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ACADEMIC BUOYANCY

EXPLORING LEARNERS’ EVERYDAY RESILIENCE IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2018

Saerom Yun ,
Phil Hiver Open the ORCID record for Phil Hiver [Opens in a new window]  and
Ali H. Al-Hoorie Open the ORCID record for Ali H. Al-Hoorie [Opens in a new window]
Saerom Yun
Affiliation:
International Graduate School of English
Phil Hiver*
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Ali H. Al-Hoorie
Affiliation:
Jubail Industrial College
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Phil Hiver, Florida State University, School of Teacher Education, College of Education, 1114 W. Call St., G128 Stone Building, Tallahassee, FL, 32306. E-mail: phiver@fsu.edu
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Abstract

This article reports the first attempt to test the relevance of buoyancy—the capacity to overcome the setbacks, challenges, and pressures that are part of the ordinary course of school life—for instructed second language (L2) learning. Questionnaire data from 787 college-level L2 learners in South Korea assessed their academic buoyancy and a set of six hypothesized predictors. A two-step cluster analysis of the data identified five prominent L2 learner archetypes, providing evidence for the existence of L2 domain-specific buoyancy profiles. Using structural equation modeling, we examined links among the six predictor variables, buoyancy, and L2 achievement and grade point average (GPA). The results showed that buoyancy significantly predicted both L2 achievement and GPA and mediated the effect of the predictors on these two outcome variables. Buoyancy, thus, captures a dimension of L2 motivation that is conceptually and empirically distinct from existing constructs, and represents an essential yet underexplored capacity for success in language learning.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 805 - 830
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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