Abstract: The number of factors that must be considered in designing and investigating effective L2 instruction has been greatly complicated by the diverse learner populations that language teachers must serve. One of those populations is the growing number of heritage speakers in the U.S., which has also heightened interest in heritage language (HL) education and research in recent decades. In this talk, I will highlight my own research that pulls on critical pedagogies as well as psychological theories in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA) in order to address affective variables for effective vocabulary instruction with heritage and foreign language learners. Specifically, I will present the findings from a mixed-methods study (Driver, 2021) investigating how the use of sensitive classroom topics, such as immigration and ethnicity, in the Spanish heritage and foreign language classroom impact the learning of vocabulary for both profiles of learners. Looking at emotion from both psychological and social perspectives, I make use of quantitative questionnaires commonly used in the fields of ISLA and psychology as well as qualitative prompts to explore the potential relationship between language learning and affect for diverse learner profiles. I will also overview the validation of a unique instrument for the study of linguistic insecurity (Driver, in preparation), an emotion particularly relevant to heritage learners and of growing interest in the field of ISLA. Finally, I will present future steps and possibilities for driving this strand of research forward through transdisciplinary methodologies and conclude with a discussion of the implications of taking affect seriously in the investigation of effective L2 instruction, and in support of multilingual language classrooms and inclusive curricula that address the needs of diverse language learner populations.
Bio: Dr. Meagan Driver is an applied linguist specializing in mixed-methods approaches to heritage and Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA) and an assistant professor in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, as well as a core faculty member in the Second Language Studies (SLS) Ph.D. program at Michigan State University. Her research implements cognitive theories and methodologies to explore topics including emotion, bilingualism and multilingualism, and study abroad and the relationship with a range of linguistic, psychological, and social factors, including vocabulary learning and learner identity, to name a few. A heritage speaker of Spanish herself, she aims to adapt instruments and methodologies in her research that address the reality and needs of linguistically and socially diverse language classrooms and learner populations. Presently, her work explores the relationship between various affective variables, including anxiety, interest, linguistic insecurity, and motivation, and questions surrounding linguistic and ethnoracial identity, specifically with respect to the acquisition of a heritage or foreign language.
