Research plan/proposal

Submit your initial idea/proposal as a formative

draft by Week 8 (Thu 9th March) so that you
can receive feedback by Week 10 (Thu 23
March)
Please send to Sinead at
NOT mandatory!
Use bullet points!
500-1,000 words (1-2 pages)
Consent form
Download “information sheet” and “consent
form” in Moodle & make two copies.
Your participant and you will sign.

1st copy: your participant will keep it.

2nd copy: you will submit to me (Kazuya

Saito) by Monday 9th March
Question
How can I get high marks for my
final assignment?
The most important thing is to show how
much you’ve read/understood the
content of the module.
As long as you follow the framework
(detailed in the booklet), you will unlikely
fail this module.
Check how your role model
(empirical) papers are written!

I am very explicit about which

students responded well each week!
Question
I am still wondering who would be a
best fit for my interview. Any advice?
Anyone can be your candidate, as long as
s/he can provide the dataset that you can
use to link to what we’ve learned from the
module!!
 Anybody can be your participant…
A classmate (a relatively advanced L2 English speaker)
You can easily test every material introduced in the
module (L2 English)

A friend outside school (an beginner-to-intermediate L2

English speaker)
You can provide a lot of good advice re: how to improve
their proficiency (Weeks 1-5)

A friend outside school – a very advanced L2 English

speaker You can provide a lot of good discussion on the
mechanisms in SLA (Weeks 6-10)

Somebody learning L2 Chinese, L2 Spanish, L2 Japanese

You can show your profound/advanced understanding of
what we’ve learned in the module
Except for such participants

I have a participant who has just

started learning Japanese. He is a
super beginner.

You may not obtain any interesting

insights, because s/he can’t really
use the target language….
Teaching and Researching L2 Speech

Kazuya Saito
Email: k.Saito@ucl.ac.uk
Web: http://kazuyasaito.net/
 L2 speech learning is subject to a
great deal of individual variation…
Large
gains

Moderate
Why? gains

Proficiency Little
gain

Time
Individual differences in SLA/L2 speech
(e.g., Dewaele, 2012)
Learner-external factors
Experience
Age WEEK 5
Contexts
Learner-internal factors
Aptitude WEEK 6
Emotion
Most
Motivation WEEK 7 popular!

Personality
Three conclusions (Kazuya)

1. A growing number of scholars have been

exploring how to define motivation/emotion
in SLA; but very few have examined the
relevance of the frameworks to L2 speech
learning.
Three conclusions (Kazuya)

2. It still remains unclear precisely how the

sociopsychological factors actually impact
acquisition.
Three conclusions (Kazuya)

3. More research is definitely needed to

examine how *intervention* can enhance
students’ motivation & positive emotion.
Measuring L2 emotion, motivation
& personality
 Method: Descriptive approach
Dependent variables
L2 learners’ performance (written and oral tests;
general proficiency tests; final course grades)

Independent variables
Their questionnaire scores

What do you think of the statement?

( 1 2 3 4 5 )
Strongly Disagree Neutral Strongly Agree
Questions!
What kind of individual difference (ID)
factor is this questionnaire designed to
measure?

How is this ID factor related to second

language learning? Any research
evidence?
How do you feel about the statements below?

I always feel that the other students speak the

Foreign language better than I do.
I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in
my Foreign language class
It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my
Foreign language class
In class, I feel proud of my accomplishments.
It’s cool to know a Foreign language.
It’s a positive environment.
The peers are nice
( 1 2 3 4 5 )
Strongly disagree Strongly agree
Warm-Up Question: What are
Foreign Language Anxiety vs.
Foreign Language Enjoyment
 Anxiety
MacIntyre and Gardner (1994, p. 284)
Foreign language anxiety
 “The feeling of tension and apprehension
specifically associated with second language (L2)
contexts”

Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986, p. 128)

Foreign language classroom anxiety
 “A distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs,
feelings and behaviors related to classroom
learning”
 Teimouri et al. (2019) Meta-analysis
Significantly negative correlations in the order
of r = -.35 have been obtained between
anxiety scores and L2 proficiency (grammar
tests, listening tests, speaking tests).

