Predicting language learners' grades in the L1, L2, L3 and L4: the effect of some psychological and sociocognitive variables

This study of 89 Flemish high-school students' grades for L1 (Dutch), L2 (French), L3 (English) and L4 (German) investigates the effects of three higher-level personality dimensions (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism), one lower-level personality dimension (foreign language anxiety) and sociobiographical variables (gender, social class) on the participants' language grades. Analyses of variance revealed no significant effects of the higher-level personality dimensions on grades. Participants with high levels of foreign language anxiety obtained significantly lower grades in the L2 and L3. Gender and social class had no effect. Strong positive correlations between grades in the different languages could point to an underlying sociocognitive dimension. The implications of these findings are discussed

Attitudes en motivatie van taalleerders in België. Een sociaal-psychologisch onderzoek naar het verwerven van de eerste en tweede taal door Nederlandstalige, Franstalige en tweetalige leerlingen in het secundair onderwijs in België

Item does not contain fulltext28 juni 2004Promotores : Housen, A., Hout, R.W.N.M. van335 p

Socialismo belga e "cette plaisanterie de parler ici flamand"

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Multiple languages, multiple identities? Children's language characteristics and their ethnic and national identification

Contains fulltext : 214608.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)An increasing number of ethnolinguistic minority children in European cities grow up multilingual, being proficient in more than one language. Current public and political debates often insinuate that these children's language behaviour is a reflection of their identification with and integration in society. Though some empirical studies have corroborated this idea, others have contested it, suggesting that a more detailed analysis of the identity-language link is advisable. This quantitative study investigates if and how language practices, language exposure and language proficiencies differentially shape identification with the majority group and the ethnolinguistic minority group among a sample of primary school children (N = 528; ages 10–12) living in Antwerp, Belgium. Our results suggest that identification with these two groups involves separate processes and as such, this study helps to nuance the polarised public and political debate in Belgium about the role of language as an indicator of integration. In addition, the findings suggest that the essentializing of language within formal institutions such as schools, may contribute to the large share of children reporting that they strongly identify with the ethnolinguistic minority group as compared to the number of children strongly identifying with Belgium.14 november 201916 p