| This study addresses learners' sense of progress in learning English as a Foreign Language and as a Second Language. Sense of progress is a construct that, as of today, has not been extensively treated in the field of applied language studies. It seems to be intrinsically related to several aspects such as metacognition, motivation, individual definitions of successes and failures, attributions and goals. It is also apparent that sense of progress is a powerful motivational component, i.e. a positive sense of progress may contribute to higher levels of motivation to learn a language. This qualitative inquiry investigates the ways the aspects mentioned above operate in terms of perceptions and experiences of four Brazilian EFL learners and two Brazilian ESL learners. In addition, it presents two aspects that emerged from the data as relevant to this inquiry: language skills and language anxiety. The ways participants' individual perceptions on these aspects may contribute to foster or hinder a sense of progress are illustrated and discussed. It is argued that it is imperative for language teachers to develop a positive sense of progress in their learners. |
