Positive psychology is rapidly developing as a field in psychology. Many constructs associated with positive psychology have been developed but relationships have not been demonstrated to second language (L2) learning or L2 learning motivation. The main purpose of this study was to explore empirically some core constructs of positive psychology and L2 learning motivation by testing a structural model of the causal relationships among levels of self-concept, and L2 proficiency. In order to do that, it was first necessary to validate measurable components of each of the levels. The self-concept constructs were: a global positive self-concept, a domain-specific positive L2 self, and L2 skill specific self-efficacy. The various self-constructs were organized into finer levels of specificity, from the global to L2 domain to L2 domain skills. A structural model was created from three latent variables that were in turn created from measured variables at each level of specificity. For the latent positive self-concept the measured variables consisted of flourishing, hope, and curiosity. For the latent variable of positive L2 self the measured variables consisted of an interested-in-L2 self, passion-for-L2-learning self, and L2 mastery goal orientation. For the latent motivational variable of L2 self-efficacy the measured variables were L2 speaking self-efficacy, L2 listening self-efficacy, and L2 reading self-efficacy. The measured variables were based on adapted or newly created self-reports. To demonstrate that the model holds beyond self-reports, objective L2 proficiency measures were also modeled with the latent variables of positive self-concept and positive L2 self. To demonstrate the generalizability of the self-model with L2 proficiency, a cross-validation study was done with two different objective measures of L2 proficiency, TOEIC and TOEIC Bridge. The results for the study were all positive for the creation of composite variables and fit to causal models. Latent variables were created for a composite positive self-concept, a composite positive L2 self, and a composite L2 motivation variable. The positive self-concept and positive L2 self also fit a model that included an objective measure of L2 proficiency. Finally, structural equation modeling confirmed causal relationships among positive self-concept, positive L2 self with both L2 motivation and with L2 proficiency. This study showed how constructs from the rapidly expanding field of positive psychology can be integrated with second language motivation. This study showed one way positive psychology can be applied to second language learning and suggests that positive psychology might invigorate future L2 motivation studies. / Teaching & Learning

Many researchers have highlighted the need for students to have a willingness to communicate (WTC) in second and foreign language classrooms. WTC is important because it is believed that WTC leads to eventual communication both inside and outside the classroom. Previous research into WTC has centered mainly on the use of structural models and trait, self-reported measurements of WTC, but recent research has shown that WTC is also heavily dependent on the situation. However, very few studies recognize this and have, thus, not employed situational measurements of WTC. After a thorough review of WTC literature, 13 pertinent constructs were modified to reflect the situation in the foreign language classroom. These were related to constructs of the classroom, beliefs about communication; self-determined motivation; self-perceived competence; communication anxiety and willingness to communicate. A preliminary study employing exploratory factor analysis and Rasch analysis, followed by a main study conducted with and confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis were undertaken with first- and second-year Japanese university students. The factor analysis was used to investigate the underlying structures of the factors and the Rasch analysis was used to determine fit, category functioning and dimensionality. Nine reliable and unidimensional factors were brought forward from the main study, which were Classroom Efficacy Factor and Classroom Affective Factor as the two classroom factors; Intrinsic Motivation for Communication, Introjected Regulation for Communication and External Regulation for Communication as the three self-determined motivation constructs, and finally, Self-Perceived Competence, Communicative Anxiety and Willingness to Communicate split in two subconstructs of pair/work and whole class activities. The second half the study was the formulation of a structural equation model using the above constructs to predict situational WTC. The model also included an often under-utilized resource, the teacher, who assessed the learners’ actual communication to identify if WTC leads to language use. All the fit indices in the final model (N = 376) were good, and the model included three additional paths. The model indicated that classroom constructs led to motivation and self-perceived competence, which predicted confidence. Motivation led directly to WTC and indirectly to WTC through confidence. Lastly, WTC predicted actual communication. The constructs in this study can be applied in other studies of situational WTC. This study helps to both expand our understanding of constructs affecting situational WTC and actual communication, and provides more validity to the construct of situational WTC. It also reaffirms the importance of what happens in the classroom, which is main arena for communication in the EFL setting. / Language Arts

Educational measurement research faces an unresolved dilemma: competently meeting the longstanding demand for improved vocabulary strength (depth) aspect assessments. My original contribution to knowledge in the written receptive vocabulary knowledge construct research domain is twofold. My first contribution is proposing an a priori metasynonymy awareness hypothesis based on a vocabulary strength aspect extension of O’Connor’s (1940) written receptive vocabulary acquisition developmental stage theory. My second contribution is designing and constructing a vocabulary extent (the nexus between vocabulary size (breadth) and strength aspects) test. The test, called the Polysemous Academic Vocabulary Extent Test, utilizes ordered triple rank (OTR) responses and a complementary six-tier incremental scoring guide rubric. An example test item includes a sentence stem with a bold keyword and three options, such as: All the reviews of the movie were positive. positive: a) sure b) good c) enviro / Language Arts

According to cognitive psychologists, consistent practice (i.e., tasks with a high degree of similarity) of a skill leads to the development of automaticity, with the degree of automatization being increased if the practice also involves exact repetition. Practice is skill specific, meaning that practicing one skill does not automatize related skills. Once achieved, automaticity has been characterized as the ability to perform a primary task with little interference from performing a concurrent secondary task. A second key characteristic of skill automatization is that it involves a gradual decrease in executive working memory (EWM) demands. The primary purpose of this study is to examine whether such claims put forth by cognitive psychologists are transferable to the automatization of second language (L2) bottom-up listening skills. The secondary purpose of this study is to explore whether reading while listening promotes listening automaticity to a greater extent than listening only, as has been argued in the L2 literature (Chang, 2011; Chang & Millett, 2014; Chang and Millett, 2016; Chang et al., 2018). The third purpose of this study is to examine whether visuospatial working memory (VWM) is a predictor of listening automaticity growth and to what degree it is related to EWM.Although L2 listening is regarded as a cognitive skill, the automatization of L2 listening has not been researched as described by cognitive psychologists. That is, using dual tasks and a reduction in EWM involvement as indices of automaticity, and providing consistent practice with an exact repetition component. In addition, the existing research into the question surrounding what kind of practice is more effective in bringing about L2 listening automaticity –listening while reading or listening only¬– has methodological flaws that have led to an inconclusive answer. To fill these gaps in the literature, I designed a listening-while-reading and a listening-only intervention that blended elements claimed to be conducive to automaticity development in cognitive psychology and L2 research, namely consistent training and exact repetition of stimuli and time pressure, while taking into account the methodological issues of previous L2 research. Data were collected from 290 Japanese high school students, who were assigned to the listening-while-reading, the listening-only, or a control group. Participants in the listening-only intervention listened to texts composed of a narrow range of vocabulary and grammar structures, which warranted consistency, whose speech rates increased by 10 words per minute (wpm) over the sessions from 100 wpm to 180 wpm. The listening-while-reading intervention involved listening to the same texts while reading the transcripts. Exact repetition of the stimuli was provided in both interventions by playing the texts two consecutive times in each intervention session. After the second listening, comprehension was assessed using a Japanese summary of the texts and a set of five multiple-choice questions. Degree of automatization was measured at three time points (i.e., Pretest, Posttest 1, and Posttest 2) separated by two cycles of training, through two dual tasks at each time point. The dual tasks, which consisted of listening to a text delivered at 160 wpm while drawing a series of vertical lines on blank paper and were followed by the abovementioned comprehension measures, were used to construct measures of automaticity. Dual-task data were linked through a Rasch longitudinal design, keeping text difficulty invariant across the dual tasks, with Rasch person measures for comprehension for subsequent analyses computed by combining scores on summaries and multiple-choice questions, while giving double weight to the summaries. Regarding the memory constructs, EWM was assessed through a speaking and a listening span task, whose scores were combined into a global EWM Rasch measure that was used in the analyses to test if the participants’ EWM costs diminished over time. Similarly, a single VWM Rasch measure was calculated by combining the participants’ scores on the Mr. Peanut task (DeAvila, 1974), which assesses visual memory, and the Corsi block span task (Corsi, 1972), which assesses spatial memory, as additional predictors of L2 listening automaticity. To my knowledge, measures of VWM have not previously been employed as predictors of listening ability. Results from a repeated-measures ANOVA and a multi-group latent growth model indicated that both intervention groups automatized their listening skills to a greater extent than the control group with the listening-only group developing automaticity to the largest extent. Although a reduction of EWM demands was not observed, possibly because the participants were not complete beginners and might have started the study with some degree of automaticity, the fact that they could perform the dual tasks less effortfully over time evidenced automatization. Interestingly, VWM significantly predicted growth in listening automaticity, which was interpreted to mean that as listeners automatize their listening skills, they become able to see what they hear. This result was explained in terms of attentional capacity limits, where higher-level processes, such as visualizing input, cannot be achieved until the lower-level processes such as word recognition or grammatical parsing have been automatized. Follow-up qualitative interviews corroborated the quantitative findings and extended them by suggesting that a small number of training sessions might be sufficient to develop listening automaticity. Results of an additional correlation analysis further showed that VWM and EWM are not highly related as has been shown by some experimental evidence in the working memory literature. The finding that listening only was superior to listening while reading is important because it contradicts previous research and suggests that to automatize listening, one needs to practice in real-operating conditions. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. First, listening to texts whose speech rates increase over the practice sessions promotes listening automaticity. Next, claims by cognitive psychologists regarding the development of skill automaticity are largely generalizable to the natural conditions of classroom-based research focusing on the acquisition of real-world skills such as L2 listening. Last, the multi-component versus the unitary view of working memory. / Applied Linguistics

