Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Military second language acquisition is an important component of military training. Across branches of the United States Military Service, servicemembers are trained in a variety of foreign languages to support United States national interests. Adult Second Language Acquisition (SLA) poses significant challenges to learners, impacting their identity and self-concept. Exposure to a new language and culture threatens the learner's sense of self and engenders psychological distress. Due to a variety of factors, such as decreased learning anxiety and increased team learning behaviors, psychological safety enhances learning outcomes across various sectors, including medical education, business, and Research and Development (R&D) sectors. According to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the widespread deficiency of psychological safety within teams, and among teams, could compromise the national security of the United States of America by curtailing innovation and impeding the United States Department of Defense’s (DoD) adaptability to respond to threats and shifting landscapes. Investigating the relationships between individual perceptions of psychological safety in an adult second language acquisition (SLA) classroom group setting can illuminate the importance of psychological safety in learning environments and its role in adult SLA, particularly in a military environment. This study hypothesizes that higher psychological safety levels correlate with higher Defense Language Proficiency Test scores in SLA at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) and other SLA environments. Additionally, it is hypothesized that degree of instructor support and quality of interpersonal relationships, antecedents to psychological safety, will positively correlate with psychological safety in SLA classrooms. Participants will comprise of approximately 380 service members who successfully completed a second language acquisition course at DLI in the past 20 years. Participants will complete a 30-minute survey that includes scales assessing psychological safety (7 items), psychological safety antecedents (15 items), language proficiency self-assessments for reading and listening (50 items), and demographic information (29 items). The results of this research can be used to improve SLA training and thereby increase the foreign language proficiency of U.S. Service members. It will also provide insights into the impact of antecedents on performance in military and academic learning environments. Finally, the results of this research can provide suggestions about how to create psychological safety in all institutional and unit level training throughout the DoD.
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Included in
Language learning in the trenches: unraveling the role of psychological safety in military second language acquisition
Military second language acquisition is an important component of military training. Across branches of the United States Military Service, servicemembers are trained in a variety of foreign languages to support United States national interests. Adult Second Language Acquisition (SLA) poses significant challenges to learners, impacting their identity and self-concept. Exposure to a new language and culture threatens the learner's sense of self and engenders psychological distress. Due to a variety of factors, such as decreased learning anxiety and increased team learning behaviors, psychological safety enhances learning outcomes across various sectors, including medical education, business, and Research and Development (R&D) sectors. According to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the widespread deficiency of psychological safety within teams, and among teams, could compromise the national security of the United States of America by curtailing innovation and impeding the United States Department of Defense’s (DoD) adaptability to respond to threats and shifting landscapes. Investigating the relationships between individual perceptions of psychological safety in an adult second language acquisition (SLA) classroom group setting can illuminate the importance of psychological safety in learning environments and its role in adult SLA, particularly in a military environment. This study hypothesizes that higher psychological safety levels correlate with higher Defense Language Proficiency Test scores in SLA at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) and other SLA environments. Additionally, it is hypothesized that degree of instructor support and quality of interpersonal relationships, antecedents to psychological safety, will positively correlate with psychological safety in SLA classrooms. Participants will comprise of approximately 380 service members who successfully completed a second language acquisition course at DLI in the past 20 years. Participants will complete a 30-minute survey that includes scales assessing psychological safety (7 items), psychological safety antecedents (15 items), language proficiency self-assessments for reading and listening (50 items), and demographic information (29 items). The results of this research can be used to improve SLA training and thereby increase the foreign language proficiency of U.S. Service members. It will also provide insights into the impact of antecedents on performance in military and academic learning environments. Finally, the results of this research can provide suggestions about how to create psychological safety in all institutional and unit level training throughout the DoD.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology