Peter D Macintyre
Biographic Data
| ID | 137685 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter D Macintyre |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter D |
| FAMILY NAME | Macintyre |
| SIGNATURE | MACINTYRE P D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cape Breton University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1085-6692 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 72 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1072 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 70 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 18 |
Task flow in L2 writing: Antecedents and effects on task performance
Flow has been highly valued by educational researchers and practitioners for its positive effects on learner well-being, learning outcomes, and academic success. While interest in flow within second language (L2) acquisition has grown recently, comprehensive evidence remains limited regarding both its antecedents and its impact on L2 task performance, particularly in writing contexts. Grounded in Egbert’s (2003) theoretical model of flow and lang…
The idiodynamic method as an innovative research tool in L2 motivation
Second language learning motivation (L2) research has a strong nomothetic tradition. However, such research is inherently limited when applied to specific classrooms and/or individual learners. Accordingly, growing attention has been paid to relationships between trait-like and situational aspects of motivation, foregrounding the role of context in research. In recent years, motivation and other learner differences (LDs) have been conceptualized …
Language teacher stress and growth during trauma throughout the Covid-19 pandemic: The mediating roles of resilience and well-being
The teaching profession has undergone a dramatic shift in pedagogical practices due to COVID-19. Already facing numerous challenges prepandemic, language teaching in particular has become significantly more difficult, and the effect on language teacher stress and well-being is still being explored. Key to this study is the exploration of growth during trauma, an adaptation of post-traumatic growth. Following previous studies from MacIntyre et al.…
Positive institutions for language learning
Positive psychology has been flourishing within applied linguistics, providing new insights into the role of concepts such as positive emotion, grit, and well‐being. The founders of positive psychology envisioned three pillars on which it stood, positive emotions, character traits, and positive institutions. Relative to emotions and traits, institutions have been the somewhat neglected pillar, though there is a robust but disjointed literature to…
Music performance anxiety can be facilitating or debilitating: Emotion accompaniment makes the difference
Music performance anxiety (MPA) is most often defined as a negative experience that is harmful to successful performance, but potential facilitating effects of MPA often are acknowledged. The distinction between facilitating and debilitating effects often is attributed to various cognitive frameworks based on the quantity of anxiety, where smaller amounts may be helpful and larger amounts harmful. The hypothesis underlying the present study holds…
From positive psychology to existential positive psychology (EPP): New directions for theory, research, and practice
Unveiling multilingual English learners’ perceptions about language-specific adversities and sufferings and their associated regulatory strategies: An existential positive psychology (EPP) perspective
Understanding pre-adolescent learners’ foreign language enjoyment: A mixed-methods study on Chinese primary school students of English
The present study investigated the overall level and the underlying factors of pre-adolescent learners’ foreign language enjoyment. To this end, 277 Chinese primary school students in Years 3–6 completed a foreign language enjoyment scale and a questionnaire assessing nine student- and teacher-centered variables (Participants’ age was obtained from their parents or guardians). They also answered an open-ended question designed to elicit the cause…
“You can’t start a fire without a spark”. Enjoyment, anxiety, and the emergence of flow in foreign language classrooms
The present study adopted a mixed-methods approach using a convergent parallel design to focus on the role that positive and negative emotions have in the Foreign Language (FL) classroom on the ontogenesis of positive flow. Participants were 1,044 FL learners from around the world. They provided quantitative and qualitative data on FL enjoyment (FLE), classroom anxiety (FLCA) and experience of flow via an on-line questionnaire (Dewaele, Jean-Marc…
A good return on investment? Cultural identification through learning traditional music and language in Gaelic Nova Scotia
Language is often used to demonstrate group membership and to establish cultural identity. When the language is not readily available or is at risk, individuals tend to turn to other markers to develop their cultural identity. Using Leximancer for thematic and conceptual analyses of interviews with ten accomplished musicians in Nova Scotia, Canada, we argue that the commitment to learning music and dance may act as a channel to learning Scottish …
A tartan weave: Connecting the experience of flow in traditional music and Gaelic language in pursuit of heritage language survival