Teimouri, Y., Goetze, J., & Plonsky, L. (2019).

Second language anxiety and achievement: A
meta-analysis. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 41(2), 363-387.
 Professor Jean-Mar
Dewaele
Chengchen Li

Huazhong University of
Science & Technology

Birkbeck, University of London

Dewaele et al. (since 2014)
Foreign Language Enjoyment
Positive emotions towards the learning
experience, peers and teacher
(More than 50+ publications on this topic)

Dewaele’s latest review article in Frontiers

in Psychology (2019)
Question
We want to enhance students’ positive
emotion and reduce anxiety. What kinds of
variables are related to positive emotion and
anxiety? What matters? Any research
evidence?
Emotion
There are two different types of emotion, Anxiety and
Enjoyment. They are partially inter-related but independent
constructs because they have different affecting factors.
 Dewaele et al. (2018)
Method
189 high school students learning MFLs (e.g.,
French, Spanish) in London

Questionnaire (Anxiety, Enjoyment, grade, teacher variables)

Findings
Enjoyment was linked to teachers’ variables
1. Attitude towards teachers
2. FL use (especially speaking)
3. Predictability

Anxiety was simply linked to students’ grade,

proficiency & relative standing in class.
Very crucial message for teachers
“Teachers should focus on making their classes enjoyable,
because our findings noted a strong relationship between
what teachers actually do in their classrooms and the
extent to which FL students enjoy the FL learning.”

“Teachers should not be overly concerned about FLCA as

they do not appear to be the main cause of it. Rather, FL
students’ anxiety in our sample seemed to be related to
their general FL proficiency.”
Follow up studies (n = 100+)
Dewaele, J. M., Chen, X., Padilla, A. M., & Lake,
J. (2019). The flowering of positive psychology in
foreign language teaching and acquisition
research. Frontiers in psychology, 2128.
Follow up longitudinal studies
Pan, C., & Zhang, X. (2021). A longitudinal study of foreign
language anxiety and enjoyment. Language Teaching Research
Elahi Shirvan, M., & Taherian, T. (2021). Longitudinal examination
of university students’ foreign language enjoyment and foreign
language classroom anxiety in the course of general English: latent
growth curve modeling. International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism, 24(1), 31-49.
Li, C., & Wei, L. (2022). Anxiety, enjoyment, and boredom in
language learning amongst junior secondary students in rural
China: How do they contribute to L2 achievement?. Studies in
Second Language Acquisition, 1-16.
Dewaele, J. M., Saito, K., & Halimi, F. (2022). How teacher
behaviour shapes foreign language learners’ enjoyment, anxiety
and attitudes/motivation: A mixed modelling longitudinal
investigation. Language Teaching Research, 13621688221089601.
 Longitudinal research (2020 onward)
Emotion

Enjoyment

Time (a few weeks to one semester)

 Longitudinal research (2020 onward)
Emotion

Anxiety
(cf. motivation)

Time (a few weeks to one semester)

Latest topic - How is emotion
related to motivation?
Teimouri,Y. (2017). L2 selves, emotions, and motivated
behaviors. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 39, 681-709.
Question: What if your students
have….????
Very low-level enjoyment!
I am bored! I don’t enjoy learning L2
English…

I am not proud of my achievement

in class. I am NOT a worthy
member here…

What should we do? Any intervention?

