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Teachers often face pressures both from above and from below as they adhere to their supervisors' requirements and work with students who may be disengaged from the learning process. These interpersonal influences are argued to thwart instructors' teaching motivation and result in a more controlled teaching experience and a more controlling teaching style, whereas supportive supervisors and engaged learners could promote a self-determined motivational orientation and greater teaching engagement. Regression analyses of survey responses collected from 63 English language instructors in Canada showed that supportive supervisors helped satisfy English language teachers' psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn promoted self-determined motivation and teaching engagement. Student disengagement undermined the satisfaction of instructors' needs and led to more controlled teaching motivation, but student engagement enhanced teachers' self-determined motivation and/or teaching engagement. These results underscore the importance of supervisory attentiveness to instructors' psychological needs. As well, they suggest that whereas teachers might be inspired by engaged students, they might also need to find strategies to cope with the potentially negative impact of disaffected students on their own teaching motivation and engagement.

International students' names are often mispronounced, and this experience can have psychological and relational implications for some students' cross-cultural adjustment. Little research, however, has examined why students are or are not bothered by mispronunciations. This study examined the impact of heritage name mispronunciation on 173 language-minority international students in Canada. The results indicated that although heritage name mispronunciations occurred frequently, only about half of the sample perceived correct pronunciation as important. Those who felt accurate pronunciation was important stressed that their name had a strong connection to their heritage and that mispronunciations were disrespectful of that significance. Those who felt accurate pronunciation was not important cited little personal connection to the name and accepted mispronunciations for reasons of efficiency. The findings suggest that accurate heritage name pronunciation can facilitate the adjustment of international students by fostering positive affect, communicative comfort, and relational closeness during cross-cultural interactions in the host countries.

Language learners' mindsets--their beliefs about whether language is a fixed aptitude that is immutable or a malleable capacity that can be developed--are associated with achievement goals, language-use anxiety, reappraisals of challenges, and persistence. This study integrates these mindset-related constructs to identify mindset-system profiles among foreign language learners. A latent profile analysis of 234 university students in foreign language courses revealed three distinct profiles. The fixed (21.8%) and growth (20.5%) profiles showed distinct and contrasting patterns of goals, reappraisals, anxiety, and persistence. However, most learners (57.7%) endorsed a mixed profile. Although mindsets alone did not predict grades, students in the growth profile were consistently most engaged and achieved the highest grades, suggesting that mindsets function as a system, in concert with related factors. This person-centered approach enhances our understanding of the complexity and functions of the mindset system, as well as the motivation of learners with mixed mindsets.

According to Self-Determination Theory, intrinsic and self-determined extrinsic motivation are maintained to the extent that learners feel that engagement in an activity is a personally meaningful choice, that the task can be performed competently, and that they share a social bond with significant others in the learning context. These perceptions are enhanced when significant others act or communicate in a way that encourages learner autonomy, provides informative feedback on how to improve task competency, and establishes a sense of connection with the learner. The present study used a focused essay technique to examine how the learning context impacts learners' motivation and the kinds of support (or lack thereof) received from different people. Heritage (n=34), modern (n=34), and English-as-a-second-language (ESL; n=36) learners described their reasons for language learning, and reported how teachers, family members, peers, and members of the language community encouraged or discouraged their engagement in language learning. The results indicated that heritage students are more included to learn the language because it is integral to their sense of self than the two other groups, whereas ESL students are generally more regulated by external contingencies. Although there were some commonalities, different people supported learners' motivation in different ways depending upon the learning context. The results point to the importance of the language learning context for understanding students' motivation and how others can support them.

Evidence generally supports a positive association between growth mindset and academic outcomes, even if the experimental evidence for growth mindset interventions is somewhat more tenuous. From an applied perspective, the concept of growth mindsets has grown in popularity with a proliferation of materials readily available to teachers and school administrators. The purpose of this multi-method study was to explore elementary students' (ages 6-12) understanding of growth mindset messaging created by their school and teachers, and its association with students' emotions. The results showed that students were positively impacted by the growth mindset messaging, both in school and when facing challenges outside of school. Their emotions were largely positive, with the exception of frustration, which participants associated equally with a growth and a fixed mindset. Results are discussed in relation to mindset theory broadly as well as in regards to school-and teacher-initiated mindset messages.

Internalizing Western culture can facilitate English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' motivation to learn and confidence to use English. However, the role of heritage cultural internalization and the interactive impact of Western and heritage cultural internalizations on English learning are unclear. We surveyed 172 EFL students from Macao and found that those who internalized Western culture to a greater extent indeed held more a positive view towards English learning and were more autonomous learners, which in turn predicted their confidence in using English. However, for those who internalized Western culture to a lesser extent, internalizing Chinese culture was also linked to positive attitudes and English use confidence. These findings suggest that a strong heritage cultural orientation is also important for EFL learners' English language development, especially among those do not embrace Western culture. This research suggests that language researchers and teachers should pay attention to learners' orientations towards not only the target culture but also their heritage culture.