Gaelic is an endangered language, but the traditional music associated with it thrives. Among individuals committed to learning Gaelic as a heritage language who also engage in traditional music-making, intense experiences shape the connection between language and music. The present study examines the connection between intensely motivating ‘flow’ experiences in music and language using qualitative data. In this context, flow is defined both at t…
Willingness to communicate in a multilingual context: Part two, person-context dynamics
In many contexts of multilingualism, language learners can initiate communication in the target language (TL), or a contact language (such as English). Patterns of use emerging from these choices vary between individuals and affect TL development. Willingness to communicate (WTC) needs to be investigated in ways that capture these variations. So far, WTC has not been studied in multilingual contexts, or using individual-level designs. This case s…
Willingness to communicate in a multilingual context: Part one, a time-serial study of developmental dynamics
In many contexts of multilingualism, language learners can initiate communication in the target language (TL), or a contact language (such as English). Patterns of use emerging from these choices affect TL development. They also vary between individuals. Willingness to communicate (WTC) needs to be investigated in ways that capture these variations. So far, WTC has not been studied in multilingual contexts, or using individual-level longitudinal …
Emotional, Attitudinal, and Sociobiographical Sources of Flow in Online and In-Person EFL Classrooms
Flow reflects an optimal balance of challenge and skill, which is exhilarating and addictive. The current study investigates the role of three learner emotions (enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom) on the proportion of class time in flow among 165 Arab and Kurdish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in both in-person and online classes. Statistical analyses revealed that Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE), and more specifically, the dimension …
Validating the Short-form Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale
Foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) is a popular construct in applied linguistics research, traditionally measured with the 33-item Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). However, recent studies have started utilizing the eight-item Short-Form FLCAS (S-FLCAS). There is therefore a need, which this study addressed in five sequential steps, to validate the S-FLCAS in order to ensure the validity and reliability of the scale. A samp…
Elaine K. Horwitz (1950–2022) In Memoriam
The idiodynamic method: Willingness to communicate and anxiety processes interacting in real time
The idiodynamic method is a relatively new mixed-method approach to studying in real time the complex dynamics of integrated affective and cognitive states that interact continuously with human communication. The method requires video recording a sample of communication from a research participant and then using specialized software to play the video back while collecting contemporaneous self-reported ratings (approximately one per second) on one…
L2 motivation among hearing learners of Finnish Sign Language
The realisation of the linguistic rights of Deaf individuals is, to a considerable extent, dependent upon whether there are majority language speakers who acquire a sign language as an L2 and use their L2 skills. Still, the motivation of hearing persons in learning sign languages as L2s is a largely unmapped area. This study seeks to capture the motivation underlying the L2 use among hearing learners of Finnish Sign Language (FSL) in terms of cur…
The role of hope in language teachers' changing stress, coping, and well-being
Motivating Traditional Musicians to Learn a Heritage Language in Gaelic Nova Scotia
It is urgent that we learn how to motivate learners of threatened heritage languages. Motivational theories, however, are weakened when they consider heritage languages in isolation from the rest of the culture in which they are enmeshed. By drawing on psycholinguist Zoltán Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System to analyze interviews with ten traditional musicians from Nova Scotia with varying degrees of Gaelic fluency, we find that musical knowle…
A Closer Look at Grit and Language Mindset as Predictors of Foreign Language Achievement
Learning a second/foreign language (L2) is a long process and L2 learners certainly will encounter setbacks and discouragements during this process. However, their reactions to these failures might be different based on their perceptions of L2 learning ability and their subsequent effort put into L2 learning. Based on this, the present study aimed at exploring two underresearched constructs within the field of applied linguistics, namely grit (co…
Reducing anxiety in the foreign language classroom: A positive psychology approach
Language teacher perspectives on stress and coping
Every person's response to adversity is unique. Whereas some come out stronger as a result of responding to a challenge, others find their fundamental assumptions about themselves and their lives severely challenged. In education, while some teachers might burn out and leave the profession precipitously, many survive the challenges and transform teaching into their lifelong passion. What factors help explain why some language teachers remain resi…
Language teachers’ coping strategies during the Covid-19 conversion to online teaching: Correlations with stress, wellbeing and negative emotions
