Foreign Language Learning Difficulties

Ganschow, Leonore; Sparks, Richard L.; Javorsky, James

doi:10.1177/002221949803100304

Cited by 114 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…In other words, the skills one from language are transferred to the other, the person with more L1 practice thus being better at transferring these skills to the other language. They also support Ganschow, Sparks et al's thesis (Ganschow et al, 1992;Sparks et al, 1992;Ganschow, Sparks, & Javorsky, 1998;Sparks, Ganschow, & Javorsky, 2000) that phonological, orthographical, grammatical, and semantic L1 skills form the basis for learning L2. These authors found that students who find learning L2 difficult have low-level learning disabilities in L1 in contrast to L2 high achievers.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…These results constitute both a new finding and a significant expansion of the results of previous studies in the field (Ganschow & Sparks, 1996;Ganschow et al, 1994;Ganschow, Sparks, & Javorsky, 1998;Sparks & Ganschow, 1993;Sparks et al, 1992;Sparks, Ganschow, & Javorsky, 1998), which focused on the interaction between an individual's L1 language skills and the level of L2 anxiety. The findings of these studies pointed to variances in the performance of tasks testing spoken language (listening and conversation), phonological processing, orthographic knowledge, and L2 learning aptitude between students exhibiting high and low levels of anxiety.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

“…The various studies conducted by Ganschow and his colleagues (Ganschow, Sparks, & Javorsky, 1998;Sparks & Ganschow, 1993;Sparks, Ganschow, & Javorsky, 2000;Sparks, Javorsky, Ganschow, Pohlman, & Patton, 1992) evince the existence of significant variances in the phonological and orthographic skills of successful and struggling L2 students. In contrast to the latter, the high-achievers exhibited good speaking and writing abilities in L1 as well as an aptitude for learning languages.…”

Section: L2 Anxiety As a Consequencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Relation between Linguistic Skills, Personality Traits, and Language Anxiety

Abu‐Rabia¹,

Peleg²,

Shakkour³

2014

OJML

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This study examines the relation between linguistic skills, personality types, and language anxiety amongst eighty Israeli Grade 11 students whose mother tongue is Hebrew and who are learning English as a second language. The participants were administered various tests measuring their basic linguistic skills in Hebrew as their first language (L1), including phonological and morphological awareness, working memory, rapid naming-and a series of language tests: vocabulary, word and text reading, pseudo-word reading, and spelling. They were also administered tests in English as a foreign language (EFL): vocabulary, word recognition, letter identification, text reading, and pseudo-word reading. All the participants completed an anxiety questionnaire with respect to both language sets, together with a personality questionnaire based on the Big Five model. The findings demonstrated a significant positive correlation between all the L1 and EFL linguistic skills. A significant negative correlation was obtained between the linguistic skills in both languages and anxiety towards English and Hebrew. The participants also exhibited similar levels of anxiety towards both languages. The results further identified the contribution made by personality types-neuroticism in particular-to the prediction of language anxiety and EFL success. All the findings are discussed in light of the literature, suggestions being made for future research possibilities.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: L2 Anxiety As a Consequencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Relation between Linguistic Skills, Personality Traits, and Language Anxiety

Abu‐Rabia¹,

Peleg²,

Shakkour³

2014

OJML

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Dyslexic learners are likely to encounter a large number of problems when learning foreign languages (Downey, Snyder, and Hill 2000;Ganschow, Sparks, and Javorsky 1998;Kormos and Kontra 2008;Sparks et al 2008). Moreover, students with dyslexia often suffer from their environment's reaction to their special situation as well.…”

Section: Background To the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The language learning experiences of students with dyslexia: lessons from an interview study

Kormos

Csizér

Sarkadi

2009

Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching

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Our interview study investigated what experiences Hungarian students with dyslexia have in the language learning group and concerning the general behavior, the instructional methods and assessment techniques of their language teachers. Long qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 students of different ages who studied foreign languages in a variety of educational settings. Our results indicate that the participants generally had negative experiences when studying in groups especially if the number of students in the group was high, but they enjoyed when they received special attention and the rate of progress was adjusted to their needs. Students with dyslexia were found to be highly appreciative of clear and well-structured explanations and frequent revision opportunities. The students' views confirm the high importance of applying motivational teaching strategies in teaching foreign languages to students with dyslexia and the existence of an indirect link between teachers' attitude to dyslexia, teacher behavior and language learning effort.

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“…In many European countries, such assistance has traditionally taken the form of special instruction classes taught by a teacher-therapist or specialist at school or at a psychological-pedagogical clinic. However, in light of general consent among researchers that weak students better be provided with tutoring assistance (Ganschow, Sparks, & Javorsky, 1998;Nijakowska 2008Nijakowska , 2010Sparks, Ganschow, & Patton, 2008;Sparks, Humbach, & Javorsky, 2008) there is an increasing need for research such as this on the effects of training methods and intervention tools that can be used by individuals in their private time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MSL in the digital ages: Effects and effectiveness of computer-mediated intervention for FL learners with dyslexia

Pfenninger

2015

SSLLT

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The longitudinal intervention study reported here is the first to investigate the efficiency of computer learning software specifically designed for dyslexic Swiss German learners of Standard German as a second language (L2) and English as a third language (L3). A total of 40 subjects (20 of them dyslexics and 20 of them nondyslexics; 10 students from each group participated in interventions and the other 10 from each group served as control groups) were assessed with a battery of verbal and written pre-and posttests involving phonological/orthographic and semantic measures of their L2 and L3 before and after three months of daily intervention with the software. The results show that computer-based training in the L3 is potentially an important tool of intervention for dyslexic students as it has a positive effect on the components of L3 as well as L2 learning. As a consequence of their progress in acquiring the relationships between L3 graphemes and phonemes, the experimental groups, but not the control groups, made significant gains on L2 naming accuracy and speed, L2 and L3 word reading, L2 and L3 phonological awareness, and L2 and L3 receptive and productive vocabulary and comprehension tasks.

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Foreign Language Learning Difficulties

Cited by 114 publications

References 52 publications

The Relation between Linguistic Skills, Personality Traits, and Language Anxiety

The Relation between Linguistic Skills, Personality Traits, and Language Anxiety

The language learning experiences of students with dyslexia: lessons from an interview study

MSL in the digital ages: Effects and effectiveness of computer-mediated intervention for FL learners with dyslexia

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