1 SELF-ESTEEM SELF-ESTEEM 1. General or global self-esteem 2. - - PDF document

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INTRODUCTION

• Chapter 4 and 5 dealt with two aspects of the cognitive domain of language learning:

1. human learning processes 2. cognitive variations in learning-style and strategies.

• This chapter and

d Chapter 7 deal with two facets of the affective domain of SLA 1. The intrinsic side of affectivity: personality factors within a person that contribute to the success of language learning. 2. The extrinsic factors - sociocultural variables that emerge as the second language learner brings not just two languages into contact but two cultures, and in some sense must learn a second culture along with a second language. 2

AFFECTIVE FACTORS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

• Self-Esteem
• Attribution Theory and Self-Efficacy
• Willingness to Communicate
• Inhibition
• Risk Taking
• Anxiety
• Empathy
• Extroversion
• Motivation

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SELF-ESTEEM

• It could easily be claimed that no successful cognitive or affective activity can be

carried out without some degree of self-esteem, self-confidence, knowledge of yourself, and self-efficacy-belief in your own capabilities to successfully perform that activity. 4

SELF-ESTEEM

The following is a well-accepted definition of self-esteem (Coopersmith, 1967, pp.4-5):

• By self-esteem, we refer to the evaluation which individuals make and usually maintain

with regard to themselves;

• it expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicates the extent to which

individuals believe themselves to be capable, significant, successful and worthy.

• In short, self-esteem is a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the

attitudes that individuals hold toward themselves.

• It is a subjective experience which the individual conveys to others by verbal reports

and other overt expressive behavior 5

SELF-ESTEEM

People derive their sense of self-esteem from the accumulation of experiences with themselves and with others and from assessments of the external world around them. Levels of Self-Esteem: 1. General or global self-esteem 2. Situational or specific self-esteem 3. Task self-esteem 6

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SELF-ESTEEM

1. General or global self-esteem

• It is relatively stable in a mature adult
• It is resistant to change except by active and extended therapy
• It is the general or prevailing assessment one makes of one's own worth over time

and across a number of situations. 7

SELF-ESTEEM

2. Situational or specific self-esteem

• It is one's self-appraisals :
• in particular life situations, such as social interaction, work, education, home,
• or on certain traits, such as intelligence, communicative ability, athletic ability,
• or on personality traits like gregariousness, empathy, and flexibility.
• The degree of specific self-esteem a person has may vary depending upon the

situation or the trait in question. 8

SELF-ESTEEM

3. Task self-esteem

• It relates to particular tasks within specific situations.

For example,

• within the educational domain, task self-esteem might refer to one subject-

matter area (e.g. Mathematics).

• Specific self-esteem might encompass SLA in general, and task self-esteem might

refer to one's self-evaluation of a particular aspect of the process: speaking, writing, a particular class in a second language, or even a special kind of classroom exercise. 9

SELF-ESTEEM

Study: Adelaide Heyde (1979) studied the effects of the three levels of self-esteem on performance of an oral production task by American college students learning French as a foreign language. Findings:

• All three levels of self-esteem correlated positively with performance on the oral

production measure

• The highest correlation was between task self-esteem and performance on oral

production measures. 10

SELF-ESTEEM

• What we do not know at this time is the answer to the classic chicken-or-egg

question:

• Does high self-esteem cause language success, or does language success cause

high self-esteem?

• Clearly, both are interacting factors.
• It is difficult to say whether teachers should try to "improve" global self-esteem or

simply improve a learner's proficiency and let self-esteem take care of itself. 11

SELF-ESTEEM

Heyde (1979) found that:

• certain sections of a beginning college French course had better oral production

and self-esteem scores than other sections after only eight weeks of instruction.

• This finding suggests that teachers really can have a positive and influential

effect on both :

• the linguistic performance
• the emotional well-being of the student.

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ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND SELF-EFFICACY

• Based on the work of psychologist Bernard Weiner (1986, 1992, 2000), attribution

theory focuses on how people explain the causes of their own successes and failures.

• Weiner and others (Slavin, 2003; Dornyei, 2001b; Williams & Burden, 1997) describe

attribution theory in terms of four explanations for success and/or failure in achieving a personal objective:

• 1. Ability
• 2. Effort
• 3. Perceived difficulty of a task
• 4. Luck.

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ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND SELF-EFFICACY

• Two of those four factors are internal to the learner: ability and effort;
• and two are attributable to external circumstances outside of the learner: task

difficulty and luck.

