Volume 11 (2020) Issue 1, pp. 9-10
Foreword to the Issue
The present issue comes with five articles from Europe (Germany, Northern Macedonia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) and Africa (Sudan), which are all about foreign language methodology. They cover vast topics that are useful for the teaching and learning of any language, from the support to be given to children growing up bilingually, via negative feelings which may arise, and unfortunately often times do, when learning a foreign language up to concrete language skills like speaking and writing on the one hand and intonation on the other.
The first article written by Inez de Florio-Hansen (Kassel, Germany) is on motivation in teaching and learning foreign languages and effective strategies to be used in the classroom. It acknowledges the undoubted fact that teachers consciously or unconsciously influence their students’ motivation, and points to what they can do (even) better to support them in their learning and guide them to better learning outcomes. For this purpose, the author starts from general theories and models focusing on motivation, and analyses them in terms of their potential, coming up with concrete strategies which can be put into practice and which are very likely to be helpful to learners.
Support to be offered to pupils is also in the focus of the second article, published by Naxhi Selimi (Schwyz, Schweiz) & Biljana Ivanovska (Štip, Northern Macedonia). The authors report a pilot study of their own in which the language development of pre-school children with different L1s, who all had German as their second language, is examined. The data obtained point to a clear improvement of the children’s second language as long as relevant institutions that are supportive of the education of children are involved. While the childrens’ respective second language benefited from this positive environment, their mother tongue partly suffered from it. The authors hint to measures that can be taken so as to avoid, or at least minimise, such negative influence on the children’s L1.
A study on rather a negative, but nonetheless rather prevalent phenomenon is provided by Adil Ishag & Gamar Albooni (both Khartoum, Sudan), who deal with the interrelationship between students’ language anxiety and their success of learning English in Sudan. The authors did find that with an improved level of the latter, the former decreased. The findings of this study point to the fact that the anxiety students feel when learning a foreign language, e.g. the fear of being evaluated negatively. is the most decisive factor for diminishing their success. Even if this result is not really surprising and not totally new nor unexpected, this study confirms that it refers to a phenomenon which is not continent- nor culture-bound and which therefore concerns all those teachers who face the well-known double-bind situation in which they are instructors and evaluators at the same time, i.e. the wide majority of language teachers.
The learner is also in the centre of the article by Berit Aronsson (Umeå, Sweden), who presents a study on the profiles of Swedish learners of Spanish and their writing vs. speaking performance. The pupils researched on were found to perform better in writing than in speaking. The findings, which are related to the Swedish grading system in comparison with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), hint to the fact that in settings in which learners are not exposed to the foreign language in out-of-the-classrooms situations, their writing is very likely to outperform their speaking. It may be added here, that this result, which is highly plausible, will need to be considered in the future so that teachers create (even) better chances for learners to boost their speaking by exposing them to situations in which they are forced to use the respective foreign language in real-life situations.
Another Romance language, i.e. Catalan, is empirically examined by Marta Bartolí Rigol & Empar Devís Herraiz (both Barcelona, Spain) with respect to teaching the intonation of politeness. Teachers of Catalan as a foreign language are provided with concrete methodological strategies to practise this communicatively important area of intonation which will enable their students to avoid or reduce the danger of misunderstandings -- and to make living with others a lot more pleasant.
These articles may give our readers the chance to find inspiration for their future research and / or to think about their own teaching practice so as to further improve language instruction both theoretically and practically. I personally would like to add my best wishes for making this positive effect come true.
Thomas Tinnefeld
JLLT
Editor