Transcript Positive psychology in language learning:

The role of hope, optimism, and
resilience in learners’ stories
REBECCA L. OXFORD
IATEFL Webinar
April, 2015
 Looks
at strengths in the human psyche
 Goes beyond the distressing aspects that
have often dominated psychology
 Might be said to be very old (philosophical
discussions of virtue, happiness, and the
good life)
 As a scientific field is only 15 years old
 Still looking for its theoretical base; is
somewhat similar to humanistic psychology
 In
Oxford (forthcoming), ‘Toward a
Psychology of Well-Being for Language
Learners: The EMPATHICS Vision,’ I look at
three dimensions of what I call
‘perseverance’:
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Hope
Optimism
Resilience
 Hope
is desire accompanied by a
reasonable expectation
 It is not false hope or wishes
 It takes work!

Lopez (in UMKC, 2013) says that ‘Hope does not
come naturally. It takes effort. That’s why,
according to Gallup surveys, 84% of the human
population is “optimistic”, but only 50% is
“hopeful.”’
 Hope

One’s personal agency
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includes a belief in:
Ability to make a difference
Voluntary control over behavior
Ability to assign relevance and significance to things
and events
(Lantolf & Thorne, 2006)
One’s capacity to produce workable pathways
(routes or strategies) to goals

In SLA, this could include strategies for language
learning and use (Oxford, 1990, 2011)
 When

Higher-hope people, compared with lower-hope
people,

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

 It
facing a stressor, . . .
Express greater agency
Use cognitive flexibility and positive self-talk to create
new pathways
Are more successful
Lower-hope people just ruminate about being
‘stuck.’
pays to have hope!
 Optimists
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Anticipate good outcomes
Have useful coping strategies (problem-solving)
Experience more positive emotions
 Pessimists
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Expect bad outcomes
Have dysfunctional coping strategies (wishful
thinking, denial, giving up)
Experience more negative emotions
Oxford (forthcoming)
 Optimistic

Views a failure as temporary, limited in scope,
and not my own fault
 Pessimistic

explanatory style
explanatory style
Views a failure as permanent, widespread, and
my own fault
Oxford (forthcoming)
 Resilience
helps individuals overcome
obstacles, even traumas
I
have found resilience in language learners
(see Oxford et al., 2007)
 Personal

protective factors
Outgoing personalities, problem-solving abilities,
competence, ability to enlist support
 Social/environmental

protective factors
Caring relationships, encouragement from
others, opportunities for responsibility and
participation
Oxford (forthcoming)
 We
will consider these three dimensions in
light of learner histories
 Narrative or story (including a learner
history) is a framework by which humans
make their existence meaningful (Oxford,
2011; Polkinghorne, 1988).
 ‘Stories identify, unify, give meaning to. Just
as music is noise that makes sense, a
painting is color that makes sense, so a story
is life that makes sense’ (Martel, 2011, p.
15).

Learners from Central and South America
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Five native Spanish speakers
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Most from Costa Rica: learned English
One originally from Chile, now living in Costa Rica:
learned French as a political refugee in France
One native English speaker, born of Costa Rican
parents and grew up in the U.S.: now studying in
Costa Rica, considered Spanish to be his second
language
 Three had become language teachers
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They were all asked to write about their
language learning experience, peak moments,
difficulties/obstacles and how they overcame
them
Participant
Age at the
time of the
study
1. Marco
25
2. Ilse
53
3. Roberto
26
4. Mariana
49
5. Ana
21
6. Diana
34
Description
A third-year, native English-speaking student
who learned Spanish and who is now pursuing
a B.A. in English in Costa Rica
A middle-aged native Spanish-speaking
student who knows English but wants to get
an academic degree
A native Spanish-speaking English teacher and
graduate student recalling his experiences as
an English learner
A Chilean political refugee and French
teacher, whose family fled to France after a
coup and who encountered frustrations and
eventual satisfactions in learning French
A third-year, native Spanish-speaking student
who wants to finish her B.A. in English and
pursue a master’s degree in English literature
A native Spanish-speaking English teacher
looking back at her life as an English language
 25
years old, lived in U.S. until he moved to
Costa Rica 4 years before the study, learned
a little Spanish in the U.S. but primarily
learned it in Costa Rica
 Identity crisis in Costa Rica: “I came off as
[i.e., seemed like] a foreigner, and that
reminded me that I indeed was a foreigner,
making me feel like I didn’t belong.”
 As a non-native speaker developing his
Spanish skills in Costa Rica, Marco probably
experienced the sociocultural power
differential Norton (2010) described.
 He
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had hope, optimism, and resilience
He carefully observed and analyzed the mentality
of Costa Ricans and compared it to that of U.S.
residents
He decided that he could learn the new mentality
(hope and optimism)
He decided he could deal with being a foreigner,
an outsider for awhile (He had resilience and
existential courage, or hardiness)
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Personal protective factors: analysis (very analytic!),
problem-solving skills, patience
Social/environmental protective factors: eventually
supportive relationships with Costa Ricans
 Living
in Costa Rica for more than just
holidays brought him to a whole new ‘level
of exposure,’ in which ‘one’s own personality
and mentality change.’
 This was, he wrote, ‘the most impacting
moment of my life, linguistically speaking as
well as in every other sense. . .’
 ‘The Costa Rican culture, customs, norms,
idiosyncrasies, and general mentality are,
obviously, different from those in the U.S.’
 ‘A
language is a mentality, not just a manner
of getting a message across. This is reflected
in all languages, even body language.
 ‘How
you feel and think is reflected by it and
vice versa.’
 Marco
used calm analysis to help him deal
with being an outsider for awhile.
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To get into the new mentality, he tried to speak the way
Costa Ricans do
He compared Spanish to English: ‘English is more
intense, since [some of] the words are only one syllable
and can be harshly aspirated easily. It’s more expressive
of the feeling. In Spanish all the words are at least two
syllables long and are usually used in a phrase, so the
intensity comes not from the words themselves but from
the length of the phrase. . . . This reflects each
culture’s mentality.
‘English speakers are what I like to call “lazy speakers.”
The less they say while getting the message across, the
better. They are concise and impatient as well. They do
not want to hear a whole phrase. Spanish, on the other
hand, likes wordiness. So, the longer the sentence, the
more eloquent it sounds, even when swearing.’
 Marco
was eventually accepted into Costa
Rican society
 Costa
Ricans were eventually surprised that
he was from the U.S.
 His
hope, optimism, and resilience aided him
in becoming accepted and in learning Spanish
in Costa Rica
 One
of triplets (two brothers)
 Her
mother
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Used word cards and children’s picture books to
teach English to Ana and her two brothers when
they were just three and a half years old.
Practiced English with the children every day
 Learned
French and English in high school
 She
was very hard on herself: believed
herself not to be bilingual because her
Spanish was better than her English
 Ana’s
anxiety sometimes got the better of
her, causing her to have a near-stutter when
speaking English
 She
admitted that at times she felt shy and
uncomfortable speaking English
 Hope
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Ana hoped to finish her undergraduate degree in
English and gain a master’s in English literature
She hoped to speak English without nearstuttering
 Optimism
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Though she was hard on herself about not being
what she considered bilingual, she was optimistic
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Expected good outcomes, had useful coping strategies,
experienced positive emotions
Optimistic explanatory style: did not blame herself for
problems and did not feel that failure was permanent

Ana mentioned that she was attracted by the
musical nature of English even before she could
understand the language
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Her repeated experiences of hearing the musicality
of English seemed almost like a “flow” process
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This distracted her from anxiety
One of her best experiences, she said, took
place when she was able to communicate with
native English speakers on vacation at a Costa
Rican beach.
 She wrote, ‘My “peak moment” was when we
spent weeks in Guanacaste with some friends
that were North Americans that retired….They
were like family, so we would go there at least
two or three times during the year…I was forced
to speak in English if I wanted to talk to anybody
outside my family.’
 From her perspective a ‘peak moment’ was to
realize she speak in English successfully, even if
circumstances forced her to do it.
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 Mariana,
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a Chilean political refugee in France
Originally hostile toward French language as a
child
With kindness of others (social protective
factors) and with her own determination
(personal protective factor), she became
resilient and learned French to a balancedbilingual level
Became professor of French
 Ilse,
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a native Costa Rican
Many experiences of visiting and living in the U.S.
Took advantage of all opportunities to use English
Refused to see herself as less than competent in
learning English, though felt she was an
academic ‘misfit’ for learning informally
With hope, optimism, and resilience went to
university in her 50’s for an English degree
 Diana,
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Studied English for years in school
Went to university with the hope of becoming an
English teacher
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a native Costa Rican
Hope: Described ‘intrinsic and extrinsic motivation’
and ‘determination’
Initial problems: could not understand or speak any
English at the university
Resilient protective factors: Built relationships with
teacher and friends, problem-solving skills, outgoing
personality
Optimism: Did not condemn herself for initial failure
Constantly sought higher degrees and
certifications
 Roberto,
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a native Costa Rican
Had to drop out of bilingual school due to
finances but was resilient
Parents rented rooms to English-speaking
exchange students so he could speak English
High hopes and optimism: He became a ‘shadow’
and ‘language detective,’ constantly pursuing
native English speakers with questions about the
language
Went to university to study English with plenty of
time and support
 Hope,
optimism, and resilience are real and
active in the lives of language learners
 We
can help to foster these qualities
 How
would YOU foster them?
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