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Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 
Department of English Studies, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz 

SSLLT 3 (1). 11-12 
http://www.ssllt.amu.edu.pl 

 
 
 

Editorial 
 
The first 2013 issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teach-

ing brings together six contributions from scholars from different parts the 
world, five of which constitute reports of original research studies. As many as 
four of the papers are devoted to the role of affective factors in the process of 
learning and using second and foreign languages, which speaks to the consid-
erable emphasis that is currently placed on the mediating effect of the affec-
tive domain. First, Annie Morris, Marc Lafontaine, François Pichette, and Linda 
de Serres investigate the relationship between attitudes, motivation, 
amotivation, parental involvement, and parental disinterest and Korean stu-
dents’ competence in L2 English, offering evidence that parents’ roles have 
only a limited impact on children’s language learning, even though links with 
some affective variables can be detected. In the next contribution, Jean-Marc 
Dewaele and Tsui Shan Ip present the findings of a study which is among the 
first to provide insights into the relationship between foreign language class-
room anxiety, second language tolerance of ambiguity, and self-rated profi-
ciency, the participants being learners of English in Hong Kong, and report that 
the three factors are closely related, accounting for half of the variance in each 
other. Reza Barzegar and Sajjad Aref Sadr examine the impact of instruction 
aimed at the development of Iranian learners’ emotional intelligence on moti-
vation and although the findings do not demonstrate a positive effect of 
awareness-raising of this kind overall, it is beneficial in the case of the instru-
mentality prevention aspect of L2 motivation. In the last paper dealing with 
affective variables, Zainab Abolfazli Khonbi and Karim Sadeghi report the re-
sults of a study which taps Iranian learners’ attitudes towards self-, peer- and 
teacher-assessment with which they are provided for the duration of one se-
mester, showing that all these assessment types met with the approval of the 
participants, with the attitudes towards peer-assessment being the most posi-
tive. The final two contributions deal with the analysis of learner language and 



 

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the evaluation of instructional practices employed in the foreign language 
classroom. Accordingly, Colleen A. Neary-Sundquist examines the use of cohe-
sive devices in a corpus of transcribed oral data of learners representing dif-
ferent levels and finds that while the use of conjunctions increases steadily 
together with growing proficiency, an increase in the application of pragmatic 
markers becomes observable only at the highest levels. In the only paper that 
is not empirical in nature, Elisabetta Pavan makes a strong case for the use of 
translation as a tool that contributes to the growth of competence in a foreign 
language and a mother tongue as well as prodding the development of inter-
cultural awareness, taking as an example a course that she taught to Italian 
undergraduate students. I am confident that, thanks to the topics covered, 
methodological rigor and sound implications for classroom instruction, all of 
these papers will provide food for thought for researchers looking for new 
lines of inquiry as well as teachers willing to enhance their everyday practices. 

 
 

Miros aw Pawlak 
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland 

pawlakmi@amu.edu.pl