The purpose of this study was to investigate a class-to-class online English-Portuguese "Teletandem” program that was conceived, negotiated, and implemented cross-collaboratively between the foreign language instructors and language resource center (LRC) staff at two large state universities—one in the United States and the other in Brazil. Ten English language students in Brazil were paired with 10 Portuguese language students in the U.S. for a 10-week Skype®-based tandem language exchange (TLE) project that was jointly delivered online across an international university partnership. A qualitative case study design was used to examine the attitudes, perceptions, views, and behaviors of the teachers, students, and LRC staff who participated in the project. The objective of the study was to shed light on the factors that facilitated and hindered teletandem design, implementation and sustainability. Participant feedback was interpreted and contextualized by the researcher to provide rich descriptions of how Teletandem was optimized and how it impacted student learning. The findings suggest that Teletandem is an innovative, low-cost, high-impact language learning activity with vast pedagogical implications. As a lab supplement to traditional instruction, it enabled students at both sites to accelerate L2 development through authentic immersion and practice while making social connections with native speakers abroad. In addition, the results showed that—for many students—Teletandem heightened intercultural awareness, boosted confidence in the L2, and strengthened fluency skills while rendering a transformational learning experience.

The aim of this master's thesis " education of German language on secondary schools" -

This diploma thesis deals with the topic of media education as a part of foreign language education at Czech schools. The thesis is divided into three major part - the theoretical background with analysis of national curriculum and school curricula, the practical part - qualitative research of teacher's opinions and quantitative research of student's opinions on media education. The third part offers description of activities and handouts that can be used in English classes to improve the level of media literacy. It proved that the connection of media education and foreign language classes is not indicated in the Frame Educational Programme, however it gives the possibility to school to integrate the topic into any subject. Based on the analysis of the school educational programmes of selected school it was found out that schools do integrate media education into many subjects including foreign languages. Most of the foreign language teachers claimed that they integrate media education into their classes. However, they are limited by certain barriers - primary school teachers especially by low language knowledge. Overall, the main problem mentioned was lack of encouragement from the authorities connected to lack of proficiency in media education of the educators. The pupils welcome media education...

