to further extend their understanding of the cognitive processes underlying their teaching.Mick Randall is currently Senior Lecturer in TESOL and Head of the Institute of Education at the British University in Dubai. He has taught courses in second language learning and teaching, applied linguistics and psychology in a number of different contexts. He has a special interest in the cognitive processing of language and in the psycholinguistics of word recognition, spelling and reading.
This state-of-the-art volume is the first to capture a hybrid discipline that studies the role and linguistic implications of the human mind in language learning and teaching. This Handbook considers individual as well as collective factors in language learners and teachers from an array of new empirical constructs and theoretical perspectives, including implications for practice and “myths, debates, and disagreements” in the field, and points to future directions for research. This collection of stellar contributions is an essential resource for researchers, advanced students, and teachers working in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, psychology, and education.
There are very few psychologists living today who have contributed more to the advancement of psychology, in general, and to the psychology of language and thought, in particular, than O. Hobart Mowrer. It would indeed be ludicrous to attempt to list the many and varied accomplishments and contributions that Dr. Mowrer has made to his profession over the years. Even the selected essays that are in this volume can only suggest a modicum of his remarkable, vital, and ongo ing contribution to the psychology of language and thought. Further more, the chapters in this book, which were published over a period of some twenty-five years, clearly illustrate that Dr. Mowrer was concerned not only with basic research, but that he also had an interest in its application. These chapters also point to the fact that although Dr. Mowrer's orientation was primarily that of a "behaviorist" at the onset, his constant attempts to revise knowledge in this field and broaden its scope make it virtually impossible for us to classify him as a behaviorist in the narrow meaning of that term. The chapter on mental imagery, for example, written only a few years ago, serves to illustrate this point. In addition, the Autism Theory of Speech Development (see Chapter 4), one of Dr.
Positive psychology is the scientific study of how human beings prosper and thrive. This is the first book in SLA dedicated to theories in positive psychology and their implications for language teaching, learning and communication. Chapters examine the characteristics of individuals, contexts and relationships that facilitate learning: positive emotional states such as love, enjoyment and flow, and character traits such as empathy, hardiness and perseverance. The contributors present several innovative teaching ideas to bring out these characteristics among learners. The collection thus blends new teaching techniques with cutting-edge theory and empirical research undertaken using qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches. It will be of interest to SLA researchers, graduate students, trainee and experienced teachers who wish to learn more about language learning psychology, individual differences, learner characteristics and new classroom practices.
Understanding the way in which learners differ from one another is of fundamental concern to those involved in second-language acquisition, either as researchers or teachers. This account is the first to review at book length the important research into differences, considering matters such as aptitude, motivation, learner strategies, personality and interaction between learner characteristics and types of instruction.
