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Acquiring English as a foreign language at adult age

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Novko, Nives. (2013). Acquiring English as a foreign language at adult age. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature. [mentor Medved-Krajnović, Marta].

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Abstract

This paper outlines the results of a study which was carried out among eight adult Croatian learners of English as a foreign language. It addresses some important issues in foreign language learning among adult learners and focuses on their motivation for language learning, the existence or absence of language learning anxiety, the perception and reported use of different language learning styles and strategies, and learners’ beliefs about pedagogical methods. The results from the questionnaire suggested that the age and gender deficits were not very pronounced in this study. The responses from the learners also supported the following: most of the participants tended to be instrumentally motivated for learning English as a foreign language; only 12.5% of them were anxiety-ridden with 37.5% of them displaying pronounced low anxiety; most of the learners preferred a kinaesthetic learning style (62.5%) and a combination of a traditional and communicative approach to teaching. The analyses of writing samples and translation tasks revealed instances of language transfer, and showed the occurrence of interlingual and intralingual errors. The intricate relationship between the variables is presented in detail in the discussion. While the results of the study give an insight into how adult language learners approach foreign language learning tasks, they cannot be fully trusted to represent an entire population of adult learners.

Item Type: Diploma Thesis
Uncontrolled Keywords: adult foreign language learning, motivation, language anxiety, learning styles and strategies, teaching pedagogy
Subjects: English language and literature
Departments: Department of English Language and Literature
Supervisor: Medved-Krajnović, Marta
Date Deposited: 21 Aug 2013 09:18
Last Modified: 09 Jul 2014 23:24
URI: http://darhiv.ffzg.unizg.hr/id/eprint/2217

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