Tamanho da fonte: 

Eixo temático: 2. Docência, inovação e investigação.

Abstract

This small-scale case study attempts to explore the causes of one adult student’s reluctance to speak English in the classroom in Aracaju, Brazil. The research employed semi-structured interviews and classroom observations to collect data. It will detail the reasons as to why the student is not at ease learning and speaking this foreign language and interpret the reasons why. This research explores the student’s reluctance to speak, his personality, the influence of his motivation and his cognitive abilities in relation to remembering the language, learning new specific vocabulary, and the process through which he learned L1 and was learning L2. Knowledge and understanding the motivations and learning style of each student is of utmost importance, including past learning experiences, and his learning experience with L1 and L2.
This has practical significance because better understanding of individual social and psychological differences among students helps in improving the quality of instruction.


Introduction

The subject of this research is a 51-year-old Brazilian psychiatrist who is a pre-intermediate English student. He was selected for observation and data collection for this case study. He was taught English language in classes that are taught one-on-one in his own clinic, 3 lessons per week, 50 minutes each, using the book, Cengage's World English 2. We chose this book because of its variety and heterogeneous content. It guides a student to several critical discussions on a variety of topics with a multi-subject approach, thus teaching English to a student for a globalized world. Using this book, we focused on teaching four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Speaking being the predominant usage of English, we encouraged discussions on topics relevant to the student with the intention to motivate him to continue and be vested in his studies. Knowledge and understanding the motivations and learning style of each student is of utmost importance, including past learning experiences, and his learning experience with L1 and L2.
The student reported his main expectation as to be able to "speak fluently" or "communicate" in the language. The student demonstrated a certain weakness in listening and speaking. With regard to speaking, I believe that his "ego" is affected because he is a well-known doctor from a recognized clinic in the city and does not want to appear incompetent due to his inability to speak a foreign language. This makes him a bit reluctant to speak. During the experiment, Whenever the teacher asked questions in English, the subject would start responding in English, but in the middle of the sentence, he would stop and start speaking in Portuguese. It can logically be assumed that this was perhaps out of fear of making mistakes and not being able to speak grammatically correct sentences. This resulted in an adverse impact on the student's learning of the language. Quarterly reviews of student’s learning were made, in which comments were provided on what needs to be improved. The student agreed that he was reluctant to speak English. He reported the reason as being not sure of his capability of speaking the language, and at such times of doubt, he prefers to speak in Portuguese for "fear" of making mistakes. However, the teacher explained to him that the courage to make mistakes is important and necessary for learning because it allows the teacher to detect the issues faced by the student and to provide necessary support. However, even being aware that it is important for him to speak English in order for the teacher to help him learn, the student remained reluctant to speak. With the analysis carried out so far, it can be argued that the student's expectations regarding his oral competence were very high, which created obstacles in his learning process.

Specific Research

This research explores the student’s reluctance to speak, his personality, the influence of his motivation and his cognitive abilities in relation to remembering the language, learning new specific vocabulary, and the process through which he learned L1 and was learning L2. It also explores how the student sees himself in the future, his long-term goals, fears and motives regarding his English language learning. It defines the possible selves and after defining the possible selves, the paper studies the relationship between the student's motivation to learn English and his own identity, as it builds a relationship between the concept of possible self and motivation.
This has practical significance because better understanding of individual social and psychological differences among students helps in improving the quality of instruction. According to Dörnyei (2009), "learning a language after puberty involves a combination of social, psychological, and not just cognitive and maturational factors. These factors interact with one another according to the individual." We need to know as much as possible of our students so that we can use the correct approach and thus motivate the student to learn the target language. As we can also see in Ellis's book, (Ellis,2004: 544), "the case of L2 acquisition (SLA), learners vary not only in the speed of acquisition but also in their ultimate level of achievement, with a few obtaining native-like competence and others stopping far short.
How can we explain these differences in achievement? Broadly speaking, three different sets of explanatory factors have been identified: social, cognitive, and affective."
Reluctance to speak and student´s personality: Ortega (2013, 192) argues “Learning and using a foreign language poses a threat to one’s ego. It makes people vulnerable – particularly grown-ups who are accustomed to function perfectly well in their own language.” Literature has attempted to understand students’ effective filter and impact on learning as mentioned by Arnold (1999, 10): "during the early formative period, the language barriers fluctuate, since learners are less aware of language forms and of making mistakes in using the forms, but once ego development is complete, the permeability of the boundaries is greatly reduced".
Remembering the language/ learning new specific vocabulary: Understanding how the brain functions and how information is processed by students as internal and external linguistic foci is important. As (Saville-Troike, 2006: 173-178) argues, we need to focus on “what” and “how” to understand how inputs and outputs are processed in order to try to understand the influence of L1 in the L2 learning of the subject.
Cognitive abilities: Vygotsky's theory assumes that cognitive development, including the development of language, arises as a result of social interactions. Unlike psychological theories that see thinking and speaking as related but independent processes, sociocultural theory views speech and thought as closely intertwined. (...) Interaction facilitates cognitive processes, giving students access to the input they need to activate internal processes (Lightbown & Spada, 2006: 118-119). When we understand the process, we acquire language capabilities.
The influence of the student’s motivation: As stated in Modell (2003, 108) (Apud and Dornyei, 2009) 'There's no desiring without imagination'. The student claimed to have chosen to study English because he liked the language and wanted to study in an English speaking country. According to Ellis(1995), understanding individual motivations makes it easier for the teachers to approach students through the lens of students’ individual motivations, providing conditions that promote each student's intrinsic motivation. It might be speculated that most English learners are motivated by their desire to have the experience of living in a country where English is the mother tongue, since Gardner (2001, 5), when mentioning Ortega (2013), says that there is a genuine interest in learning the second language to approach another language community as a “dynamic process fluctuating over time,” (Shoaib and Dörnyei 2004, 36) involving different variables and factors. The learning context and emotional involvement strongly influence the development of L2, and are likely to play a role in implicitly-acquired knowledge. His previous experiences related to language were gained only in high school, and the linguistic teaching in Brazil uses structuralist approach, giving more attention to grammatical competence rather than to communicative competence.
The way the student learned L1 and is Learning L2: According to Chomsky (1986, 1995), Pinker (1984) and White (1989), if there is a critical period that restricts the learning of the second language acquisition, it is shown that that restriction is controlled by the acquisition experience and learning of the first language.
His long-term goals, fears and motives regarding English language learning: According to Ellis (2004 p.537), for motivation, it is important to understand the extent to which students are prepared to pursue their learning goal and how they see themselves as part of the L2 community.
Possible Selves: A notion discussed in Dörnyei (2005:11), which builds on the intellectual work of Markus and Nurius (1986: 954-960), proposing a model of motivation for learning L2 that reformulates the motivator construct itself, thus thinking in the psychological theory of "possible selves" as "ideal selves that we would very much like to become," "selves that we could become," and "selves we are afraid of becoming". As the "cognitive components" and the "hopes and fears, goals and threats" (p. 954), providing ideas of what "is possible for us to be’ (p. 960). In this way, it would lead the student to reflect on the possible selves, and thus to identify and label the person he could become, as explained by Ushioda and Dörnyei (2009 p.3).

Learning; Target Language; Reluctance