Feedback from L1 users – a potential facilitator of L2 use
In bilingual settings, the communication between majority and minority language speakers usually takes place in the majority language. This paper examines whether majority language speakers, who receive positive feedback from minority language speakers when accommodating to them, use the minority language more frequently for authentic purposes. We propose positive feedback from L1 users as a potential facilitator of L2 use. We report the developm…
Conceptualizing Willingness to Communicate in a L2: A Situational Model of L2 Confidence and Affiliation
Why do some students seek, while others avoid, second language (L2) communication? Many language teachers have encountered students high in linguistic competence who are unwilling to use their L2 for communication whereas other students, with only minimal linguistic knowledge, seem to communicate in the L2 whenever possible. Despite excellent communicative competence, spontaneous and sustained use of the L2 is not ensured. A colleague, who teache…
Introducing positive psychology to SLA
Positive psychology is a rapidly expanding subfield in psychology that has important implications for the field of second language acquisition (SLA). This paper introduces positive psychology to the study of language by describing its key tenets. The potential contributions of positive psychology are contextualized with reference to prior work, including the humanistic movement in language teaching, models of motivation, the concept of an affecti…
Enjoyment and anxiety in second language communication: An idiodynamic approach
Emotions are a fleeting experience, sometimes lasting only moments before dissipating. Prior research in SLA has either ignored emotions, underestimated their relevance, or has studied them as a relatively stable individual difference variable. In contrast, the present study takes an idiodynamic approach to examine the rapidly changing relationship between enjoyment and anxiety in second language communication, on a moment-to-moment timescale. Un…
Language teachers’ coping strategies during the Covid-19 conversion to online teaching: Correlations with stress, wellbeing and negative emotions
Personality, Attitudes, and Affect as Predictors of Second Language Communication
Numerous studies have established the importance of affective variables, such as attitudes, motivation, perceived competence, and anxiety, in predicting success in second language learning and communication. Path analysis was used to investigate the relations among these variables, to examine their impacton the frequency ofsecond language communication, and to examine the role of global personality traits. Significant paths affecting the frequenc…
The Subtle Effects of Language Anxiety on Cognitive Processing in the Second Language
Previous research has shown language anxiety to be associated with broad-based indices of language achievement, such as course grades. This study examined some of the more specific cognitive processes that may be involved in language acquisition in terms of a three-stage model of learning: Input, Processing, and Output. These stages were represented in a set of nine tasks that were employed to isolate and measure the language acquisition stages. …
Anxiety and Second-Language Learning: Toward a Theoretical Clarification
Reviews of the literature on foreign-language anxiety show a considerable amount of ambiguity arising from the conflicting results of past studies. This study attempts to show that these difficulties can be resolved given an awareness of the theoretical perspective from which this research has developed. Specifically, it was predicted that anxiety based in the language environment would be associated with language learning whereas other types of …
Biases in Self-Ratings of Second Language Proficiency: The Role of Language Anxiety
Previous studies have shown a strong link between participants' apprehension about communicating and their perception of communicative competence in both native (L1) and second (L2) languages. This apprehension may intensify when participants communicate in the L2, especially if they believe their level of L2 competence to be very low. This study examines perceived competence in an L2 as a function of actual competence and language anxiety. Thirt…
Sex and Age Effects on Willingness to Communicate, Anxiety, Perceived Competence, and L2 Motivation Among Junior High School French Immersion Students
The students who participate in immersion education are an impressive group. In the present study we looked at students in a junior high school in Nova Scotia. In the local area, English is far and away the dominant language, though there are French-speaking communities within a 2-hr drive and Canada is an officially bilingual country. Therefore, the students are not in a "foreign" language-learning environment, but in all probability, they are n…
Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language: The Effects of Context, Norms, and Vitality
Past research has focused primarily on second language (L2) acquisition as a tool for promoting intercultural communication. The social context model, for example, stresses the importance of contact, L2 confidence, and identity in acquiring a L2. The willingness to communicate (WTC) model, however, emerged from a concern with the functions of L2 use. This study combines these two models to consider both contextual and individual difference variab…
The Role of Gender and Immersion in Communication and Second Language Orientations
