Fajt, B. (2022): Hungarian secondary school EFL teachers’ perceptions of their students’ individual differences: A validation study. Porta Lingua. 2022/2. 93-100

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48040/PL.2022.2.9

PDF letöltése

---

Absztrakt

Besides classroom-based EFL lessons, EFL learners have a plethora of opportunities to learn the language by engaging in out-of-school or in other words extramural English activities. As learners pursue these activities for entertainment purposes, extramural English activities may be closely associated with L2 learning motivation. In addition to motivation, several other individual learner differences, namely L2 anxiety and L2 willingness to communicate are also important in both the school-based and the extramural learning contexts, as motivating and stress-free environments may lead to a decrease in learners’ level of L2 anxiety and an increase in the level of their L2 willingness to communicate. Using the quantitative research paradigm, the present pilot study aimed to investigate Hungarian secondary school EFL teachers’ perceptions of their students’ individual learner differences as well as extramural EFL learning. The preliminary results show that participants demonstrate an overall positive attitude towards extramural EFL learning and considered their students to be relatively motivated to learn English, to be willing to speak English in EFL classes. Finally, participants’ responses also show that they do not perceive their students anxious in EFL classes.

Keywords: extramural English activities, individual learner differences, quantitative study, secondary school EFL teachers, validation study