Talk #2

Time/Date: 3:30-5PM, Thursday, October 3

Speaker: Kimberly A. Noels, University of Alberta

Title: Supporting Self-Determination, Engagement, and Well-Being in Language Students and Teachers

Abstract: Some students come to language learning with an intrinsic love of language; some cannot find any reason to bother with all the trouble. Many lie between these two extremes, with a neutral or ambivalent attitude. Likewise some teachers thoroughly enjoy their job; others find it tiresome; and many fall between.  In an ideal world, students and teachers who love what they do would maintain that passion, and those who do not would find enough personal meaning in language learning to justify their engagement in the process.  In this presentation, I consider how Self-Determination Theory can inform language learning and teaching, so that we, as learners, teachers, and other stake-holders in language education, can approach this objective of supporting intrinsic motivation and promoting self-determination in language learning and teaching.  Drawing from current research findings, I argue that, to the extent that this objective is achieved, we are likely not only to have more engaged and mutually supportive learners and teachers, but also to accrue the potentially positive linguistic and non-linguistic outcomes that bilingualism can offer.

Bio: Kimberly A. Noels (PhD, UOttawa) is a Professor in the Social and Cultural Psychology Area of the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta. Her interdisciplinary research program focuses on how social interactions facilitate or hinder the complex and dynamic processes of language acquisition, socio-psychological acculturation, and intercultural relations, with a particular emphasis on language and identity development across various multicultural contexts. Her research has received awards from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the International Association for Language and Social Psychology, and the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching.