Towards an Understanding of Language Learner Self-Concept

219 Pages·2011·2.547 MB·

by  Sarah Mercer (auth.)

Towards an Understanding of Language Learner
Self-Concept
EducationalLinguistics
Volume12
GeneralEditors:
LeovanLier
MontereyInstituteofInternationalStudies,U.S.A
FrancisM.Hult
UniversityofTexasatSanAntonio,U.S.A
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MarildaC.Cavalcanti
UniversidadeEstadualdeCampinas,Brazil
HilaryJanks
UniversityofWitwatersrand,SouthAfrica
ClaireKramsch
UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,U.S.A
AlastairPennycook
UniversityofTechnology,Sydney,Australia
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Sarah Mercer
Towards an Understanding
of Language Learner
Self-Concept
123
SarahMercer
DepartmentofEnglish
UniversityofGraz
Heinrichstr.36
8010Graz
Austria
[email protected]
ISSN1572-0292
ISBN978-90-481-9568-8 e-ISBN978-90-481-9569-5
DOI10.1007/978-90-481-9569-5
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Acknowledgements
Thisbookistheproductofseveralyears’workandinterestinthetopicoflanguage
learnerpsychology.Itismyfirstmainsteptowardsagreaterunderstandingofthis
complexbutfascinatingarea,andIamindebtedtoinnumerablecolleaguesandstu-
dentswhohavehelpedmetoclarifyanddevelopmythoughtsovertheyearsthrough
theirinsightfuldiscussions,commentsandfeedback.
I am especially grateful to Alan Waters, my PhD supervisor, who demonstrated
boundless patience and offered me excellent academic support. I would also like
to thank Helen van der Stelt at Springer and Professor Leo van Lier, series editor,
for their wonderful encouragement and help throughout the many stages involved
in producing this book. Many colleagues, friends and family have also provided
me with support of all kinds: in particular, colleagues at Graz University, espe-
ciallyJenniferSchummandValerieWurschitzfortheirusefulfeedbackonvarious
draftsofthemanuscriptandallthestaffandfellowstudentsatLancasterUniversity
whohelpedandmotivatedmeduringmyPhD.MyspecialthanksalsogoestoKarl
Gruberforhelpintransformingmyself-concepttheoreticalmodelideaintoacom-
puter visual and for showing academic solidarity to a stranger in need. I am also
gratefultoJoana,whosehelpwiththisresearchhasbeeninvaluableandmythanks
also to all the unnamed participants who were kind enough to share their stories
withmeandallowmetousetheminthisstudy.And,finally,Iwishtoexpressmy
deepestgratitudetoallthestudentsIteachandhavetaughtforinspiringmeandfor
teachingmesomuch.
Last, but most importantly of all, the biggest thanks goes to my parents, Janet
andJim,foralwaysprovidingmewithmuchloveandsupport.
v
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 WhyInvestigateSelf-Concept? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 SelectingaResearchApproach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.3 ResearchContextofThisBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.4 AimoftheBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.1.5 OutlineoftheBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 WhatIsSelf-Concept? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 UnderstandingSelf-Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1.1 DefiningSelf-Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.1.2 TellingSelf-RelatedConstructsApart . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.1.3 UnderstandingsofSelf-ConceptinPsychology . . . . . . 20
2.1.4 Self-ConceptintheForeignLanguagesDomain . . . . . 23
2.1.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3 UnderstandingSelf-ConceptintheFLLContext . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1.1 UnderstandingJoana’sContext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.1.2 Joana’sAcademicSelf-Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1.3 Joana’sGeneralLanguagesSelf-Concept . . . . . . . . . 44
3.1.4 Joana’sMotherTongue(L1)Self-Concept . . . . . . . . 48
3.1.5 Joana’sForeignLanguages(FL)Self-Concept . . . . . . 50
3.1.6 Joana’sSpecificForeignLanguageSelf-Concepts . . . . 53
3.1.7 ImplicationsoftheFindingsforTheoreticalModels . . . 63
3.1.8 TowardsaModeltoDescribeJoana’sData . . . . . . . . 67
3.1.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4 HowDoLearnersFormTheirSelf-Concepts? . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.1.1 TheDynamicSelf-Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.1.2 DevelopmentalPatternsinSelf-ConceptFormation. . . . 77
4.1.3 DemographicFactorsAffectingSelf-Concept. . . . . . . 80
4.1.4 AdditionalFactorsAffectingSelf-ConceptFormation . . 83
vii
viii Contents
4.1.5 Marsh’s(1986a)FrameofReferenceModel . . . . . . . 90
4.1.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5 InternalFramesofReferenceinFLSelf-ConceptFormation . . . . 97
5.1 DefiningInternalFactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.1.1 Cross-DomainComparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.1.2 BeliefSystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.1.3 Affect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.1.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6 ExternalFramesofReferenceinFLSelf-ConceptFormation . . . 127
6.1 DefiningExternalFactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.1.1 SocialComparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.1.2 FeedbackfromSignificantOthersandReflectedAppraisals 133
6.1.3 PerceivedExperiencesofSuccessandFailure . . . . . . 137
6.1.4 PreviousLanguageLearning/UseExperiences
inFormal/InformalContexts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.1.5 CriticalExperiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.1.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
7 ImplicationsforEducatorsandResearchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.1 ImplicationsforForeignLanguageTeaching . . . . . . . 167
7.1.2 IssuesforFurtherResearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
7.1.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
AppendixA ExampleConsentForm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
AppendixB Bio-dataofInterviewParticipants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
AppendixC Open-EndedInterviewGuidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
AppendixD WrittenNarrativeDescriptions:Guidelines . . . . . . . 209
AppendixE Autobiographies:Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
AppendixF ReferencingConventionsforDataExtracts . . . . . . . . 213
GlossaryandAbbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
List of Appendices
AppendixA ExampleConsentForm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
AppendixB Bio-dataofInterviewParticipants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
AppendixC Open-EndedInterviewGuidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
AppendixD WrittenNarrativeDescriptions:Guidelines . . . . . . . . . 209
AppendixE Autobiographies:Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
AppendixF ReferencingConventionsforDataExtracts . . . . . . . . . . 213
ix
List of Figures
2.1 Visual model of the interrelations between key self
constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 AnelaborationofMarshandShavelson’s(1985)model
(Marshetal.1988:378) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1 Thepotentialpositionofa“foreignlanguagesself-concept”
inahierarchicalmodel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2 AnelaborationofMarshandShavelson’s(1985)model
(Marshetal.1988:378) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.3 NetworkmodelofJoana’sself-concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.1 Internalfactorsaffectingalearner’sEFLself-concept . . . . . . . 125
6.1 Summaryofcategoriesofcriticalexperiences . . . . . . . . . . . 158
6.2 Externalfactorsaffectingalearner’sEFLself-concept . . . . . . . 161
6.3 ModelofL2self-conceptformationprocesses . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.4 Internalandexternalfactors:keyconsiderations . . . . . . . . . . 165
xi