Ascolta

Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Edificio 15, Palermo, 90128, Italy.

e-Mail: gabriele.gullo01@unipa.it

Education

LM51 – Life Span Psychology

 

Current Positions

PhD Student in Health Promotion and Cognitive Sciences

Member of WeSearch Lab

 

PhD project title and a short abstract

PhD project title

Exploring the effect of Working Memory, Foreign Language Anxiety, and learners’ Motivational and Metacognitive Factors on Foreign Language Learning: Cross-Linguistics Differences in Foreign Language Learning Process

 

Abstract

There has been an increasing amount of research examining the process of learning foreign languages (FL) and the various difficulties that may hinder this process (Cornoldi, 2019). However, limited research makes it unclear how emotional and motivational factors impact the cognitive components involved in learning a foreign language.

Over the past thirty years, scientific research has investigated the role of working memory (WM) and the different components in foreign language learning (FL), demonstrating a greater involvement than L1, as it implies a double linguistic analysis (Dijkstra, 2005) and requires a higher expenditure of cognitive resources to inhibit the interference between the two languages (Chen and Chang, 2009; Chow, Mo and Dong, 2021). "Foreign Language Anxiety" (FLA), defined as "a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to language learning in the classroom" (Horwitz et. al, 1986, p. 128), significantly affects learning and performance in FL (cf. Williams and Andrade, 2008) and was found to be positively correlated with the cognitive load (Chen and Chang, 2009), defined as the amount of mental activity carried out by the working memory perceived by a subject engaged in a task (Cooper, 1998). Although the effectiveness of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in reducing FLA levels has already been demonstrated (cf. Aydın, 2018), there are still few studies about the effectiveness of ICT in reducing FLA and cognitive load.

To address this gap, the present project aims to investigate these relationships in the context of learning languages with different spellings such as Italian, English, Spanish, Finnish, Chinese, and Japanese, to understand how the linguistic proximity (PL) between the native language (L1) and foreign language (FL) affects Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA).

 

Supervisor: Prof.ssa Marianna Alesi;

co-tutor: Prof.ssa Barbara Caci

 

Curriculum Vitae

Main research areas of interest

• Foreign Language Learning
• Specific Learning Disabilities
• Learning Difficulties
• Executive functions’ development

Researcher ID

ORCID - https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2056-380X

Research-gate - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gabriele-Gullo