Learners' Stories Difference and Diversity in Language Learning

This volume is a collection of nine original papers exploring dimensions of individual difference in language learning from narrative and biographical perspectives. This volume is a collection of nine original papers exploring dimensions of individual difference in language learning from narrative and biographical perspectives. Topics covered include motivation, emotion, age, learning strategies and beliefs, identity and the influence of classroom, distance and self-instructional settings. The authors use a variety of research methods to investigate learners' experiences of these aspects of the learning process. Among the countries represented in the research are Australia, Bahrain, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, New Zealand, Peru, the United Kingdom and the United States. The studies will be of interest to teachers, teachers-in-preparation, teacher educators and researchers.

Contents: Introduction, (Auto)biography and learner diversity, Affect in lifelong learning: Exploring L2 motivation as a dynamic process, Emotion processes in second language acquisition, Is there language acquisition after 40? Older learners speak up, An Arabic-speaking English learner's path to autonomy through reading, Learners' constructions of identities and imagined communities, 'It's just rules ... that's all it is at this stage...', Accommodation zone: Two learners' struggles to cope with a distance learning English course, Learning a second language with broadcast materials at home: Japanese students' long-term experiences, Conclusion