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Changes in Affective Profiles of Postsecondary Students in Lower‐Level Foreign Language Classes
Author(s) -
KondoBrown Kimi
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/flan.12013
Subject(s) - foreign language , psychology , mathematics education , second language acquisition , postsecondary education , language acquisition , second language , pedagogy , higher education , linguistics , political science , law , philosophy
Recent surveys and research on second language (L2)/foreign language acquisition help explain the challenges that postsecondary students in lower‐level foreign language (FL) courses may experience. The present study extends this line of research by examining changes in students' affective profiles in a two‐year Japanese program (n = 382) at an American university. The results indicated that students who reached the end of the program perceived more social, economical, integrative, and other value in learning Japanese than those at the beginning of the program. Results also showed that students appeared to expend significantly less effort in learning the language at the end of the program than at the beginning. This article urges FL instructors, especially those in lower‐level courses, to carefully consider issues of motivation in these and other courses.