Teacher communication and learner willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language: a structural equation modeling approach

Purpose – This study aims to propose and test a model that examines the potential connections between two teacher situational variables (teacher immediacy and credibility) and three learner affective factors (motivation, attitudes and communication confidence) and to examine how such associations predict learners’ L2WTC (Foreign/second language willingness to communicate) in a language class via a comprehensive communication model to structurally verify the theoretically based associations among these variables. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 214 females and 198 males took part in the study with age range between 19 and 38 years. Participants filled in a verified, translated Arabic version of the questionnaires using an online questionnaire. Data were gathered using questionnaires and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and sequential mediation analysis using bootstrapping methods to identify and verify direct and indirect paths in the model. Findings – The initial L2 communication structural model showed acceptable goodness of model fit. Teacher credibility and immediacy behaviors only indirectly predicted L2WTC through the mediation of affective variables. Motivation and communication confidence mediated the relationship between credibility and L2WTC, while the association between immediacy and L2WTC was mediated by communication confidence. Originality/value – The findings of this study have important pedagogical implications globally for professions related to communication instruction, especially with regard to teacher credibility behaviors and particularly for practitioners and beneficiaries in EFL contexts where learners are widely acknowledged for their unwillingness to communicate in foreign language classes

The influence of teacher emotional support on language learners’ basic psychological needs, emotions, and emotional engagement: Treatment-based evidence

This study assessed the influence of a 10-week teacher emotionally supportive quasi-experimental intervention on the perceived teacher emotional support (PTES), basic psychological needs (BPNs) satisfaction, emotions of anxiety and enjoyment, and emotional engagement of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Strategies targeting the three dimensions of TES, that is, positive climate, teacher sensitivity, and regard for students’ perspectives, were deployed exclusively in an experimental group (N = 63), which was compared to a control group (N = 58) in which a more typical teaching approach was followed. Classroom observations and questionnaires were used to capture three time points of changes in learner behaviors. The results of multivariate analyses revealed significant positive changes over time in students’ self-reported PTES behaviors, BPNs satisfaction, emotions, emotional engagement and observed behaviors solely in the experimental condition. Learner BPNs satisfaction showed the largest group differences by mid-term treatment. With the continuous deployment of the treatment, the between-group differences peaked toward the end of the experiment for all learner behaviors. The largest variance at this stage was in learner PTES. These experimentally driven findings provide compelling evidence for the advantages of TES pedagogical interventions for second language learners

Towards cross-linguistic assessment of associative memory

Associative memory (AM) is conceptualized as the ability to form links between two previously unrelated pieces of information so that the subsequent presentation of one activates the memory of the other. Unlike other types of memory for which standardized assessment tools exist, AM is assessed mostly by ad hoc tasks designed to tackle specific research questions that are not meant to capture AM as a universal cognitive ability. Typically, AM is assessed using paired-associate paradigms with unimodal (e.g., word pairs) or multimodal (e.g., face-word) stimuli sets. In culturally diverse and multilingual societies, the application of these paradigms can lead to an unreliable and biased assessment of memory abilities. To address this issue, we developed an AM paradigm that combines key aspects of AM assessment – associative encoding, associative recognition, and cued recall, as well as implicit AM effect. The stimuli for the task - pictures of common objects and natural scenes - have been selected to minimize language and culture effects. The task has been developed using free software (OpenSesame) and stimuli, in both online and offline mode of administration, thus enabling wide and free use for research purposes across different settings. The large-scale international collaboration is set to adapt the task into 25 languages so far, including Arabic, Bosnian, Czech, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, and Spanish. Data is collected across 26 countries with a total of 34 samples (150-300 participants each) to assess the psychometric properties of the task and crosslinguistic (in)variance of the memory performance. The collaboration is expected to result in a comprehensive multilingual AM assessment tool, that is freely available for research use

sj-docx-1-ltr-10.1177_13621688221136247 – Supplemental material for The predictive role of anxiety and motivation in L2 proficiency: An empirical causal model

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-ltr-10.1177_13621688221136247 for The predictive role of anxiety and motivation in L2 proficiency: An empirical causal model by Fakieh Alrabai in Language Teaching Research</p

sj-docx-2-ltr-10.1177_13621688221136247 – Supplemental material for The predictive role of anxiety and motivation in L2 proficiency: An empirical causal model

Supplemental material, sj-docx-2-ltr-10.1177_13621688221136247 for The predictive role of anxiety and motivation in L2 proficiency: An empirical causal model by Fakieh Alrabai in Language Teaching Research</p

Intrinsic motivation in Saudi learners of English as a foreign language

The paper presents an experimental study designed to measure levels of intrinsic motivation in learners of English as a Foreign Language in Saudi Arabia. As part of the study, a 27-item structured survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of 55 Saudi learners from public schools and universities. Data collected through the survey were subjected to some basic statistical analyses, such as "mean" and "standard deviation". Based on the results from the analysis, a number of generalizations and conclusions are made in relation to the role of motivation in the attainment of English as a foreign language in the Saudi educational setting. In addition, some recommendations are offered, which may enable Saudi teachers and learners of English as a foreign language to achieve better learning outcomes in an area widely associated by Saudis with lack of success

The use of motivational strategies in the Saudi EFL classroom

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This study examined longitudinally the effectiveness of some motivational strategies in promoting the L2 motivation of Saudi learners in their EFL classes. The study conducted empirical investigations over two stages. In the first stage, the study utilised a 53-item questionnaire survey among 119 EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia by which they were asked to rate strategies in terms of how important they consider each for enhancing students’ motivation in the language classroom. Based on the participating teachers’ responses, the rank order of the macro strategies in this survey was obtained. The top 10 motivational single strategies that were implemented in the Saudi EFL classes at the second stage of the experiment were also identified. In the second stage, 296 EFL students and 14 teachers were involved. Students were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group that was exposed to the 10 pre-selected motivational strategies in their classes by seven teachers, and a control group in which the other seven teachers followed the traditional way of teaching. The treatment continued over the duration of one semester/school term of study. Motivation questionnaires were administered to students at the start and the end of the experimental period. In addition, a classroom observation protocol and a teacher post-lesson evaluation protocol were used to assess the teachers’ motivational practices and students’ motivated behaviours in the classroom. The statistical analyses of the data clearly showed a significant rise in motivational levels for students in the experimental, but not the control group. The results of the study therefore provide compelling evidence that teachers’ motivational behaviours do lead to enhanced motivation in their L2 learners

Introducing the Basic Psychological Needs Frustration in Second Language Scale (BPNF-L2): Examining its factor structure and effect on L2 motivation and achievement

Research on the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is well-established in second language (L2) research. However, little is known about the frustration of these basic psychological needs and how they can undermine intrinsic motivation and L2 achievement. Importantly, there is no valid scale of the frustration of the basic psychological needs in the L2 context. Accordingly, the present study introduces a new scale called the Basic Psychological Needs Frustration in Second Language (BPNF-L2) and assesses its factor structure and criterion-related validity through the application of bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (bifactor ESEM). Our results showed that scores obtained on the BPNF-L2 scale are reliable and valid. Moreover, our results support the criterion-related validity of this factor structure by showing that the general factor of BPNF-L2 negatively explains intrinsic motivation and L2 achievement while the BPNF-L2 specific factors (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness frustration) explain the outcomes differently. The results indicate that feeling frustrated because basic psychological needs are not met may hinder the enjoyment and acquisition of the L2. Educational implications, methodological advancements, and directions for future research are provided

Impostor Phenomenon and L2 willingness to communicate : testing communication anxiety and perceived L2 competence as mediators

The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) describes experiences of perceived intellectual fraudulence despite the existence of objectively good performances, and it is a robust predictor of experiences and outcomes in higher education. We examined the role of the IP in the domain of second language (L2) acquisition by testing its relations with a robust predictor of L2 use, willingness to communicate (WTC). We collected self-reports of 400 adult Iranian L2 learners and tested the associations between the IP and WTC. As expected, we found a negative association between IP and WTC (r = −0.13). When testing a mediation model with perceived competence and communication anxiety as parallel mediators, we found evidence for full mediation via perceived competence. Our findings show the importance of considering self-evaluations in the domain of L2 acquisition. Further implications and limitations are discussed