806354

editorial2018
LTR0010.1177/1362168818806354Language Teaching ResearchNassaji

LANGUAGE
TEACHING
Editorial RESEARCH

Language Teaching Research

Personality traits
2018, Vol. 22(6) 653­–656
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1362168818806354
https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168818806354
journals.sagepub.com/home/ltr

Hossein Nassaji
University of Victoria, Canada

I would like to begin this issue of the Language Teaching Research with a huge thank
you to my outgoing co-editor Dr Frank Boers. It has been a great pleasure to work with
Frank. Having served as the co-editor of the journal for the past five years, Frank has
been a wonderful colleague and an inspiring collaborator whose dedication, vision, and
efficiency have contributed immensely to the success of the journal. It is sad to see him
leaving as co-editor, but we are delighted to have him serve as a member of the editorial
board of the journal, and will, therefore, continue to benefit from his experience and
expertise in that role. I would also like to take this opportunity to warmly welcome Dr
María del Pilar García Mayo as our incoming co-editor. Dr García Mayo is an outstand-
ing researcher with many years of experience as an author and language educator. She is
currently professor and the director of the language and speech research group at the
University of the Basque Country, Spain. We are thrilled to have her join us.
In this issue of LTR, we present five articles, most of them addressing in one way or
another the relationship between learner variables, including various personality traits, and
learner success. In what follows, I will first summarize each study and then discuss briefly
the implications of their findings for language learning and pedagogy. The first study by
Rassaei investigates the role of first language glosses in enhancing second language (L2)
vocabulary learning. The study has two specific aims: to determine whether different
modes of first language (L1) glossing (textual and audio) would differentially affect stu-
dents’ vocabulary learning, and whether the effectiveness of the type of glossing varies
depending on the learners’ perceptual styles (auditory versus visual). The study is moti-
vated by the idea that L1 glossing is helpful and that matching the modes of glossing with
learners perceptual learning styles would enhance their learning. Two groups of students
with either visual or auditory perceptual styles participated in the study, each receiving dif-
ferent types of glossing. The study found that audio glosses were more effective than tex-
tual glosses. Furthermore, a significant interaction effect was found for the type of learning
style. Audio glosses were most effective when combined with an auditory learning style.

Corresponding author:
Hossein Nassaji, University of Victoria, Canada.
Email: nassaji@uvic.ca
654 Language Teaching Research 22(6)

However, no superior effect was found when textual glosses were combined with a visual
learning style. These findings suggest that modes of glossing interact with learners’ learn-
ing style preferences in affecting L2 vocabulary acquisition. Important implications are
that L1 glosses assist L2 vocabulary learning and that vocabulary instruction may be fur-
ther enhanced if teachers make use of audio glosses.
Dewaele et al. also examine aspects of learners’ personality traits but with a focus on
learners’ emotion and anxiety. Their study investigates the relationship between foreign
language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) and the
extent to which they are associated with various learner-related and classroom/teacher-
related variables. The data were collected from 189 British high school foreign language
(FL) learners who completed questionnaires that gathered information about learners’
degree of FLE and FLAC and a number of other learner variables (e.g., gender, age,
degree of multilingualism, attitude towards the FL, etc.) and classroom-specific varia-
bles (e.g., frequency of teachers’ FL use, predictability of the FL class, time spent read-
ing, writing, listening and speaking in the FL). The study found a negative relationship
between FLE and FLCA, with a very small shared variance, indicating that enjoyment
and anxiety are two different dimensions of emotion. As for the relationships of other
variables, overall learner-related variables explained a greater variance in both FLE and
FLCA than classroom and teacher-related variables. At least two implications can be
drawn from these findings: (1) attempts at reducing foreign language anxiety may not
necessarily lead to the enhancement of foreign language enjoyment, and (2) teachers
may be more successful if they focus more on increasing learner enjoyment than decreas-
ing their classroom anxiety as the former is more related to teacher-related variables and
practices than the latter.
Kim and Nassaji examined the relationship between two personality traits (i.e. extraver-
sion and introversion) and incidental focus on form. In particular, the study examined
whether more extraverted learners engaged in a greater number of focus on form episodes
in the classroom and whether this involvement would lead to greater improvement in the
accuracy of the targeted structures. Participants were 28 students of English as a second
language (ESL) and their teachers in an advanced and an upper-intermediate ESL class.
The focus-on-form data were collected through classroom observation (audio and video
recording) over seven weeks from eight classroom sessions for a total of 16 hours. Two
measures were employed to determine the students’ level of extraversion, a teacher obser-
vation report, and a student self-report using a personality trait questionnaire. Both uptake
and individualized posttests were used to measure the effectiveness of focus on form. The
results demonstrated a significant relationship between learners’ level of extraversion and
both the engagement in and the effectiveness of focus on form. These relationships were
also found to vary depending on learners’ level of language proficiency. That is, more
extraverted learners were more likely to engage in a greater number of focus on form epi-
sodes in the advanced level class than in the intermediate level class. As for the effective-
ness of focus on form, no significant relationship was found between learners’ level of
extraversion and student test scores, but more introverted learners produced more success-
ful uptake in the intermediate level class. These findings are significant as they provide
evidence for the role of learner extraversion in classroom focus on form. They also suggest
that their relationship may vary depending on learners’ level of language proficiency.
Nassaji 655

