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Individual di erences in cond language acquisition:attitudes,learner subjectivity,and L2pragmatic norms
coboVirginia LoCastro
Departmento de Lenguas,Universidad de las Americas,Sta.Catarina Martir,72820Puebla,Mexico贝乐学科英语怎么样
Received 1November 1999;received in revid form 5April 2000;accepted 18April 2000
Abstract
Anecdotal reports from classroom language teachers suggest that students'profesd posi-tive attitudes towards learning English and their language-related behaviors often do not match.Many claim ``interest''in the language and,when pushed to explain,the learners tend to state that ``it is necessary''to study English for their future careers or for study abroad.Very few em to be motivated to acculturate to the target language culture or norms of communication.The reports motivated my decision to look into the attitudes of EFL learners in the form of a study of individual di erences,speci®cally,one which focus on the relationship among attitudes,learner lf-identity,and willingness to accommodate to L2pragmatic norms.This paper reports on evidence of the extent Japan
e EFL learners ek to adopt L2communicative norms.The descriptive account explores learners'lf-reports on attitudes towards the target language,subjective reactions to L2pragmatic norms,and moti-vations towards accommodating to tho norms.While the level of resistance to acquiring pro®ciency in the u of L2pragmatic norms is not strong,the learners'accounts indicate their e orts to establish a L2lf-identity compatible with their own individual goals.#2001Elvier Science Ltd.All rights rerved.
Keywords:Attitudes;Motivation;Social constructionist theory;Individual di erences;Learner sub-jectivity;Second language pragmatic norms;Interlanguage pragmatics;Second language learning;Second language acquisition
1.Introduction
Anecdotal reports from classroom language teachers suggest that students'profesd positive attitudes towards learning English and their
language-related System 29(2001)69±/locate/system
0346-251X/01/$-e front matter #2001Elvier Science Ltd.All rights rerved.P I I :S 0346-251X(00)00046-4
E-mail address:locastro@ (V.LoCastro).
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behaviors often do not match.Many claim``interest''in the language and,when pushed to explain,the learners tend to state that``it is necessary''to study English for their future careers or for study abroad.Very few em to be motivated to acculturate to the target language culture or norms of communication.The reports motivated my decision to look into the attitudes of EFL learners in the form of a study of individual di erences,speci®cally focusing on the relationship among attitudes,learner lf-identity,and willingness to accommodate to L2pragmatic norms.
Rearch on individual di erences in cond language acquisition(SLA),whether conducted from the perspective of traditional social-psychological theory and Gardner,Tremblay and Masgoret,1997)or social constructionist approaches(Peirce,1995;Siegal,1996;Wertsch,1991),has sought to explain the relationship between socio-a ective factors and cond language acquisition.Early SLA rearch examined the role of attitudes and motivation in promoting language
pro®ciency;much of that Gardner and Lambert,1972)focud on target language pro®ciency in terms of grammatical accuracy,native-like pro-nunciation,and unexamined target language cultural norms.More recently,SLA rearchers have become interested in the notion of pragmatic competence,clearly an important component of current de®nitions of successful language learning.The models of communicative competence of Canale(1983)and Bachman(1989), inspired by Hymes'(1972)construct of sociolinguistic competence,are evidence of attempts to integrate L2pragmatic norms and behavior into a theory of cond/ foreign language development.In conjunction with this expansion of what it means to know a language,questions ari with regards to individual di erences and the role of attitudes,motivation,and learners'willingness to adopt L2standards for linguistic action.
prepare是什么意思However,the interaction between such factors and pragmatic development has only recently been addresd.Kasper and Schmidt(1996)acknowledged that learners'willingness to adopt L2pragmatics may be particularly nsitive to their attitudes towards the L2target community and their motivation for learning a L2. In one recent study,Hinkel(1996)examined ESL learners'knowledge of L2prag-matic norms,their attitudes towards them,and their lf-reported behaviors.She found that the non-native speakers'recognition of L2pragmatic norms was not matched by their willingness to adopt L2c
ommunicative practices.In Macintyre, Clement,Dornyei and Noels(1998),an integrated analysis of linguistics,commu-nicative,and social psychological variables is discusd in an attempt to account for willingness to communicate in a L2.