abstract: This linguistic ethnography follows three journalism students (Petra, Penélope, and María) as they engaged in experiential language learning (EX-LL) via collaboration with community members during their Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP) internship sites in the fields of journalism and medicine within the local Metro Phoenix community. Data were collected over the course of a 15-week semester via ethnographic methods (field notes, interviews, observations, and participant-reported data) to explore how the interns (i) took advantage of their SSP internship experiences to engage in identity work that exceeded the goals of the program and how they (ii) implemented their strategic knowledge via communicative strategies (CSs) during breakdowns in communication with community members related to their SSP internship sites/the social function of such strategies. In order to answer the first research question, the data were analyzed via open and focused coding (Dyson & Genishi, 2005), followed by discourse analysis (Gee, 2005) informed by Critical Applied Linguistics (Pennycook, 2001) and Positioning Theory (Davis & Harré, 1990). To answer the second question, all instances in which the interns implemented communicative strategies were analyzed based upon the categorization repertories established by Dörnyei and Scott (1995a, 1995b, 1997), Lafford (2004), and Tarone and Yule (1987). To go beyond understanding what the interns were saying to why were they saying it, discourse analysis was used (Gee, 2005). The findings show that Petra, Penélope, and María appropriated their SSP internship to engage distinct, yet interrelated language- and ethnic/racial-based identity work. Each intern utilized language (and extra-linguistic elements, such as corporeal expression) to position themselves in different ways within social discourse. Furthermore, this identity work influenced which CSs they utilized, as the social function of many of these strategies was to maintain and/or protect their desired identities. Drawing on these insights, a variety of implications are offered from four viewpoints: implications for (i) EX-LL-based research: colonized versus humanizing research, (ii) critical community collaboration inside and outside of EX-LL, (iii) CSs and communicative competence, and (iv) EX-LL/Languages for Specific Purposes pedagogy and internship design. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2018

The Internet with its World Wide Web feature opened up a whole new frontier for language-culture learning that foreign language textbook authors have integrated into their programs. Designing tasks that progress beyond promoting learners' passive consumerism and reiteration of facts remains a goal and a challenge. Thus, three research questions characterized this study that sought to examine the on-line tasks associated with six current Spanish textbook programs. The design focused on an analysis of these tasks in light of prevailing culture learning concepts and other pedagogical paradigms posited by reputable foreign language educators to determine if they filled the gap left by textbooks in facilitating second culture acquisition. The first question asked for evidence that learners were encouraged to recognize their own cultural conditioning. Evidence was present only to a miniscule degree. The second question sought to determine the extent of opportunities provided to learn about the target culture - Hispanic - as they mirrored the objectives of the perspectives on culture learning. Low-level thinking skills and a predominance of tasks concerning products, in contrast to those concerning behavioral practices or perspectives, characterized the extent of target-culture learning. The third question sought to discover if learners were engaged in process-based tasks, whether they were prompted to identify authentic problems, suggest solutions, and apply new vii knowledge. Evidence for these situations was minimal. Additional findings revealed factual information questions to be a majority with a few tasks inviting learners to respond to hypothetical and creative situations. Results indicate that in this early stage, the World Wide Web remains an authentic venue for culture learning; however, future directions ought to include expanding the scope of adjunct tasks as they complement the multiple presentations of culture in the companion textbook chapters.

The current thesis is a theoretical and empirical investigation of the foreign language classroom, conducted from a cross-national comparative perspective. The study is based on quantitative and qualitative data which were collected from students and teachers of German in selected universities of Ukraine and Australia. The following research questions were formulated: 1. What are the structure and objectives of the German language program at Ukrainian and Australian universities? 2. What are the peculiarities of the German language curriculum and teaching methodology in the universities of Ukraine and Australia? 3. What are students’ motives to study German in Ukraine and Australia? 4. What are students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum, content and teaching? 5. How do students themselves evaluate their present language skills, and those expected to be acquired by the end of the course? 6. What are the advantages and disadvantages in both education practices? / Each country’s distinctive social and pedagogical factors, such as language policy, attitudes towards languages and pedagogical tradition were taken into account. / The research was conducted at universities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv (Ukraine) and Melbourne (Australia). A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was adopted which included student and teacher questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations and study of departmental programs and policy documents. In general terms, it was revealed that: Substantial differences exist in areas such as curriculum, teaching methods and approaches, content and student motivation for studying German. Although education systems in Australia and Ukraine are different, learners in both countries have similar aims and expectations from their language course, and their perceptions of a good language course are also similar. Students in both countries expressed an urgent need for an increase in the communicative component and greater exposure to practical, up-to-date lexical and grammar material in order to be able to communicate effectively. In Australia there is a mismatch between the course objectives and content outlined in the program and what is really taught in the class In Ukraine, a shift has occurred towards more practice-oriented and integrated language learning/teaching; however there is a great need for the creation of better conditions for acquisition of communicative skills and up-to-date vocabulary.