The present study examines the nonlinguistic outcomes of an immersion versus a nonimmersion program. The dependent variables included attitudes toward learning French, orientations for learning, willingness to communicate, communication anxiety, perceived communicative competence, and self-reported frequency of communication in both English (L1) and French (L2). Immersion students indicated higher willingness to communicate, lower communication a…
Stressors, personality and wellbeing among language teachers
On the Measurement of Affective Variables in Second Language Learning
This study focuses on four issues concerning aspects of the validity of the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery. Data were obtained from 92 students of university‐level French. The first issue deals with whether the various subtests assess the attributes they are presumed to measure. A multitrait/multimethod analysis of three methods indicated that they did. The second issue focuses on the relationship of the subtests to higher order constructs. A f…
Language anxiety: From theory and research to classroom implications
A student's contributions to second-language learning. Part II: Affective variables
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Language Anxiety: Its Relationship to Other Anxieties and to Processing in Native and Second Languages
This study investigated the factor structure underlying 23 scales assessing both language anxiety as well as other forms of anxiety. Three factors were obtained and identified as Social Evaluation Anxiety, State Anxiety, and Language Anxiety. Correlations were obtained between scores based on these factors and measures of short-term memory (a Digit Span test) and vocabulary production (a Thing Category test). These two measures were administered …
Willingness to communicate and action control
Reducing anxiety in the foreign language classroom: A positive psychology approach
A student's contributions to second language learning. Part I: Cognitive variables
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
A Meta-analysis of L2 Willingness to Communicate and Its Three High-Evidence Correlates
Using Social‐psychological Variables to Predict The Use of Language Learning Strategies
Much of the interest in language learning strategies stems from the findings that such strategies facilitate language learning and may be teachable; however, several authors have concluded that students do not use as many strategies as they could. A recent social‐psychological model proposes that strategy use depends on knowledge of appropriate strategies, having a reason to use them, and having nothing to prevent their use. The present study att…
Language teacher perspectives on stress and coping
Every person's response to adversity is unique. Whereas some come out stronger as a result of responding to a challenge, others find their fundamental assumptions about themselves and their lives severely challenged. In education, while some teachers might burn out and leave the profession precipitously, many survive the challenges and transform teaching into their lifelong passion. What factors help explain why some language teachers remain resi…
Flow Experiences and Willingness to Communicate: Connecting Scottish Gaelic Language and Traditional Music
This brief report examines correlations between intense, highly motivating flow experiences, perceptions of competence, and willingness to communicate in both language and music, in the context of Scottish Gaelic and traditional music. The sample of 54 persons, mostly from Canada and Scotland, was contacted via Facebook groups. The frequency of flow experiences correlated highly between language and music contexts. Correlations for willingness to…
Action control, motivated strategies, and integrative motivation as predictors of language learning affect and the intention to continue learning French
Willingness to communicate in a multilingual context: Part two, person-context dynamics
In many contexts of multilingualism, language learners can initiate communication in the target language (TL), or a contact language (such as English). Patterns of use emerging from these choices vary between individuals and affect TL development. Willingness to communicate (WTC) needs to be investigated in ways that capture these variations. So far, WTC has not been studied in multilingual contexts, or using individual-level designs. This case s…
Anxiety and Second-Language Learning: Toward a Theoretical Clarification
Reviews of the literature on foreign-language anxiety show a considerable amount of ambiguity arising from the conflicting results of past studies. This study attempts to show that these difficulties can be resolved given an awareness of the theoretical perspective from which this research has developed. Specifically, it was predicted that anxiety based in the language environment would be associated with language learning whereas other types of …
The affective dimension in second language programme evaluation
This article examines the affective dimension in second language programme evaluation from the perspective of the socio‐educational model of second language acquisition. While the model has developed from research on individual differences in second language achievement, it could easily be expanded to consider the explicit role played by different types of formal instructional, and possibly by informal, contexts. This would require identifying su…
An Instrumental Motivation In Language Study: Who Says It Isn't Effective?
