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On Seeing the Forest and the Trees: A Rejoinder to Sparks and Ganschow
Author(s) -
MACINTYRE PETER D.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4781.1995.tb05438.x
Subject(s) - nova scotia , citation , sociology , psychology , library science , media studies , computer science , ethnology
ing Deficit/Difference Hypothesis (LCDH), Sparks and Ganschow (1991, 1993a, 1993b, 1995) have stated repeatedly that deficits (or differences) in the ability to encode the native language are primarily responsible for observed individual differences in second language achievement. In doing so they have questioned the usefulness of affective variables as explanations for these individual differences, casting it as an either/or position. Further, they have suggested that affective reactions to language learning, anxiety, motivation, attitudes, etc., are based primarily on differences among learners in the ability to encode native language input. In a critique of this approach, MacIntyre (1995) challenged the basis on which affective variables in general, and language anxiety in particular, were being dismissed as potential causal factors. This critique prompted Sparks and Ganschow's (1995) response in this issue of the