Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T02:35:50.626Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

ROLE OF THE EMOTIONS AND CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT IN WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE

APPLYING DOUBLY LATENT MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION RESEARCH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2017

Gholam Hassan Khajavy*
Affiliation:
University of Bojnord
Peter D. MacIntyre
Affiliation:
Cape Breton University
Elyas Barabadi
Affiliation:
University of Bojnord
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Assistant Professor of Language Education, University of Bojnord, 4th km road to Esfarayen, Bojnord, Iran. E-mail: hkhajavy@ub.ac.ir

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations between emotions, classroom environment, and willingness to communicate (WTC) using the advanced quantitative methodological procedure of doubly latent multilevel analysis. To this end, 1528 secondary school students from 65 different classrooms in Iran participated in the study. Results of the doubly latent multilevel analysis showed that a positive classroom environment is related to fostering WTC and enjoyment, while it reduces anxiety among students. Moreover, enjoyment was found as an important factor in increasing WTC at both student and classroom level, while anxiety reduced WTC only at the student level. Finally, the results of the study are discussed and pedagogical implications are provided for language teachers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Authors would like to thank the SSLA editors Professor Susan Gass, Professor Bill VanPatten, Dr. Luke Plonsky, and three anonymous reviewers for providing us with insightful suggestions on earlier drafts of the paper. We are also grateful to Dr. Marko Lüftenegger, Professor Alexandre Morin, and Professor Herbert Marsh for answering our questions regarding doubly latent MLM.