• According to Weiner, learners tend to explain, that is, to attribute, their success on

a task on these four dimensions.

• Thus, failure to get a high grade on a final exam in a language class might for

some be judged to be a consequence of their poor ability or effort, and by others to difficulty of exam, and perhaps others to just plain old bad luck. 14

ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND SELF-EFFICACY

• This is where self-efficacy comes in.
• If a learner feels he or she is capable of carrying out a given task, (has a high

sense of self-efficacy), an appropriate degree of effort may be devoted to achieving success.

• A learner with low self-efficacy may quite easily attribute failure to external factors
• r to an initial lack of ability.
• Both of the latter attributions can create a self-fulfilling sense of failure at the
• utset.

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ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND SELF-EFFICACY

So,

• It is essential for learners to believe in themselves in order to succeed at tasks.
• The prospect of learning a second language is itself potentially so overwhelming.
• One of the most important roles of successful teachers is to facilitate high levels
• f self-efficacy in their students.

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WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE

• Willingness to communicate (WTC) may be defined "the intention to initiate

communication, given a choice" (Maclntyre et al., 2001,p. 369).

• In an earlier study on WTC, MacIntyre et al. (1998) found that a number of factors

appear to contribute to predisposing one learner to seek, and another learner to avoid, second language communication.

• Noting that a high level of communicative ability does not necessarily correspond

with a high WTC. 17

WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE

• MacIntyre et al. proposed a number of cognitive and affective factors that underlie WTC:
• Motivation
• Personality
• Intergroup climate
• Two levels of self-confidence:
• State communicative self-confidence (a situational self-esteem)
• L2 self-confidence

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RISK TAKING

• In Chapter 5, we saw that one of the characteristics of good Language learners,

according to Rubin and Thompson (1982), was the ability to make intelligent guesses.

• Impulsivity was also described as a style that could have positive effects language

success.

• Inhibitions, or building defenses around our egos, can be a harmful.
• These factors suggest that risk taking is an important characteristic of successful

learning of a second language.

• Learners have to be able gamble a bit, to be willing to try out hunches about the

language and take the risk being wrong. 19

RISK TAKING

Beebe (1983, p. 40) described some of the negative ramifications that foster fear of risk taking both in the classroom and in natural settings: In the classroom These ramifications might include a bad grade in the course, a fail on the exam, a reproach from the teacher, a smirk from a classmate, punishment or embarrassment imposed by oneself. Outside the classroom Individuals learning a second language face other negative consequences if they make mistakes. They fear looking ridiculous; they fear the frustration coming from a listener's blank look, showing that they have failed to communicate; they fear the danger of not being able to take care of themselves; they fear the alienation of not being able to communicate and thereby get close to other human beings. Perhaps worst of all, they fear a loss of identity.

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RISK TAKING

According to Dufeu (1994, pp. 89-90),

• the classroom treatment to such fears is to establish an adequate affective

framework so that learners "feel comfortable as they take their first public steps in the strange world of a foreign language.

• To achieve this, one has to create a climate of acceptance that will stimulate self-

confidence, and encourage participants to experiment and to discover the target language, allowing themselves to take risks without feeling embarrassed. 21

RISK TAKING

• Does this mean that high risk takers are the most successful in SLA?
• We may be tempted to assume with Ely (1986) that high risk taking will yield positive results in

second language learning; however, such is not usually the case!

• Beebe (1983, p. 41) cited a study which claimed that “persons with a high motivation to

achieve are ... moderate, not high, risk-takers. These individuals like to be in control and like to depend on skill. They do not take wild, frivolous risks or enter into no-win situations”

• Successful second language learners appear to fit the same paradigm.
• As Rubin & Thompson (1994) noted, successful language learners make willing and accurate

guesses.

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RISK TAKING

• The silent student in the classroom is one who is unwilling to appear foolish when

mistakes are made.

• Self-esteem seems to be closely connected to a risk-taking factor: when those foolish

mistakes are made, a person with high global self-esteem is not daunted by the possible consequences of being laughed at. The implications for teaching are important.

• In a few uncommon cases, overly high risk takers, as they dominate the classroom with

wild gambles, may need to be "tamed" a bit by the teacher.

• But most of the time our problem as teachers will be to encourage students to guess

somewhat more willingly than the usual student is prone to do, and to value them as persons for those risks that they take. 23

Thank you

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