The major purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of integrative motivation and instrumental motivation on the learning of French/English vocabulary. Integrative motivation was defined in terms of a median split on scores obtained on subtests from the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, while instrumental motivation was situationally determined in terms of monetary reward for doing well. The results demonstrated that both integrative m…
Methods and Results in the Study of Anxiety and Language Learning: A Review of the Literature
Since Scovel's review of the literature in 1978, several studies have been conducted that consider the role of anxiety in language learning. This paper examines the perspectives from which foreign language anxiety research has been conducted, the instruments that have been used, and the results that have been reported. Three approaches to the study of anxiety are identified as the trait, state, and situation specific perspectives. The instruments…
Language Anxiety: Its Relationship to Other Anxieties and to Processing in Native and Second Languages
This study investigated the factor structure underlying 23 scales assessing both language anxiety as well as other forms of anxiety. Three factors were obtained and identified as Social Evaluation Anxiety, State Anxiety, and Language Anxiety. Correlations were obtained between scores based on these factors and measures of short-term memory (a Digit Span test) and vocabulary production (a Thing Category test). These two measures were administered …
Language anxiety: From theory and research to classroom implications
A student's contributions to second language learning. Part I: Cognitive variables
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
A student's contributions to second-language learning. Part II: Affective variables
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
On the Measurement of Affective Variables in Second Language Learning
This study focuses on four issues concerning aspects of the validity of the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery. Data were obtained from 92 students of university‐level French. The first issue deals with whether the various subtests assess the attributes they are presumed to measure. A multitrait/multimethod analysis of three methods indicated that they did. The second issue focuses on the relationship of the subtests to higher order constructs. A f…
Retrospective review article: The good language learner
The Subtle Effects of Language Anxiety on Cognitive Processing in the Second Language
Previous research has shown language anxiety to be associated with broad-based indices of language achievement, such as course grades. This study examined some of the more specific cognitive processes that may be involved in language acquisition in terms of a three-stage model of learning: Input, Processing, and Output. These stages were represented in a set of nine tasks that were employed to isolate and measure the language acquisition stages. …
Using Social‐psychological Variables to Predict The Use of Language Learning Strategies
Much of the interest in language learning strategies stems from the findings that such strategies facilitate language learning and may be teachable; however, several authors have concluded that students do not use as many strategies as they could. A recent social‐psychological model proposes that strategy use depends on knowledge of appropriate strategies, having a reason to use them, and having nothing to prevent their use. The present study att…
Personality, Attitudes, and Affect as Predictors of Second Language Communication
Numerous studies have established the importance of affective variables, such as attitudes, motivation, perceived competence, and anxiety, in predicting success in second language learning and communication. Path analysis was used to investigate the relations among these variables, to examine their impacton the frequency ofsecond language communication, and to examine the role of global personality traits. Significant paths affecting the frequenc…
Biases in Self-Ratings of Second Language Proficiency: The Role of Language Anxiety
Previous studies have shown a strong link between participants' apprehension about communicating and their perception of communicative competence in both native (L1) and second (L2) languages. This apprehension may intensify when participants communicate in the L2, especially if they believe their level of L2 competence to be very low. This study examines perceived competence in an L2 as a function of actual competence and language anxiety. Thirt…
Conceptualizing Willingness to Communicate in a L2: A Situational Model of L2 Confidence and Affiliation
Why do some students seek, while others avoid, second language (L2) communication? Many language teachers have encountered students high in linguistic competence who are unwilling to use their L2 for communication whereas other students, with only minimal linguistic knowledge, seem to communicate in the L2 whenever possible. Despite excellent communicative competence, spontaneous and sustained use of the L2 is not ensured. A colleague, who teache…
