CBU Scholar
CBU Scholar provides access to the publications and contributions of CBU faculty and students.
- The database consists of books, book chapters, articles, essays, and other research outputs.
- Publications are accepted from all departments and across all languages and subjects as determined by the research activities of CBU Faculty.
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- Open Access research publications
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Recent Submissions
Conceptualizing Willingness to Communicate in a L2: A Situational Model of L2 Confidence and Affiliation
(The Modern Language Journal, 1998) MacIntyre, Peter D.; Clément, Richard; Dörnyei, Zoltán; Noels, Kimberly A.
Why do some students seek, while others avoid, second language (L2) communication? Many language teachers have encountered students high in linguistic competence who are unwilling to use their L2 for communication whereas other students, with only minimal linguistic knowledge, seem to communicate in the L2 whenever possible. Despite excellent communicative competence, spontaneous and sustained use of the L2 is not ensured. A colleague, who teaches a L2 and whose L2 competence is excellent, is well known to avoid "like the plague" L2 communication in social settings. A related observation is that many learners have noticed that their willingness to communicate (WTC) varies considerably over time and across situations. Our aim in this article is twofold. First we wish to provide an account of the linguistic, communicative, and social psychological variables that might affect one's "willingness to communicate." As demonstrated in the text below, an examination of WTC offers the opportunity to integrate psychological, linguistic, and communicative approaches to L2 research that typically have been independent of each other. We view the WTC model as having the potential to provide a useful interface between these disparate lines of inquiry. Our second goal is to suggest potential relations among these variables by outlining a comprehensive conceptual model that may be useful in describing, explaining, and predicting L2 communication. In an effort to move beyond linguistic or communicative competence as the primary goal of language instruction, this article represents an overt attempt to combine these disparate approaches in a common theme, that is, proposing WTC as the primary goal of language instruction.
The Effects of Multiple Social Categories on Stereotyping
(Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 1995) Gardner, R. C.; MacIntyre, Peter D.; Lalonde, Richard N.
This study examined some of the cognitive processes underlying stereotyping, as well as the effects of multiple social categories in impression formation. Phase 1 of the study assessed stereotypes of males, females, 20 year olds, 70 year olds, French Canadians and English Canadians in a sample of 60 undergraduates. The results demonstrated that stereotype judgements were relatively automatic in that they were made more quickly than non-stereotype judgements. Phase 2 of the study examined the impressions formed of "individuals" who were simultaneously identified in terms of gender, age and ethnicity. These individuals tended to be perceived in terms of their gender and age; moreover, this effect was more pronounced on stereotype traits than non-stereotype traits. Phase 3 examined subjects' memory for the individuals, and it was found that memory was better for age and gender than for ethnicity, and that speed for making such judgements followed the same pattern. While the results support the view that individuals are perceived in terms of stereotypes, they suggest that certain salient categories will be more influential in a particular context.
How Does Anxiety Affect Second Language Learning? A Reply to Sparks and Ganschow
(The Modern Language Journal, 1995) MacIntyre, Peter D.
The linguistic coding deficit hypothesis, introduced by Sparks and Ganschow (1991, 1993a,1993b), postulates that language aptitude is the primary source of individual differences in language achievement. This may be seen to reduce affective variables, such as language anxiety, to the role of unfortunate side effects, devoid of explanatory power. This paper advocates that language anxiety can play a significant causal role in creating individual differences in both language learning and communication. It reviews evidence from investigations of anxiety in general and studies of the role of anxiety in the language learning processes and concludes that the linguistic coding deficit hypothesis makes a significant omission by assigning mere
epiphenomenal status to affective variables in general and language anxiety in particular.
On the Measurement of Affective Variables in Second Language Learning
(Language Learning, 1993) Gardner, Robert C.; MacIntyre, Peter D.
This study focuses on four issues concerning aspects of the validity of the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery. Data were obtained from 92 students of university-level French. The first issue deals with whether the various subtests assess the attributes they are presumed to measure. A multitrait/multimethod analysis of three methods indicated that they did. The second issue focuses on the relationship of the subtests to higher order constructs. A factor analysis provided empirical support for the higher order constructs of Integrativeness, Attitudes Toward the Learning Situation, Language Anxiety, and Motivation. The third issue is concerned with whether the strategy used to measure affective variables influences their correlations with measures of achievement. The correlations obtained suggested that they did; moreover, some measures of achievement were less related to all affective measures than were others. The fourth issue directs attention to measures of integrative and instrumental orientation, their relationship to each other and to achievement. The results demonstrated more communality among integrative orientation items and measures than among instrumental orientation measures. Neither correlated that highly with achievement, but the correlations were slightly higher for measures of integrative orientation.
Methods and Results in the Study of Anxiety and Language Learning: A Review of the Literature
(Language Learning, 1991) MacIntyre, Peter D.; Gardner, Robert C.
Since Scovel's review of the literature in 1978, several studies have been conducted that consider the role of anxiety in language learning. This paper examines the perspectives from which foreign language anxiety research has been conducted, the instruments that have been used, and the results that have been reported. Three approaches to the study of anxiety are identified as the trait, state, and situation specific perspectives. The instruments chosen to measure anxiety have been quite
varied, with several scales specifically intended to assess foreign language anxiety. The literature to be reviewed comes from studies of children, studies that have included anxiety in models of language learning, and finally, studies that are focused directly on the role of anxiety in language learning. With the advances in theory and measurement that have been made in the past decade or so, it is anticipated that foreign language anxiety will receive much more research consideration.