Despite the inherently meaningful nature of Chinese names, Chinese international students often adopt an English name, particularly when they pursue education in English-speaking countries. Most empirical research on name anglicisation has examined the psychological impact of name change among ethnolinguistic minorities, as well as their experiences with heritage name mispronunciations. Very few studies have looked into the reasons and purposes of adopting an English name. The present study utilises a mixed-methods survey to inquire into the functions and use of English names by Chinese international students in Canada (n = 180), with the goal of providing insight into their name choices, as well as the associated implications for their cross-cultural adaptation. The quantitative and qualitative results suggest that, aside from avoiding name-based discrimination, English names play several adaptive roles, such as facilitating the students' intercultural communication, host connectedness, and integration. Further, English names also provide a route for Chinese international students to stay connected with their heritage culture in a foreign language environment. The findings underscore the importance of respecting language minorities' name choices, whether in their native or the majority language, and call for societal efforts in building a welcoming environment that accepts diverse personal names originating from many different languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Language policies in multilingual families refer to parents' decisions, whether explicitly articulated or not, regarding which languages will be used in which contexts. However, because most studies that explore language allocation focus on families with young children, they do not address how family language policies impact the retention of a home language through to the next generation. The present study investigates an important perspective on this issue, specifically how emerging adults' childhood experiences with their family language policy relate to the languages they currently use and plan to retain in the future. Methods: In all, 62 multilingual Canadian adults, aged between 17 and 29 years, participated in focus group interviews concerning their experience of language policies in their birth families, their current beliefs concerning language allocation and retention, and their plans about language policy in their future families. Results: The data revealed that not only are most participants interested in retaining their home language, thereby continuing to speak the language in their future families, but most are also open to incorporating additional languages into their policies. Discussion: The results provide insight into how to identify effective heritage language retention policies that transcend generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth language mindsets (i.e., beliefs that language ability can be improved) are found to sustain learners' motivation and resilience in challenging situations. Considering that migrants who are speakers of languages other than the dominant ones often face challenging daily communications, we examined important but understudied questions of 'how' and 'when' growth language mindsets predict migrants' language experiences, including language anxiety, language use, and perceived English proficiency. In 3 studies, we surveyed 2,163 foreign-born university students in Canada who indicated English as their second language. We found that growth language mindsets positively predicted self-assessed English proficiency, even 4 months after the initial assessment of mindsets. Answering 'how,' we found that migrants with stronger growth mindsets were less anxious, were more likely to use English, and reported higher proficiency, even after accounting for baseline proficiency. Concerning 'when,' we found that mindsets have significant and moderate association with language use, anxiety, and perceived proficiency for only more recently arrived students (who lived in the receiving country for less than 7 years). Although newly arrived migrants are more anxious about using English and less likely to use English, they are resilient when they envision growth in their new language. Growth mindsets may help English as a second language (ESL) students thrive in intercultural communication and succeed in language development.

Positive psychology encompasses the study of positive outcomes, optimal functioning, and resilience in difficult circumstances. In the context of language learning, positive outcomes include academic engagement, self-determined motivation, persistence in language learning, and eventually becoming a proficient user of the language. These questionnaire studies extend previous research by addressing how these positive outcomes can be achieved even in adverse circumstances. In Study 1, the primary and secondary control scales of interest were validated using 2468 students at a Canadian university. Study 2 examined the capacity of 100 Canadian language learners to adjust themselves to fit in with their environment, termed "secondary control", and how it was related to their motivation for and engagement in language learning and their feelings of anxiety speaking in the classroom. Secondary control in the form of adjusting one's attitude towards language learning challenges through positive reappraisals was positively associated with self-determined motivation, need satisfaction, and engagement. In regression analyses, positive reappraisals were also found to buffer the negative effects of having a controlling instructor on students' engagement and anxiety. These findings suggest that personal characteristics interact with the learning environment to allow students to function optimally in their language courses even when the teacher is controlling.

Research suggests that students put more effort into language learning when they feel that it is a voluntary and self-relevant activity or they enjoy the process of mastering that language (i.e., they have a more self-determined orientation). This orientation is fostered when learners feel autonomous, competent, and related to others in their learning environment. We followed 162 university students of French across one semester to examine these causal claims longitudinally. Latent growth curve modeling showed that feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness and self-determined motivation increased across the semester while engagement declined. Parallel processes growth curve modeling showed that declines in engagement across the semester were attenuated to the extent that self-determined motivation increased. Auto-regressive cross-lagged analysis showed that, contrary to expectation, more engagement as the semester started predicted greater self-determination mid-semester (instead of vice versa), but these relations became reciprocal from mid-semester on. These findings are consistent with a dynamic model of motivation that emphasizes the reciprocal interplay between motivational constructs over the duration of a language course. The implications of these findings for motivation theory and instructional practices are discussed.