References

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Arens, A. K., Morin, A. J., & Watermann, R. (2015). Relations between classroom disciplinary problems and student motivation: Achievement as a potential mediator? Learning and Instruction, 39, 184193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cao, Y. (2011). Investigating situational willingness to communicate within second language classrooms from an ecological perspective. System, 39, 468479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, Y. (2014). A sociocognitive perspective on second language classroom willingness to communicate. TESOL Quarterly, 48, 789814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple correlation/regression analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cunnings, I. (2012). An overview of mixed-effects statistical models for second language researchers. Second Language Research, 28, 369382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunnings, I., & Finlayson, I. (2015). Mixed effects modeling and longitudinal data analysis. In Plonsky, L. (Ed.), Advancing quantitative methods in second language research (pp. 159181). New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4, 237274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2016a). Foreign language enjoyment and foreign language classroom anxiety. The right and left feet of FL learning? In MacIntyre, P., Gregersen, T., & Mercer, S. (Eds.), Positive psychology in SLA (pp. 215236). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M, & MacIntyre, P. D. (2016b). The predictive power of multicultural personality traits, learner and teacher variables on Foreign Language Enjoyment and Anxiety in classrooms. Paper presented at the Conference of the International Association for Language and Social Psychology, Bangkok, Thailand.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J. M., MacIntyre, P., Boudreau, C., & Dewaele, L. (2016). Do girls have all the fun? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, 2, 4163.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M., Witney, J., Saito, K., & Dewaele, L. (2017). Foreign language enjoyment and anxiety: The effect of teacher and learner variables. Language Teaching Research. doi:10.1177/1362168817692161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dörnyei, Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). The psychology of the language learner revisited. New York, NY: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elahi, M., Khajavy, G. H., MacIntyre, P. D., & Taherian, T. (2016). A meta-analysis of L2 willingness to communicate and its three high-evidence correlates. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Fraser, B. J., Fisher, D. L., & McRobbie, C. J. (1996, April). Development, validation, and use of personal and class forms of a new classroom environment instrument. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Frenzel, A. C., Pekrun, R., & Goetz, T. (2007). Girls and mathematics—A “hopeless” issue? A control-value approach to gender differences in emotions towards mathematics. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 22, 497514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederickson, B. L. (2004). Gratitude, like other positive emotions, broadens and builds. In Emmons, R. A. & McCullough, M. E. (Eds.), The psychology of gratitude (pp. 145–166). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Updated thinking on positivity ratios. American Psychologist, 68, 814822.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geldhof, G. J., Preacher, K. J., & Zyphur, M. J. (2014). Reliability estimation in a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis framework. Psychological Methods, 19, 7291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghonsooly, B., Khajavy, G. H., & Asadpour, S. F. (2012). Willingness to communicate in English among Iranian non-English major university students. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 31, 197212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goetz, T., Lüdtke, O., Nett, U. E., Keller, M., & Lipnevich, A. (2013). Characteristics of teaching and students’ emotions in the classroom: Investigating differences across domains. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 38, 383394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregersen, T., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). ‘I can see a little bit of you in myself’: A dynamic systems approach to the inner dialogue between teacher and learner selves. In Dörnyei, Z., MacIntyre, P. D., & Henry, A. (Eds.), Motivational dynamics (pp. 260284). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregersen, T., MacIntyre, P. D., & Meza, M. D. (2014). The motion of emotion: Idiodynamic case studies of learners' foreign language anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 98, 574–588.Google Scholar
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70, 125132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hox, J. (2010). Multilevel analysis: Techniques and applications. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ibrahim, Z. (2016). Affect in directed motivational currents: Positive emotionality in long-term L2 engagement. In MacIntyre, P. D., Gregersen, T., & Mercer, S. (Eds.), Positive psychology in SLA (pp. 258281). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joe, H. K., Hiver, P., & Al-Hoorie, A. H. (2017). Classroom social climate, self-determined motivation, willingness to communicate, and achievement: A study of structural relationships in instructed second language settings. Learning and Individual Differences, 53, 133144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, S. J. (2005). Dynamic emergence of situational willingness to communicate in a second language. System, 33, 277292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khajavy, G. H., Ghonsooly, B., Hosseini, A., Choi, C. W. (2016). Willingness to communicate in English: A microsystem model in the Iranian EFL Classroom Context. TESOL Quarterly, 50, 154180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khodadady, E., & Khajavy, G. H. (2013). Exploring the role of anxiety and motivation in foreign language achievement: A structural equation modeling approach. Porta Linguarum, 20, 269286.Google Scholar
Linck, J. A., & Cunnings, I. (2015). The utility and application of mixed-effects models in second language research. Language Learning, 65, 185207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, M. H. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In Ritchie, W. C., & Bahtia, T. K. (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 412468). New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lüdtke, O., Marsh, H. W., Robitzsch, A., Trautwein, U., Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2008). The multilevel latent covariate model: A new, more reliable approach to group-level effects in contextual studies. Psychological Methods, 13, 203229.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D. (1999). Language anxiety: A review of the research for language teachers. In Young, D. J. (Ed.), Affect in foreign language and second language teaching: A practical guide to creating a low-anxiety classroom atmosphere (pp. 2445). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D., & Charos, C. (1996). Personality, attitudes, and affect as predictors of second language communication. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 15, 326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gregersen, T. (2012). Emotions that facilitate language learning: The positive-broadening power of the imagination. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2, 193213.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D., & Mercer, S. (2014). Introducing positive psychology to SLA. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4, 153172.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D., & Vincze, L. (2017). Positive and negative emotions underlie motivation for L2 learning. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 7, 6188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, P., Baker, S. C., Clément, R., & Donovan, L. A. (2002). Sex and age effects on willingness to communicate, anxiety, perceived competence, and L2 motivation among junior high school French immersion students. Language Learning, 52, 537564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D., Clément, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K. A. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. The Modern Language Journal, 82, 545562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2016). Second language research: Methodology and design. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Marsh, H. W. (2006). Self-concept theory, measurement and research into practice: The role of self-concept in educational psychology. Leicester, UK: British Psychological Society.Google Scholar
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K. T., & Wen, Z. (2004). In search of golden rules: Comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing Hu and Bentler’s (1999) findings. Structural Equation Modeling, 11, 320341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, H. W., Lüdtke, O., Nagengast, B., Trautwein, U., Morin, A. J. S., Abduljabbar, A. S., & Köller, O. (2012). Classroom climate and contextual effects: Conceptual and methodological issues in the evaluation of group-level effects. Educational Psychologist, 47, 106124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, H. W., Lüdtke, O., Robitzsch, A., Trautwein, U., Asparouhov, T., Muthén, B., & Nagengast, B. (2009). Doubly-latent models of school contextual effects: Integrating multilevel and structural equation approaches to control measurement and sampling error. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 44, 764802.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P. (1987). Willingness to communicate and interpersonal communication. In McCroskey, J. C. & Daly, J. A. (Eds.), Personality and interpersonal communication (pp. 129159). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Morin, A. J., Marsh, H. W., Nagengast, B., & Scalas, L. F. (2014). Doubly latent multilevel analyses of classroom climate: An illustration. The Journal of Experimental Education, 82, 143167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A., & Pawlak, M. (2014). Fluctuations in learners’ willingness to communicate during communicative task performance: Conditions and tendencies. Research in Language, 12, 245260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nezlek, J. B. (2008). An introduction to multilevel modeling for social and personality psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 842860.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Öz, H., Demirezen, M., & Pourfeiz, J. (2015). Willingness to communicate of EFL learners in Turkish context. Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 269275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pawlak, M., Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A., & Bielak, J. (2016). Investigating the nature of classroom willingness to communicate (WTC): A micro-perspective. Language Teaching Research, 20, 654671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peixoto, F., Mata, L., Monteiro, V., Sanches, C., & Pekrun, R. (2015). The achievement emotions questionnaire: Validation for pre-adolescent students. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 12, 472481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, J. E. (2012). Towards an ecological understanding of willingness to communicate in EFL classrooms in China. System, 40, 203213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, J. E. (2015). L2 motivational self system, attitudes, and affect as predictors of L2 WTC: An imagined community perspective. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 24, 433443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, J., & Woodrow, L. (2010). Willingness to communicate in English: A model in the Chinese EFL classroom context. Language Learning, 60, 834876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peugh, J. L. (2010). A practical guide to multilevel modeling. Journal of School Psychology, 48, 85112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pishghadam, R., & Khajavy, G. H. (2014). Development and validation of the Student Stroke Scale and examining its relation with academic motivation. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 43, 109114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plonsky, L., & Oswald, F. L. (2014). How big is “big”? Interpreting effect sizes in L2 research. Language Learning, 64, 878912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (1995). Problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: A step towards second language learning. Applied linguistics, 16, 371391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teimouri, Y. (2016). L2 selves, emotions, and motivated behaviors. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 129. doi:10.1017/S0272263116000243.Google Scholar
Weaver, C. (2005). Using the Rasch model to develop a measure of second language learners’ willingness to communicate within a language classroom. Journal of Applied Measurement, 6, 396415.Google ScholarPubMed
Yashima, T. (2002). Willingness to communicate in a second language: The Japanese EFL context. The Modern Language Journal, 86, 5466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yashima, T., MacIntyre, P. D., & Ikeda, M. (2016). Situated willingness to communicate in an L2: Interplay of individual characteristics and context. Language Teaching Research. doi:10.1177/1362168816657851.Google Scholar
Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language anxiety research suggest? The Modern Language Journal, 75, 426437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zarrinabadi, N. (2014). Communicating in a second language: Investigating the effect of teacher on learners’ willingness to communicate. System, 42, 288295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zembylas, M., Charalambous, C., & Charalambous, P. (2014). The schooling of emotion and memory: Analyzing emotional styles in the context of a teacher’s pedagogical practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 44, 6980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar