The Role of Self-Esteem in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

The Role of Self-Esteem in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching (March 2018)

Introduction

Any class of learners, regardless of the stage of education, type of school and its location (in a metropolitan or rural area), comprises an amazing variety of individuals who are distinct in the name, height, weight, possibly in ethnic background, etc. What bears particular relevance to an instructor, though, is the fact that each of the students displays special talents, aptitudes or attitudes that account for the more or less rapid progress, or, in some cases, lack of progress and serious learning difïculties. There will be students who are keen to work, who stay in good relationships with the teacher and classmates, and others, who are easily demotivated, withdrawn and remain a matter of constant concern for the teacher.

The theory and practice of English language teaching has come a long way from the days when success or failure in learning was attributed solely to cognitive processes. The recent years have seen a growing appreciation of the role of affective factors that determine how the learner feels about the subject, the learning activities and themselves. These feelings translate into the sense of agency, motivation and commitment on the learner's part. The acknowledgement of the role of the emotional aspects of learning has become part of the foundations of applied linguistics.

Compared to other areas of study, language learning is far more ego-involving, which means that it vastly engages the emotional sphere, whose crucial constituents are the learner's unique self-beliefs. These beliefs account for how the learner views their past experience, their current performance and their future goals. The book is concerned with the role of foreign language self-esteem in learning as a facet of self-beliefs that exerts a notable influence on learner attitudes and behaviours. The construct refers to the learner self-perception in the domain of language learning, i.e. how they feel about themselves in both cognitive and affective terms. Despite its asserted  importance,  many  questions  about  the  impact  of  foreign  language self-esteem on learner attainment have not been thoroughly answered yet. It is believed by the author that by integrating elements of linguistic and psychological exploration, the current research will attend to the characteristics of the construct, its dynamics and its interplay with other factors.

Given  the  absence  of  studies  examining  foreign  language  self-esteem  in a developmental perspective, the current research embraces an investigation of                                                                                                                     

a sample that represents three stages of education—from lower secondary to tertiary, distinguishing further between varied proïciency levels and demographic characteristics of the participants. The insight into the developmental dynamics, major correlates and predictors of foreign language self-esteem may enable to transform the findings into practical pedagogical advice applicable in foreign lan- guage classrooms, catering for ego-protecting, learner-friendly atmosphere.
The study is divided into a theoretical and practical part, further subdivided into chapters, each of them concluded with a résumé of the main points. The first chapter begins with a brief reminder of the inseparability and reciprocity of cognitive and affective domains in learning, followed by an outline of the major constituent processes belonging to each of the domains. The next section addresses the question of ‘what is self-esteem’ and explicates the definitional concerns in distinguishing between the main self-related concepts. The major theoretical models of the core construct are reviewed, departing from the historical perspective towards developing its working definition for the purposes of the volume. The chapter also describes the structure of self-esteem, followed by its most prominent typologies. In view of the subsequent parts, the section which presents the multidimensional and multifaceted nature of self-esteem seems crucial as it depicts the position of foreign language self-esteem in the hierarchy of self-views. The next parts explain the sources of high or low self-esteem, its dependence on cultural background and its development across lifespan (with special emphasis on adolescence and the onset of adulthood) as well as its influence on psychological functioning, as it is viewed by modern psychology. A broad theoretical background to the construct having been introduced, the analysis of its relevance to learning follows. Self-esteem is then situated in SLA context, and its relation to other important constructs in the domain of FL learning is considered. It is also discussed why self-esteem bears importance for attainment in FL learning.

The aim of Chap. 2 is to present a review of empirical research on self-esteem in its  various  dimensions. It  opens  with  an  overview  of  designs,  methods  and instruments that have been developed by other researchers and a discussion of challenges and pitfalls in measuring self-esteem that researchers need to be aware of. There follows an inventory of researches into the impact of self-esteem on a range of aspects of psychological functioning, selected on the basis of their rele- vance to educational context. The chapter continues by outlining the findings of studies into the interaction between self-esteem and learning, and it contains a separate section on the interplay between the focal construct in a multidimensional perspective and some important aspects of FL learning. The chapter ends with considerations of correlates of foreign language self-esteem scrutinized in reference to different age groups, educational settings and proficiency levels. The part also pertains to  skill-specific correlates of  self-esteem. Each  section closes  with  a summary of findings that partly informed the research design used in this study.

Chapter 3 opens the empirical part, and its initial paragraphs present the general aim of the research conducted for the purposes of the study. The rationale for the current  study  encompasses  three  major  goals.  The  first  one  is  to  observe the dynamics of foreign language self-esteem across three stages of education in the Polish system, and between varied levels of proficiency. The second one is to examine selected correlates and predictors of the central construct, and the third one is to present a profile of a high and low self-esteem learner, enhancing the symptoms of either of the types of experience and its possible antecedents. The next parts contain detailed descriptions of the method adopted, specifications of instruments, procedures and analyses, as well as an account of the sample and research design. The remaining sections contain a thorough report of the results obtained in the quantitative and qualitative research. The chapter is concluded with a summary of findings and the specification of limitations of the study.

Chapter 4 is devoted to the discussion of the results. It commences with the analysis of changes that foreign language self-esteem is subject to according to changing proficiency (operationalized for the purposes of the book as the growing length of exposure, intensity of instruction or achievement in L2). The middle part features considerations on some important correlates and predictors of L2 self-esteem, divided into demographic or educational. The final section is an analysis of characteristics of students who hold either high or low foreign language self-esteem.

The final chapter recapitulates the main aims pursued by the book and its main hypotheses. It strives to propose a comprehensive framework for understanding foreign language self-esteem against the Polish secondary and tertiary educational background. There is also an outline of directions for further studies into the construct with proposals of  alternative research designs, sample or  instrument selections. Further, the chapter contains an extensive set of implications for FL teaching practices, all of which could engender class atmosphere conducive to developing an optimal level of foreign language self-esteem.

In conclusion, as the author of the book, I strongly hope that the findings of my research reflect some aspects of the complex and manifold reality that every teacher faces in a classroom and that it will increase the sensitivity of educationalists to the immense diversity of self-related issues that learners of all ages bring with them to lessons. For both practitioners and academics, I hope it might be a humble inspiration for future work towards optimization of ELT methodologies from the global and local point of view. It needs to be admitted that the work on the research has given me invaluable opportunities to enrich the understanding of the affective domain and discover some fascinating mechanisms or relationships that may amplify or invalidate the outcomes of the efforts of the learner, their teachers, course book writers, syllabus designers, etc. The insights gained in the process of writing the book have intimidated me with the immense complexity of the domain, impossible to embrace by the research, but at the same time they have helped me to develop new sensitivity to foreign language learner differences and their diverse needs.

Source:  The Role of Self-Esteem in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching (March 2018)