What do researchers recommend?
Student A’s response
Designing multiple language-related activities. Teachers
can teach a popular song of that language to motivate
learners. Students can enjoy beautiful melodies and
words when learning a new song so they can hold
positive attitudes to the foreign language. Moreover,
teachers are able to arrange role plays in class.
Students can feel the emotion of the words and promote
speaking ability when they play the part of the character.
These two activities are really fascinated to language
learners and are able to spark their imagination and
enthusiasm for learning.
Student B’s response
According to Dewaele et al. (2018), certain teachers
behaviours seem to impact on students’ FLE. If I
follow their suggestions, teachers should use a FL
more often as this is probably the best way to
encourage students to have more positive attitudes
towards using/learning a FL. Also, it is important to
avoid routinized, predictable & boring FL class
content. Dewaele et al.’s (2022) recent longitudinal
research also showed the importance of the
frequency of humour/jokes….
Emotion enhancement
Any intervention studies (with a thorough
research design) so far?

NO (to my knowledge)!!
Can we enhance students’
enjoyment?
Li, C., & Xu, J. (2019). Trait Emotional Intelligence and
Classroom Emotions: A Positive Psychology Investigation
and Intervention Among Chinese EFL Learners. Frontiers in
Psychology, 10, 2453. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02453
 Li & Xu (2019)
Method
N = 56 high school students in China receiving
5 weeks of positive psychology theory-based
training taught by Chengchen Li (the author)
 Positive emotion training
Awareness raising - discussing the importance of
emotion in EFL & relevant anecdotal stories

Recognising others’ emotions – discussing

different ways of recognizing others/teachers’
emotions & anecdotal stories (e.g., facial expression, gesture,
posture, pause, pitch)
12

Focusing on positivity – discussing positive

emotions that facilitate EFL & positive outcomes and
how to keep it up based on anecdotal stories

Metacognition – sharing strategies to boost positive

emotion & cope with negative emotions
Be positive & ambitious!
Emotion questionnaires available
here!
http://sla-speech-tools.com/
Questions!
What kind of individual difference (ID)
factor is this questionnaire designed to
measure?

How is this ID factor related to second

language learning? Any research
evidence?
How do you feel about the statements below?

I am very talkative.

I enjoy meeting new people.

I make friends easily.

I think people are overly cautious.

I know how to get people to have fun.

I am quiet around others

( 1 2 3 4 5 )
Very inaccurate Very accurate
 Eysenck's Personality Inventory
http://naylandpsych.weebly.com/eysencks-personality-inventory-epi.html
Eysenck’s Big Five Personality
Traits
Openness to experience
Tendency to appreciate novel/different ideas and adventures
Conscientiousness
Tendency to show self-discipline
Extraversion (vs. introversion)
Tendency to seek for opportunities to socialize
Agreeableness
Tendency to cooperate with others
Neuroticism (vs. emotional stability)
Tendency to feel unpleasant emotions
Personality Questionnaire (Gosling et al, 2003)
(see Moodle/Dropbox)
Kazuya’s personality
Openness Conscienti Extraversio Agreeablen Emotional
ousness n ess stability
4.0 2.5 4.5 5.5 3.5

Check your own

personality!
TEN ITEM PERSONALITY MEASURE
(TIPI)
Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B., Jr. (2003). A
Very Brief Measure of the Big Five Personality
Domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504-528.
 Personality: Extroversion
Eysenck & Eysenck (1964, p. 8)
Extroverts
 “Sociable, likes parties, has many friends, needs
to have many people to talk to, craves excitement,
takes chances, acts on the spur of the moment”

Introverts
 “A quiet, retiring sort of person, introspective, fond
of books rather than people, reserved and distant
except to intimate friends, planning ahead”
Question:
In general, do extroverts likely perform
better than introverts do in terms of
SLA/L2 speech?
 Dewaele (2000)
L1 speech production
Extraverts have better short term-memory.
They are more impervious to stress and
anxiety.
They speak more fluently than introverts.

