From Motivation to Emotivation -- Dr. Liliana Landolfi of the University of Naples, Italy

Encompassing the Fear of English via Emotivation -- Dr. Liliana Landolfi of the University of Naples, Italy

Sunday, June 1, 2:00 - 5:00 pm, at the Osaka Municipal Lifelong Learning Center in Umeda's Eki-mae Dai-2 Building, 5F.

Map: http://osakademanabu.com/umeda/ 

We are very fortunate to be able to host Dr. Liliana Landolfi of the University of Naples, Italy, during her visit to Japan. She will be speaking about the role of emotions in second-language learning, the power of fears in blocking acquisition and the need to solve blocking issues for successful results. These topics relate to her current research.

The computational analysis, run on the bilingual data that the EFL P.Æ.C.E. Corpus (Landolfi 2012) contains, identifies the word FEAR, in its Italian and English possible variations, as the second most frequent word used in the whole corpus by EFL learners to describe their language learning reality. Drawing upon these data, the present study addresses students’ discomfort, analyses the various types of fears that first-year university students manifest, and proposes the use of visualizations as working tools to overcome blocks and empower learners. From the analysis, it has emerged that fears may be overcome drawing upon an internal motivational force, named Emotivation, that is rooted in the personal emotional sphere.

Before this recent area of investigation, Professor Landolfi was intrigued by the major role that L2 teachers have at elementary level. She has worked on a number of aspects related to teacher-training and material development with a special focus on what Italians call "pedagogia ludica" which means learning while playing (songs, short dramas, puppetry and masks, etc.). She has also dedicated years to the facilitation of the writing process with L2 young learners.

Liliana Landolfi, Ph.D. (in Applied Linguistics at U.S.C Los Angeles, CA.), is an Associate Professor of English language and linguistics at the University of Naples, L’Orientale, Italy. Her research interests include English in its acquisitional nuances and manifestations. She is the author of several CALL programs, books, and articles. She is currently analysing the impact of Emotivation in formal contexts of L2 acquisition. PÆCE An Italian-English Corpus based on EFL Learners (Liguori, 2012) and Behind and Beyond the EFL PÆCE Corpus (Liguori, 2012) are among her recent publications.

Please join us for what is sure to be a most interesting and "emotivating" afternoon, and for the dinner party afterwards at a nearby restaurant.