Adequately responding to linguistic diversity in the classroom is imperative in European school contexts, not least because of current migratory movements. This article presents the results of an intervention study with primary school English-foreign-language learners in Germany (N = 42, M[subscript age] = 8.70 years) from linguistically diverse…

The last three decades have witnessed a notable growth in research on affect. Among the various affective variables, foreign language anxiety has been heavily studied. This interest in foreign language anxiety is consistent with increased attention to emotions in the neurosciences, cognitive psychology, and the social sciences. Instead of…

This classroom-based study explored links among second language (L2) learners' interaction mindsets, interactional behaviors, and L2 development in the context of peer interaction. While peer interaction research has revealed that certain interactional behaviors (e.g., receiving corrective feedback and engaging in collaborative interaction) assist…

This study aimed to isolate the effects of the two input activities in Processing Instruction: referential activities, which force learners to focus on a form and its meaning, and affective activities, which contain exemplars of the target form and require learners to process sentence meaning. One hundred and twenty 12-year-old Taiwanese learners…

This article investigates results and antecedents of willingness to communicate WTC in a second language L2 through 2 separate investigations conducted with Japanese adolescent learners of English. In the first investigation, involving 160 students, a model was created based on the hypothesis that WTC results in more frequent communication in the…

The effect of three affective student characteristics, in comparison with selected student ability characteristics, on course grade in elementary language courses is examined. Results imply that affective characteristics have at least as much influence on learning as do ability factors. (Author/RM)

Based on a synopsis of research studies, the relationship of second language learning to affective factors, such as language shock, attitude motivation, ego permeability, etc., is examined. Also, it is suggested that affective variables may be more important than maturation in the problems of adults in learning a second language. (MS)

Questions the validity of current measurement instruments or techniques which purport to assess affective variables, and relates this to the question of correlation between measures of affective variables and attained language proficiency. (AM)

Describes a study of the role of confidence in the performance of English as a second language learners on a listening test. Some analytic procedures from the Theory of Signal Detection were applied. Results show the possibility of substantial differences in individual performance in terms of self-monitoring ability and confidence. (Author/SED)

Examines the research on affective variables as they relate to language learning, with particular attention to anxiety. (Author/AM)

Examines five factors that may impact the use of second language emotion vocabulary. Considers the impact of language proficiency, gender, and extroversion on the use of emotion words in the advanced French interlanguage of 29 native Dutch speakers, and examines influence of sociocultural competence, gender, and type of linguistic material on use…

This study investigated a causal model of second language learning, in particular, three situation-specific constructs: language class discomfort, language class risktaking, and language class sociability. Findings indicate that discomfort negatively predicted risktaking and sociability, risktaking positively predicted participation, and…

Three groups of Grade 7 students participated in a study to examine the personality and language exposure factors associated with learning French as a second language. (CFM)