Recent research conceptualizes language mindsets as a 'lens' through which learners view language challenges as either deficits of aptitude (i.e. entity beliefs) or opportunities to improve (i.e. incremental beliefs). Extending this meaning-system approach in an intercultural context, we proposed that language mindsets influence migrants' experience of intercultural interaction and cultural adaptation through language-based rejection sensitivity (RS) (i.e. the tendency to anxiously expect rejection from native speakers due to a lack of language proficiency). Two studies of 292 English-as-a-second-language speakers in Canada demonstrated that those who held or were primed with entity beliefs (vs. incremental beliefs) reported stronger language-based RS, which in turn predicted more intergroup anxiety towards members of the target language community, less perceived connectedness with the host country, and worse cross-cultural adaptation. These effects persisted after controlling for perceived language competence and length of residence, thereby highlighting the unique importance of language mindsets in predicting intercultural communication and cross-cultural adaptation. Migrants' settlement programmes that promote incremental beliefs may thereby lessen concern about social rejection and reduce their anxiety when using a second language.

This study examines the antecedents and outcomes of classroom engagement of 412 Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Grounded in self-determination theory and the self-system model of motivation, this mixed-methods study examined the relations between context (perceived autonomy-support from the instructor), self (basic psychological needs), action (behavioral, emotional, agentic, and cognitive engagement), and outcome (achievement and absenteeism). The results of structural equation modeling supported the hypothesized model and showed that learners' perception of their teachers' autonomy-support within the classroom predicted their need satisfaction, which in turn predicted self-determined engagement. Engagement predicted achievement and absenteeism within English courses. Semi-structured interviews showed patterns consistent with the quantitative results, and also that students felt their engagement would best be supported in classes with a positive social atmosphere. As well, their comments underscored the important role of language teachers in supporting learners' psychological need satisfaction, classroom engagement, and positive academic outcomes. The findings suggest strategies for English language educators to bolster students' engagement within the classrooms, including students who seem to be unmotivated, reluctant language learners.

Studies of bicultural identity have claimed conflict--harmony and distance--overlap as relevant axes for describing bicultural identity, whereas other research emphasises variations across social situations. Based on this literature and focus group interviews, the bicultural identity of 300 young adults from immigrant families was examined, and a new bicultural identity instrument was developed, which included subscales assessing conflicted, monocultural, situationally alternating, complementary and hybrid identity orientations. The reliability indices and factor structure supported the distinctiveness of each of these subscales, and correlational analyses supported their validity. A second survey confirmed the factor structure and demonstrated meaningful differences between first- and second-generation Canadians (G1: n = 367 and G2: n = 217, respectively). In particular, both groups endorsed identity hybridity and complementarity more strongly than alternation and alternation was endorsed more strongly than monoculturality and identity conflict. As well, the G1 group reported more conflicted, monocultural and alternating identities than did the G2 group, and the G2 group reported more complementary and hybrid identities than the G1 group. These findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of the diversity of identity experiences of bicultural persons, as well as an instrument to assess these orientations.

Motivation is argued to be a critical predictor of language learning success, but it is not clear whether motivation is equally relevant across compulsory and optional language education contexts. This study explored the motivation of adolescent Anglophone students of other languages across secondary school year groups with a particular interest in the impact of choice and curricular structure. Based on Self-Determination Theory, we developed a model that maintains that perceptions of autonomy support predict learners' sense of autonomy, in turn enhancings motivation. Through a survey of 1775 students aged 11-16, we tested whether this model holds for learners from different year groups, and in later years, across those in schools with and without mandatory language education. We found that all learners reported less autonomy frustration and were more likely to report a more autonomous form of language learning motivation if they perceived their language teacher as autonomy-supportive, but that as learners progressed through school perceptions of autonomy support declined. Further, we found that motivation was strongly associated with curriculum policies providing choice. These differences in motivational profiles across year group have implications for how teachers might support students' across different years and for programmatic adaptations that might facilitate students' learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some people ascribe successful language learning to an innate aptitude that cannot be further developed, at least after a certain young age (i.e., an entity mindset), while other people believe that language learning ability can be improved (i.e., an incremental mindset). The purpose of this research is to (a) introduce the Language Mindsets Inventory (LMI), and (b) test the mindsets-goals-responses model, which maintains that learners' mindsets predict the goals that they set for language learning, and that these goals in turn affect how they respond to difficult academic and communication episodes. Correlational and factor analyses provided evidence of the LMI's valid and reliable use in research with university-level language students. Path analyses showed that regardless of their competence level, greater endorsement of an incremental mindset was associated with the goal of learning more about the language, and this learning goal in turn predicted greater mastery and less helpless responses in failure situations. Greater endorsement of an entity mindset predicted the goal of demonstrating competence (i.e., performance approach goals) when students believed that they had stronger language skills. The use of the LMI in future research and the importance of supporting incremental mindsets for language education are discussed.