The Ecosystem of the Foreign Language Learner

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Internal Processes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. What the Languages of Our Dreams Tell Us About Our Multilinguality

      • Danuta Gabryś-Barker

      Pages 3-17

   3. The Cecily Effect: A Pilot Study

      • Martin Hinton

      Pages 19-36

   4. Foreign Language Self-assessment and Willingness to Communicate in and Outside the Classroom

      • Małgorzata Baran-Łucarz

      Pages 37-57

   5. A Qualitative Study on Subjective Attitudes and Objective Achievement of Autotelic and Non-autotelic Students of English as a Foreign Language

      • Beata Telążka

      Pages 59-70

   6. Simultaneous Reading and Listening Is Less Effective Than Reading Alone: A Study Based on Cognitive Load Theory

      • Pedro Luis Luchini

      Pages 71-80

   7. Associative Links in the Bilingual Mind

      • Marek Kuczyński

      Pages 81-94

3. External Processes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95

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   2. EFL Teachers’ Affective Competencies and Their Relationships with the Students

      • Nina Barłożek

      Pages 97-115

   3. An Investigation into Classroom-Related Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Among in-Service Teachers of English

      • Małgorzata Marzec-Stawiarska

      Pages 117-134

   4. Development of EFL Teacher Training Materials: Lessons from Co-ordinating a Multilateral Project

      • Joanna Nijakowska

      Pages 135-151

   5. Is Foreign Language Knowledge a Form of Capital Passed from One Generation to the Next?

      • Joanna Rokita-Jaśkow

      Pages 153-167

   6. Rhetorical Criticism as an Advanced Literacy Practice: A Report on a Pilot Training

      • Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska

      Pages 169-184

   7. Cultural Problems in Literary Translation from English into Arabic

      • Wafa abu Hatab

      Pages 185-200

This volume examines selected aspects of the foreign language learning process from an ecological perspective, adopting a holistic view on complex interrelations among and within organisms (L2 language learners) and their milieus (family, school and society). First of all, the personal ecosystem of the learner is taken into consideration, whereby two powerful influences are intertwined: cognitive and affective aspects. The learning space formed by the individual is largely shaped by their affective states coexisting in conjunction with their cognitive processes. Moreover, this specific space is also modified by a wider array of other personal ecosystems or those of cultures. Hence, the ecosystem of the foreign language learner is also subject to influences coming from sociocultural leverage that can be represented by people they know, like parents and language teachers, who can both directly and indirectly manipulate their ecosystem. At the same time other important forces, such as culture as a ubiquitous element in the foreign language learning process, also have the power to shape that ecosystem. Accordingly, the book is divided into three parts covering a range of topics related to these basic dimensions of foreign language acquisition (the cognitive, affective and socio-cultural). Part I, Affective Interconnections, focuses on the body of original empirical research into the affective domain of not only L2 language learners but also non-native language teachers. Part II, Cognitive Interconnections, reports on contributions on language learners’ linguistic processing and cognitive representations of concepts. The closing part, Socio-cultural Interconnections, provides new insights into language learning processes as they are affected by social and cultural factors.

• Affect
• Cognition
• Culture
• Foreign/Second Language Learning and Teaching
• Individual Differences

• Institute of English Philology, University of Opole, Opole, Poland

  Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel, Magdalena Szyszka

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