Willingness to Communicate, Social Support, and Language-Learning Orientations of Immersion Students
Willingness to communicate (WTC) has been defined as the intention to initiate communication, given a choice. It was hypothesized that orientations toward language learning as well as social support would influence students' WTC in a second language. Grade 9 students of L2 French immersion, living in a relatively unilingual Anglophone community, participated in the study. WTC was measured in each of four skill areas: speaking, writing, reading, a…
Sex and Age Effects on Willingness to Communicate, Anxiety, Perceived Competence, and L2 Motivation Among Junior High School French Immersion Students
The students who participate in immersion education are an impressive group. In the present study we looked at students in a junior high school in Nova Scotia. In the local area, English is far and away the dominant language, though there are French-speaking communities within a 2-hr drive and Canada is an officially bilingual country. Therefore, the students are not in a "foreign" language-learning environment, but in all probability, they are n…
The Role of Gender and Immersion in Communication and Second Language Orientations
The present study examines the nonlinguistic outcomes of an immersion versus a nonimmersion program. The dependent variables included attitudes toward learning French, orientations for learning, willingness to communicate, communication anxiety, perceived communicative competence, and self-reported frequency of communication in both English (L1) and French (L2). Immersion students indicated higher willingness to communicate, lower communication a…
Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language: The Effects of Context, Norms, and Vitality
Past research has focused primarily on second language (L2) acquisition as a tool for promoting intercultural communication. The social context model, for example, stresses the importance of contact, L2 confidence, and identity in acquiring a L2. The willingness to communicate (WTC) model, however, emerged from a concern with the functions of L2 use. This study combines these two models to consider both contextual and individual difference variab…
Desire for Control and Communication-Related Personality Variables
In a sample of 95 university students, scores on a measure of desire for control correlated .37 with willingness to communicate, supporting the notion of control as a motive for communication and also correlated .43 with self-perceived communication competence but not with communication apprehension
Sex differences in the antecedents of animal use attitudes
Sex differences in attitudes toward the use of animals have been reported in previous research. This study examines sex differences in the levels of, and the interrelations among, three potential antecedents of attitudes toward animal use: caring value orientation, pet care experience and attachment to pets. Path analysis showed that pet care experience, through attachment to pets, accounted for a significant portion of variance in animal use att…
Willingness to Communicate in the Second Language: Understanding the Decision to Speak as a Volitional Process
Previous research has devoted a great deal of attention to describing the long‐term patterns and relationships among trait‐level or situation‐specific variables. The present discussion extracts kernels of wisdom, based on the literatures on language anxiety and language learning motivation, that are used to frame the argument that choosing to initiate communication at a particular moment in time can be conceptualized as a volitional (freely chose…
Language acquisition and development: Studies of learners of first and other languages
Language acquisition and development: studies of learners of first and other languages, edited by Brian Tomlinson, London and New York, Continuum, 2007, vii + 288 pp., £80.00/$150.00 (hardback), IS
Willingness to communicate and action control
Symposium – Perspectives on Motivation for Second Language Learning on the 50th Anniversary of Gardner & Lambert (1959)
Held at the Association canadienne de linguistique appliquée/Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, Ottawa, Canada; 28 May 2009. With the 50th anniversary of Robert C. Gardner and Wallace Lambert's seminal paper ‘Motivational variables in second language acquisition’ (Gardner & Lambert 1959), we paused to reflect on the contributions the work has inspired and the state of the art in the study of motivation research
Psychology (61 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (46 works) · Social Psychology (37 works) · Linguistics (35 works) · Anxiety (29 works) · Mathematics education (27 works) · Developmental psychology (21 works) · Computer Science (20 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (18 works) · Pedagogy (18 works)