电子数据系统There is clearly a need for more rearch on relationships among attitudes and motivation,and pragmatic development.Whether one adopts Gardner's(1985) socio-educational model of integrative/instrumental motivation,Brown's(1990) extrinsic/intrinsic dichotomy,or Peirce's(1995)construct of investment,the learners' social he construction of the lf in the target language,is implicated. Do the learners want to integrate into the target language community,thereby implying acceptance of L2pragmatic norms?Or do they resist and contest the reconstruction of the lf which the integrative motive implies?If so,does such
V.LoCastro/System29(2001)69±8971 resistance,explicit or implicit,introduce a stumbling block to their ability to adjust to,or even adopt the interaction patterns and linguistic action norms of the target language community?Does such resistance obstruct their language learning?
This paper reports on a study on the extent to which Japane EFL learners ek to adopt L2communicative norms.This descriptive account explores the learners' lf-reports on attitudes tow
ards the target language,subjective reactions to L2 pragmatic norms,and motivations towards accommodating to tho norms.It compris an aggregate,hypothesis-generating picture of EFL learners in Japan with regards to individual di erences and accommodation to L2communicative norms. First of all,brief summaries of relevant contributions from the literature are pre-nted,followed by a description of the methodology.The®ndings and discussion are in the third ction.In the®nal ction,conclusions and implications for class-room practices are considered
2.Literature review
According to Kasper and Schmidt(1996),``willingness''has been assumed by rearchers and educators;however,there is a little empirical support for the assumption that L2learners ek to achieve native-like competence.It would appear that the learner and SLA form a complex constellation of variables which interact with each other.The literature review address aspects of the theoretical framework adapted in this study.
2.1.Learner subjectivity
Social constructionist,learner subjectivity,and learner socialization approaches, originally concerned with®rst language acquisition(Ochs,1993),have recently been applied to SLA Poole,19
92;Peirce,1995;Siegal,1996).As language learning involves the lf-identity of the learner as an individual with a personal history and as a member of a group,a society,and a culture,the input provided may not become intake due to reasons that implicate the learner's beliefs and values as well as features of the sociocultural context.Gillette's(1994)study of the correlation of learner goals and L2success demonstrated that``a learner's goal depends on a learner's social history and the u value ascribed to foreign languages in his or her environment''(p.210).Peirce(1995,p.12)directly challenges SLA theorists to integrate``a theory of social identity''into a more comprehensive view than has been the ca so far in language learning,despite the fact that sociolinguists long ago provided ample evidence that language u and choice is a powerful means of iden-tifying onelf as a member of a particular speech community.
2.2.Attitudes and motivation
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The literature on attitudes and motivation is extensive(e Gardner and Lambert, 1972;Gardner,1985;Oxford,1996,among others).Only recently did Gardner,
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Tremblay and Masgoret(1997)publish a study asssing the relationships among individual variables,
censors®nding substantial links between a ective measures and achievement.Speci®cally,they measured correlations of attitudes,motivation,lf-con®dence,anxiety,aptitude,and learning strategies with achievement.Despite the more inclusive t of factors,the operationalization of individual di erence features remains problematic.Potter and Wetherell(1987)claim that attitudes are not``enduring entities''.Further,informants'notions of attitudes may not match the categories of the rearchers;the status of the``object''which the atti-tude is said to asss may also not be viewed in the same way by rearcher and informants.The connection between attitudes and behavior is notoriously di cult to predict and asss;social pressure from peers,for example,can radically change an individual's attitude towards the``object''within the space of a classroom discussion.
