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ERIC Number: EJ893625
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Jul
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0019-042X
EISSN: N/A
Multilingualism and Affordances: Variation in Self-Perceived Communicative Competence and Communicative Anxiety in French L1, L2, L3 and L4
Dewaele, Jean-Marc
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL), v48 n2-3 p105-129 Jul 2010
In this contribution, I investigate the effect of the knowledge of other languages on self-perceived communicative competence and communicative anxiety in the French of 953 users. I tested the hypothesis that knowledge of more languages, specifically other Romance languages, create stronger or clearer affordances (Singleton & Aronin, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 1: 83-96, 2007), which may have a strengthening effect on self-perceived communicative competence in French and lead to less communicative anxiety using that language. Using the database collected through a web-based questionnaire (Dewaele & Pavlenko, Web questionnaire Bilingualism and emotions, University of London, 2001-2003), I focused on participants who had French as an L1, L2, L3 or L4. The analyses suggest that when a language is either very strong or very weak, the knowledge of other languages does not play a major role. However, at intermediate levels of proficiency, multilingualism and affordances can serve as a crutch in challenging communicative situations.
Walter de Gruyter. P.O. Box 960, Herndon, VA 20172-0960. Tel: 800-208-8144; Tel: 703-661-1589; Fax: 703-661-1501; e-mail: degruytermail@presswarehouse.com; Web site: http://www.degruyter.de/rs/384_392_ENU_h.htm
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A