L2 speech production
Extroverts’ speech is likely more fluent.
Introverts’ speech is likely more complex (higher
values of lexical richness and longer utterances).
 Sun et al. (2023, Language Learning)
Method
Longitudinal investigations of 50 international
students in London over 4 months
Findings
More extrovert speakers likely used L2
English.
But such personality-use link did not relate to
acquisition (but see Pyun et al. 2014).
References
Dewaele, J. M., & Furnham, A. (2000). Personality and speech
production: A pilot study of second language learners. Personality
and Individual Differences, 28(2), 355-365.
Dewaele, J. M., & Al-Saraj, T. (2015). Foreign language classroom
anxiety of Arab learners of English: The effect of personality,
linguistic and sociobiographical variables. Studies in Second Language
Learning and Teaching, 5(2), 205-228.
Pyun, D. O., Kim, J. S., Cho, H.Y., & Lee, J. H. (2014). Impact of
affective variables on Korean as a foreign language learners' oral
achievement. System, 47, 53-63.
Sun, H., Saito, K., & Dewaele, J. M. (in press, 2023). Cognitive
and sociopsychological individual differences, experience, and
naturalistic second language speech learning: a longitudinal study.
Language Learning.
Questions!
What kind of individual difference (ID)
factor is this questionnaire designed to
measure?

How is this ID factor related to second

language learning? Any research
evidence?
Studying a L2 can be important to me because:

I think it will some day be useful in getting a good job and

making a lot of money.

I think I’ll need it for further studies.

I don’t like to be considered as a poorly educated person.

I can learn more about the culture and art of its speakers.

I would like to become similar to the people who speak the

L2.

( 1 2 3 4 5 )
Strongly Disagree Neutral Strongly Agree
Questions!
What kind of individual difference (ID)
factor is this questionnaire designed to
measure?

How is this ID factor related to second

language learning? Any research
evidence?
Question
What type of motivation is relevant to L2
(speech) acquisition, and how/why so? Can
you explain the terms below?

Integrative motivation
Instrumental motivation
Ideal L2 Self
Ought-to L2 Self
 Different types of motivation?
Gardner & Lambert (1972, p. 132)
Integrative motivation
Learning language for personal interest
“I can learn more about the culture and art of its
speakers.”

Instrumental motivation
Learning language for practical purposes
“I think it will some day be useful in getting a good
job and making a lot of money.”
 Dr. Zoltán Dörnyei

Professor of Psycholinguistics
University of Nottingham
Most cited researcher
in Applied Linguistics and SLA (30,396)

Dörnyei, Z. (2005). Psychology of the language learner:

Individual differences in second language acquisition.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
 Motivation revisited (2000s)
Dörnyei (2001)
Motivation is a dynamic phenomenon.
Some components are trait-like and others are
more context-specific (e.g., Foreign vs. Second
Language; beginner → advanced).

Much research attention has been given to

English-as-a-Foreign-Language contexts (where
the concept of integrative motivation is elusive)
 L2 Self System: Dörnyei (2005)
A. Ideal L2 Self
All the attributes that that person would like to
possess
“I can imagine myself living abroad and using the L2
effectively for communicating with the locals.”

“I can imagine myself speaking the L2 with international

friends or colleagues.”

“Whenever I think of my future career, I imagine myself

using the L2.”
 L2 Self System: Dörnyei (2005)
B. Ought-to L2 Self
having the attributes that that person believes
one should possess
“Learning the L2 is necessary because people surrounding
me expect me to do so.”

“Studying the L2 is important to me in order to gain the

approval of my peers/teachers/family/boss.”

“Studying the L2 is important to me because other people

will respect me more if I have knowledge of the L2.”
 Are they different or similar motivations?
“Studying the L2 can be important to me because I
think it will be someday be useful in getting a good job”

“I learn the L2 because without passing the course I

cannot graduate”

Instrumental vs. integrative motivation?

Both of them are “instrumental”

Ideal vs. Ought-to L2 Self?

1st statement = Ideal Self (promotion focus)
2nd statement = Ought-to Self (prevention focus)
 Dörnyei’s seminal publications
Participants?
+10,000 EFL learners in Hungary, Japan,
China, Iran and etc.
Two key recent studies
Largest questionnaire studies in SLA (n = 10,000 students)
You, C. J., & Dörnyei, Z. (2016). Language learning
motivation in China: Results of a large-scale stratified survey.
Applied Linguistics, 37(4), 495-519.

You, C., Dörnyei, Z., & Csizér, K. (2016). Motivation,

vision, and gender: A survey of learners of English in China.
Language Learning, 66(1), 94-123.
 Dörnyei’s seminal publications
Method?
Motivation questionnaire
Integrativeness Check any
“correlations”
Instrumentality
Ideal L2 Self
Ought L2 Self

Criterion measures
“I am working hard at learning English”
“I think that I am doing my best to learn English”
 Dörnyei’s seminal publications
Findings?
Ought-to L2 Self is a dominant motivational
orientation in many EFL classrooms.
Those who work harder likely have greater
Ideal L2 Self.
Let’s solve this issue with a
“longitudinal” design…
Saito, K., Dewaele, J. M., Abe, M., & In'nami,Y. (2018).
Motivation, Emotion, Learning Experience, and Second
Language Comprehensibility Development in Classroom
Settings: A Cross‐Sectional and Longitudinal Study.
Language Learning, 68(3), 709-743.
 Design (Dec 2016 – Mar 2017)
Participants
N = 110 Japanese high school EFL students

Time 1
• Speaking Test
• Motivation questionnaire

Time 2
• Speaking Test T2
• Surveying current EFL experience (T1-T2)
Within a semester, n = 110
Japanese high school students’
motivation profiles (Ideal & Ought-
to Self) predicted how much they
practiced L2 English inside/outside
classrooms.
The participants’ oral proficiency
development over 1 semester was
strongly linked to Ideal L2 Self (but
NOT Ought-to L2 self).

Weak Ideal Self

Strong Ideal Self

Revisiting, updating, and
elaborating Self System
Papi, M., & Khajavy, G. H. (2021). Motivational mechanisms
underlying second language achievement: A regulatory focus
perspective. Language Learning, 71(2), 537-572.

Teimouri,Y. (2017). L2 selves, emotions, and motivated

behaviors. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 39(4),
681-709.
Key review references
Mahmoodi, M. H., & Yousefi, M. (2021). Second language
motivation research 2010–2019: A synthetic exploration. The
Language Learning Journal, 1-24.
Boo, Z., Dörnyei. Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). L2 motivation
research 2005–2014: Understanding a publication surge and
a changing landscape. System, 55, 147–157.
Dörnyei, Z., Csizér, K., & Németh, N. (2006). Motivation,
language attitudes and globalisation: A Hungarian perspective.
Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Question: What if your students
have….????
Little Ideal L2 Self!

So much Ought-to L2 Self!

What should we do? Should we

encourage them to enhance their Ideal
L2 Self? How?
Motivation enhancement
Student A’s response
I had a very inspiring teacher when I was a
junior high school student. Although she was
not a native speaker of English, she always
showed us how much she was willing to
communicate without fear of mistakes, big
smiles, a spirit of challenge and doing things
best. Many of us were very much motivated to
speak up and be communicative. My teacher
was a great ROLE MODEL!
Student B’s response
tasks that mock authentic practices in
future real life, such as negotiating as if we
were businessmen or lawyers, etc. I think this
has something to do with the “visualisation”
and “Ideal L2 self” proposed by Dörnyei (2009)
in his L2MSS model, as the self-image of
taking up a certain social identity in a future
context could boost students' motivation and
enjoyment. As Dörnyei & Kubanyiova’s (2014)
book said, learning L2 English is a long-term
process that involves connecting the present
with the future.
Any intervention studies (with a thorough
research design) so far?

NO (to my knowledge)!!
But very recently….
Sato, M. (2021). Generating a roadmap for
possible selves via a vision intervention:
Alignment of second language motivation and
classroom behavior. TESOL Quarterly, 55(2),
427-457.
THANK YOU!!