The Motivational Role of Goal-Setting

To learn the language of a new host community is both enabling and challenging for any immigrant, but particularly so for adult refugees. This volume examines the impact of a pedagogy which sets goal-setting at the heart of the ESL classroom. Through an ethnographic study conducted amongst adult refugees learning English in Ireland, the author creates a rich narrative account, presented episodically and thematically, of their diverse experiences, and asserts that the process of setting regular, personal goals in the classroom, supported by the European Language Portfolio in this case, fosters learner motivation and enhances language learning outcomes.

Autorentext

Lorna Carson is Assistant Professor (tenured) in Applied Linguistics at the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She holds a B.A. (Hons), M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin, and an M.A. from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium).