Abstract

Affectivity is at the core of everything we do in life. Thus, its development is also central to learning/acquisition and is important for educational contexts. The studies presented in this volume consider the different contexts of language learning and examine different types of participants in this process. Most of them look at a formal instruction context, while others look beyond the classroom and even report on the author's own affectivity and its involvement in learning experiences. Affectivity is discussed here in relation to learners but also to teachers in their own professional contexts of teaching foreign languages. In the majority of cases, affectivity is explored in the case of bilinguals, but there are also articles which focus on multilingual language users and their affectivity as an evolving factor.

Researchers interested in the role of affect in language learning will surely value this collection of essays for its variety of topics, solid literature reviews and theoretical overviews, as well as the numerous empirical results and statistical data.

This insightful and fascinating book conceptualizes and comprehensively explores 'the affective turn' in SLA. Going beyond traditionally explored affective phenomena, this excellent state-of-the-art volume opens up new and important aspects of anxiety, motivation, emotive lexis, expression of emotions and identity. Affectivity is omnipresent in academic, formal and informal contexts and considering its impact on young and adult learners is essential for researchers and teachers.

Danuta GabryÅ?-Barker lectures in applied linguistics and second language acquisition at the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. Her main areas of interest are multilingualism and affectivity in SLA. Professor GabryÅ?-Barker has published numerous articles and two books Aspects of Multilingual Storage, Processing and Retrieval (2005) and Reflectivity in Pre-service Teacher Education (2012). She is the chief editor (together with Eva Vetter) of the International Journal of Multilingualism.

Joanna Bielska is involved in language teacher education programmes at the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland and lectures on theories of second language acquisition, research methods in applied linguistics and the methodology of foreign language teaching. She has had a long-standing interest in the psychology of the language learner with special focus on the role of individual differences in SLA. Her current work revolves around the theme of self-efficacy in language learning and teaching.