14
D. Self Esteem
Self esteem is ―a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds towards himself‖ Coopersmith in Brown,
1987: 101-
102. It ―refers to the degree to which individuals feel confident and believe themselves to be significant people. It is manifested at
different levels global, situational and task‖ Ellis, 1994: 518.Brown 1987: 102 argues that global self esteem is relatively stable in a mature
adult, and is resistant to change except by active and extended therapy. Situational specific self esteem refers to one‘s appraisals of oneself in
certain life situation, such as social interaction, work, education, home or
on certain relatively discretely defined traits-intelligence, communicative ability, athletic ability, or personality traits like gregariousness, empathy
and flexibility. Task of self esteem relates to particular tasks within specific situation. Heyde 1979 found that self esteem correlated positively with
oral production; But, Gardner and Lambert 1972 failed to find their significant relationship.
E. Inhibition
Inhibition refers to the extent to which individuals build defenses to protect their egos. People vary in how adaptive their language egos are, i.e. how
well they are to deal with the identity conflict involved in L2 learning. Guiora et al. 1972 and 1980 in Brown 1987 used alcohol and valium
administered in differing quantities to reduce inhibition as measuring instrument. His study showed that subjects given alcohol showed better
pronunciation while valium had no effect.
F. Risk Taking
Ehrman and Oxford 1995 specifically linked it to risk taking because those who can tolerate ambiguity are more likely to take risks in language
15 learning, an essential factor for making progress in the language Beebee,
1983; Brown, 1987; Ely, 1986; Stevick, 1976.
There are five levels of risk-taking behavior: 1.
the uninhibited risk-taker 2.
the analytical risk-taker 3.
the cautious risk-taker 4.
the inhibited risk-taker 5.
the non risk-taker
G. Learning Style