{"title":"Foreign Language Learners' Uncertainty Experiences and Uncertainty Management.","authors":"Aysun Dağtaş, Şehnaz Şahinkarakaş","doi":"10.1007/s10936-024-10100-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Uncertainty is unavoidable in life; it is also an indispensable characteristic of educational settings. The process of learning a foreign language naturally involves interaction and coconstruction of knowledge. During this process, students may encounter uncertainty from a variety of sources, including the course, context, friends, or the teacher. Besides, to communicate meaningfully, the mutual effort of both the listener and the speaker is needed to deal with uncertainty. Considering this, the present study makes an effort to comprehend how learners appreciate and manage uncertainty in language learning environments. Although uncertainty is considered a multidisciplinary research topic, a limited number of studies are found in the literature which examine how students experience uncertainty and how they react to it. Regarding foreign language learning, related research focused on a specific form of uncertainty, Tolerance of Ambiguity, which is conceptualized as a cognitive style. In-class pen-and-paper surveys, reflective journals, video recordings, and stimulated recall interviews were the instruments used to gather data. The findings demonstrate that language learners frequently encounter uncertainty during the language learning process due to course-related, cognitive, and social factors, and learners may appreciate uncertainty in both positive and negative ways. Additionally, learners' emotional reactions to uncertainty depend on their positive or negative appraisals of uncertain situations. By recognizing and embracing uncertainty, language learners will adapt to it and be able to handle it through a variety of techniques. The results suggest that learners employ a variety of strategies, such as reducing, maintaining, and resolving uncertainty as well as ignoring uncertainty.</p>","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-024-10100-w","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Uncertainty is unavoidable in life; it is also an indispensable characteristic of educational settings. The process of learning a foreign language naturally involves interaction and coconstruction of knowledge. During this process, students may encounter uncertainty from a variety of sources, including the course, context, friends, or the teacher. Besides, to communicate meaningfully, the mutual effort of both the listener and the speaker is needed to deal with uncertainty. Considering this, the present study makes an effort to comprehend how learners appreciate and manage uncertainty in language learning environments. Although uncertainty is considered a multidisciplinary research topic, a limited number of studies are found in the literature which examine how students experience uncertainty and how they react to it. Regarding foreign language learning, related research focused on a specific form of uncertainty, Tolerance of Ambiguity, which is conceptualized as a cognitive style. In-class pen-and-paper surveys, reflective journals, video recordings, and stimulated recall interviews were the instruments used to gather data. The findings demonstrate that language learners frequently encounter uncertainty during the language learning process due to course-related, cognitive, and social factors, and learners may appreciate uncertainty in both positive and negative ways. Additionally, learners' emotional reactions to uncertainty depend on their positive or negative appraisals of uncertain situations. By recognizing and embracing uncertainty, language learners will adapt to it and be able to handle it through a variety of techniques. The results suggest that learners employ a variety of strategies, such as reducing, maintaining, and resolving uncertainty as well as ignoring uncertainty.
不确定性是生活中不可避免的,也是教育环境不可或缺的特点。在学习外语的过程中,自然会涉及到知识的互动和共同建构。在这个过程中,学生可能会遇到来自课程、语境、朋友或老师等各种来源的不确定性。此外,要进行有意义的交流,还需要听者和说者共同努力来应对不确定性。有鉴于此,本研究试图了解学习者在语言学习环境中如何认识和处理不确定性。尽管不确定性被认为是一个多学科的研究课题,但文献中研究学生如何体验不确定性以及如何应对不确定性的研究数量有限。关于外语学习,相关研究侧重于不确定性的一种特定形式,即 "模糊容忍度"(Tolerance of Ambiguity),它被概念化为一种认知风格。收集数据的工具包括课堂纸笔调查、反思日记、录像和刺激回忆访谈。研究结果表明,由于课程相关因素、认知因素和社会因素的影响,语言学习者在语言学习过程中经常会遇到不确定性。此外,学习者对不确定性的情绪反应取决于他们对不确定情况的积极或消极评价。通过认识和接受不确定性,语言学习者将适应不确定性,并能通过各种技巧处理不确定性。研究结果表明,学习者采用了多种策略,如减少、保持和解决不确定性以及忽略不确定性。
期刊介绍:
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research publishes carefully selected papers from the several disciplines engaged in psycholinguistic research, providing a single, recognized medium for communications among linguists, psychologists, biologists, sociologists, and others. The journal covers a broad range of approaches to the study of the communicative process, including: the social and anthropological bases of communication; development of speech and language; semantics (problems in linguistic meaning); and biological foundations. Papers dealing with the psychopathology of language and cognition, and the neuropsychology of language and cognition, are also included.