A quiet, anxious class can be an uncomfortable learning experience for all concerned, yet it can be a situation language educators regularly face. This volume offers a range of activities which teachers can use with both classes and individual students to reduce their anxiety and increase their confidence for speaking. Drawn from a variety of theoretical backgrounds and educational contexts, the activities are presented in a clear and easy-to-follow format, allowing educators to choose according to the needs of their students and style of instruction. By describing the theories, reasons and events which gave rise to the development of the activities, readers will be able to recognise their own experiences and easily realise how they might put the activities into practice in their own situations. Theories and practices explored include: mindfulness, flow practices, self-esteem theory, Stoic philosophy, attribution retraining, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and positive evaluation.

This book helps second language teachers use theories in their practice, exploring in concrete and practical ways the intersections between teachers, learners, and institutions, and theories of teaching, theories of learning, and theories of language. These intersections provide language teachers with critical insights on how to deal with professional complexities and practical guidance on how to develop appropriate pedagogical practice. By focusing on theories of teaching, the authors give readers the tools to create a clear image of the kind of teacher they wish to be. By exploring theories of learning, they promote the formation of teachers' personal theories which allow them to identify their own areas of special interest in learner achievement and enrichment. By examining theories of language, the book shows how administrators and teachers can use theories to identify course goals and plan priorities for class time. Using Theories for Second Language Teaching and Learning treats theory as a concept in its own right and promotes knowing theory as a means of teacher discovery, reflection, and learning through case studies, which are descriptions and analyses of teachers thinking and acting in classrooms and in the institutions in which they work. Every chapter presents case studies with examples from the teaching of different languages, including Chinese, English, French, German, and Korean. An array of theories from multiple disciplines are featured and reflective projects are offered that lead readers to discover the importance and role of theory in daily professional life.

In the context of Black Lives Matter, decolonizing initiatives, #MeToo, climate emergency protests and other movements for social and environmental justice, this volume posits a simple question: how can modern languages be taught so that they challenge rather than reinforce social inequalities? Informed by interdisciplinary theories, Critical Pedagogies for Modern Language Education focuses on practical discussions of case studies in areas directly relevant to the classroom contexts of modern languages educators. The volume transforms modern language educators and the modern language profession by putting the politics of language teaching at the centre of its analysis. With case studies covering 11 languages (Modern Standard Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Levantine, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Tamazight) across 13 countries and regions (Austria, Brazil, China, France, Italy, the Levant, Morocco, the Netherlands, Palestine, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the USA), the contributors cover a wide range of theories, including critical discourse analysis, activist pedagogies, culturally sustaining pedagogy, linguistic justice and translanguaging. With student-teacher collaboration at its heart, critical modern languages pedagogy unmasks the ideologies and hegemonies that lie behind mainstream language use and affirms the value of minority linguistic and cultural practices. The volume thus provides transformative approaches to modern languages teaching and learning that respond to the key social concerns of the 21st century.

This edited volume brings together large-scale research as well as case studies from a range of geographical contexts and represents a variety of educational settings involving second language learners and users. Its aim is to explore the interrelated issues of psychology and technology use in second language learning settings as well as in more autonomous environments. As language learning professionals continue to devote more time and attention to making various technological tools an integral part of the classroom, it is just as important to understand the influences that these tools have on the psychological state of the learners who use them. In consideration of this objective, the volume examines factors such as learner attitudes and motivation, emotion and behaviour, and the cognitive processes that are at play in the minds of the language users. This volume will be of interest not only to language teachers but also to researchers working in second language acquisition (SLA), applied linguistics, and educational psychology.

The scope of individual learner differences is broad, yet there is no current, comprehensive, and unified volume that provides an overview of the considerable amount of research conducted on various language learner differences, until now.

"Finally a comprehensive discussion of language anxiety, this collection of papers considers the points of view of teachers and students as well as of theorists and researchers. What is language anxiety? How does it affect language learners? How is it related to other types of anxiety? What can teachers and program directors do to minimize language anxiety in their classrooms? These and other issues are addressed in this landmark text." -- Back cover.

This book presents theoretical considerations and the results of empirical research on pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) deployed by pre-service trainee teachers majoring in English as a foreign language who experienced different levels of language anxiety (LA). The theoretical part focuses on the concepts of pronunciation learning, pronunciation-learning strategies and language anxiety and includes an overview of recent empirical research dealing with various related issues. The empirical section of the book presents the findings of a research project that investigated the interplay between PLS and LA, in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Based on the findings, the author proposes two profiles of anxious and non-anxious EFL trainee teachers who support their pronunciation learning with an array of pronunciation learning strategies and tactics.