Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (Jan 2013)
Language Classroom Risk-Taking Behavior in a Performed Culture-Based Program
Abstract
While several studies have investigated the role of risk-taking in language learning, the findings of these studies may not be generalizable to language learning where the performed culture approach (PCA) is used. This study describes the relationship between language learning and risk-taking in PCA, and the relationship between risk-taking and personal study habits, teaching style, daily grading, and classroom dynamics. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire. This study finds that risk-taking behavior has a moderate positive relationship with student performance in PCA. While questionnaire items related to teaching style and classroom dynamics are not found to significantly correlate with students’ risk-taking behavior, some items related to daily grading and personal study habits are found to have a moderate positive relationship with risk-taking behavior. Based on these findings, it is recommended that further research investigate the relationship between assessment and risktaking in language learning. As second language acquisition researchers have investigated the role of affective variables in language learning, risk-taking has frequently been identified as a variable linked with success (Beebe, 1983; Ely, 1986; Naiman, Frolich, Stern, & Todesco, 1978; Rubin, 1975; Samimy & Pardin, 1994; Samimy & Tabuse, 1992). However, it is difficult to apply these findings to language classrooms that use the performed culture approach (PCA), an approach to the teaching of East Asian languages, for two reasons: (a) PCA’s focus on the learning of a foreign culture could mean that greater risk is involved in 106 Luft language learning than in a typical language classroom; (b) PCA creates a language learning experience for which the risks involved are different than those in language classrooms where other approaches are used.