Chow et al. addressed foreign language (FL) listening and reading anxiety and
their relationships with three learner variables (language learning strategies, learning
motivation, and English language performance). The study was motivated by the
claim that attainments of high levels of EFL proficiency is related to learner anxiety
and therefore it is important to identify what factors contribute to FL anxiety. The
study focused on EFL reading and listening anxiety based on the assumption that
these skill-specific anxieties are different from, though related to, general foreign
language anxiety. Data were collected from 306 Chinese undergraduate EFL students
through questionnaires and reading and listening tests. The results revealed that all
the three learner variables were significantly related to both reading and listening
anxiety. Students who showed greater reading and listening anxiety used fewer learn-
ing strategies and also had lower levels of motivation and reading/listening perfor-
mance. However, the results of regression and path analyses revealed that of the three
factors, only two of them (i.e., EFL performance and EFL motivation) uniquely pre-
dicted EFL reading and listening anxiety. Although learning strategy was a significant
correlate, it did not explain any unique variance in reading and listening anxiety once
the variance of the other two were controlled. This study is significant because it
helps us to understand the sources of foreign language anxiety. These findings have
also clear implications for teaching and learning EFL listening and reading skills.
They suggest that teachers should be aware of the factors that can impact learner anxi-
ety and should adopt strategies that reduce its effects.
The final study by Donato and Davin did not concern learner variables. Instead,
they focused on teachers’ past history and experiences, or what they called history-in-
person. The concept of history-in-person comes from social practice theory and is
defined as what remains with a person from the past that shapes or influences his or her
actions in the present. The study examines how history-in-person processes influence
novice foreign language teachers’ classroom discursive practices. The research is
motivated by the argument that classroom discursive practices are socially and histori-
cally situated activities that are affected and formed by the images teachers have devel-
oped of teaching from their past learning experiences. The study was conducted in a
foreign language teacher preparation program with two novice teachers teaching in a
methodology course designed to promote L2 meaningful classroom interaction. Data
consisted of both practice-based (e.g., field notes and classroom observations) and
thought-based data (e.g., narratives and life histories) as well as post-lesson reflec-
tions. Findings indicated that teachers’ history-in-person influenced their classroom
discursive practices but these processes also interacted in complex ways with other
external factors, including various institutional constraints. Overall, their analyses
illustrate the importance of considering the role of teachers’ past history and experi-
ences in understanding teaching practices.
All the studies in this issue of the journal have investigated topics of significant theo-
retical and practical relevance to the field of second and foreign language teaching and
learning. Four of them address the role of important learner-related variables, including
personality traits, emotion, and anxiety, the understanding of which is critical for effec-
tive language instruction. The last study addresses an underexplored area of research in
language education, which is how teachers’ personal history and past experiences can
656 Language Teaching Research 22(6)

shape and influence their classroom discursive practices. The study drew upon the con-
cept of history-in-person and applied it to understanding how two novice teachers man-
aged and conducted meaning-focused classroom interactions. The same concept and
methods of analysis can also be applied in future research to examine other teachers’
discursive practices in other contexts and also in relation to other aspects of classroom
teaching. Such research is scarce, and Donato and Davin’s study has the potential to
stimulate further inquiry in these domains.