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Russian Language Journal

Keywords

Affordance, Russian, L2 learning perception, SLA

Abstract

The environment offers a variety of resources for language learning and teaching. However, students and teachers might not recognize the same affordances or may perceive them differently. The mismatch between instructors’ and learners’ perceived affordances may result in ineffective use of time for both students and teachers, lower student motivation, and retard the language learning process. The study draws on the ecological approach (van Lier, 2000) to second language acquisition to investigate L2 Russian learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of language learning affordances, i.e., any physical objects, online materials, humans, and other resources which are embedded in the environment, and emerge from the interactions between the environment and a language learner. Twenty undergraduate students enrolled in Russian language courses, and 9 Russian language teachers at a large Midwestern university in the US completed a three-part questionnaire to identify their perceived affordances for language learning. Analyses revealed notable differences between learners and teachers in what affordances they perceived as well as how each group perceived these affordances in terms of usefulness, enjoyment, and accessibility. The insights from this study will help develop pedagogical practices that could enable a dialogue between L2 learners and instructors about reassessing the affordances in the language learning environment and enhancing both learning and teaching experiences.

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