Graham(1984)reviews assimilative motivation,contrasting it with de®nitions by Schuman(1978),Brown(1983),and Dulay,Burt and Krashen(1982).All attempt to provide a reprentation of the variables involved in SLA.Assimilative motivation is claimed to imply``that the learner desires to become an indistinguishable member of the target speech community''(Graham,1984,p.76).Further,Graham claims that such motivation is characteristic of learners who have``experienced prolonged con-tact with the target culture''(Graham,1984,p.77).Clearly,in the ca of Japane learners of English who have not reside
d in an English-speaking country,assim-ilative motivation as de®ned cannot be a uful analytical framework for a study in that EFL situation.However,one characteristic of assimilative motivation is of interest,speci®cally,the claim that the motivation to learn a cond language appears to decrea in strength during adolescence.Baker(1992)found the same relationship with regards to the development of Welsh±English bilingualism in Wales amongst adolescents.A number of alternative explanations are o ered by both Baker and Graham,mostly involving the e ect of peer pressure.It must be kept in mind,nevertheless,that the rearch discusd by both authors refers to adolescents residing in the target language community and/or acquisition of the L2 by children.comanche
Another approach to motivation has been suggested by Peirce(1995,p.17);she claims that``investment''would be a more appropriate term,signaling that learners ``invest''in learning a cond language in order to increa their cultural capital (Bourdieu,1991).According to this view,``the notion of investment F F F attempts to capture the relationship of the language learner to the changing social world'' (Peirce,1995,p.17).Further,rather than prioritizing acculturation to the L2com-munity,as many previous attitudes studies have done,the notion of investment focus on the individuals'lf identity as the locus of concern.Analyzing language learning histories and diaries,Gillette(1994)concluded that language skills are viewed as either a valuable ast or an exter
nal imposition by language learners in her study.Clearly,language transmits referential or ideational content;however,it also carries out an interpersonal or integrative function,implying a L2speaker's desire to be viewed by co-participants as a competent ur of the L2.How-ever,particularly in non-target language community environments,native-like L2
V.LoCastro/System29(2001)69±8973
语文辅导competence may not be viewed as desirable;in fact,maintenance of one's®rst lan-guage identity may be a symbol of e orts to reject the hegemony of English in the world today(Ho man,1989)
2.3.Pragmatic development
The literature concerning the relationship of attitudes and L2pragmatic ability is not extensive.Successful L2language development has been assumed to involve grammatical competence,speci®cally language-bad knowledge and competencies (Firth and Wagner,1997,p.285).Indeed,the word``competence'',it is argued(e Gregg,1993,cited in Firth and Wagner,1997),denotes exclusively a formalistic, context-free linguistic knowledge,with contextual,interactive dimensions relegated to the performance aspect of Chomsky's dichotomy,performance and competence. This theory of language is being challenged(Modern Lang
翻译官张京个人介绍uage Journal,1997)and arguments are made(Hall,1997)for a more inclusive SLA ba which would com-pri more``participant-relevant''(Firth and Wagner,1997,p.285)individual lear-ner factors.
Attempts have been made to look at the actual teaching of L2pragmatic ``Studies in Second Language Acquisition'',1996).However, studies on the e ect of instruction are not numerous(Kasper and Schmidt,1996; Kasper,1997;Sato and Beecken,1997).Bouton(1994)assd the e ect of instruction on the u of implicature by NNSs in an ESL context;his study,how-ever,does not consider attitudes.More recently,Hinkel(1996)compared attitudes towards L2pragmatic norms with lf-reports of actual behaviors.Clearly,given the paucity of studies,there is a need to consider the role of attitudes in pragmatic development.
2.4.Rationale for current study
There is no question that the work of Gardner and his colleagues as well as that of many others who have contributed to building the considerable knowledge ba in the®eld of attitudes and motivation constitute minal contributions to the study of the relationships of attitudes,motivation,and language pro®ciency. Nevertheless,commenting on the results of studies conducted by himlf and his associates(Schmidt,1995),Schmidt(1996)stated that studies bad only on a quantitative approach h
ave not taken the®eld beyond what is already known. Rearch adopting qualitative techniques or a multi-dimensional methodology may generate insights into language learning clor to learners'views and interpreta-tions.Both Peirce(1995)and Gillette(1994)are examples of the kinds of studies which are needed.Emphasis needs to be placed on obtaining individual learners' accounts with as little interference as possible from the rearcher and the methods ud to elicit them(Agar,1996).The prent study eks to contribute to the development of the expansion of our understanding of individual di erences by prenting ethnographic evidence collected in an English as a foreign language environment.