UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE LANGUAGE EPIPHANY AND FLOW THEORY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ PERSPECTIVE ON THEIR LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By NOUMANE RAHOUTI Norman, Oklahoma 2015 LANGUAGE EPIPHANY AND FLOW THEORY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ PERSPECTIVE ON THEIR LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP AND ACADEMIC CURRICULUM BY ______________________________ Dr. Lawrence Baines, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Neil Houser ______________________________ Dr. Sally Beach ______________________________ Dr. Courtney Vaughn ______________________________ Dr. Michael Winston © Copyright by NOUMANE RAHOUTI 2015 All Rights Reserved. to my grand parents à mes grands-parents Table of Contents List of Tables .......................................................................................................... viii List of Figures .......................................................................................................... ix Abstract ..................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 Second Language vs. Third Language.................................................................... 5 Acquisition vs. Learning .......................................................................................... 6 Shift in SLA Research and Introduction of Crosslinguistic Influence ................ 7 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Interpretive Lens ......................................... 10 Second Language Acquisition: Psycholinguistics and Crosslinguistic Influence .................................................................................................................................. 10 Psycholinguistics .............................................................................................. 10 Crosslinguistics ................................................................................................. 12 Theoretical Lens: Flow Theory and the Psychology of Optimal Experience .... 16 Consciousness ................................................................................................... 16 Complexity and Growth of the Self .................................................................. 18 Enjoyment vs. Pleasure .................................................................................... 18 Clear Goals and Feedback ................................................................................ 19 The Autotelic Experience: “Flow People” ....................................................... 21 Flow Activities ................................................................................................. 23 Boredom and Anxiety ....................................................................................... 26 Flow and Complexity of the Experience .......................................................... 27 Flow, Culture, and Moral Ethics ...................................................................... 28 iv The Obstacles of Flow ...................................................................................... 29 The Body in Flow ............................................................................................. 30 The Flow of Thought ........................................................................................ 32 Interpersonal Intelligence ................................................................................. 35 “Cheating Chaos” ............................................................................................. 36 The Making of Meaning ................................................................................... 38 Chapter 3: Methodology ........................................................................................ 41 Phenomenology ....................................................................................................... 41 Bracketing ......................................................................................................... 43 My lived experience of the phenomenon ......................................................... 44 Intentionality, noema, noesis ............................................................................ 45 Originality of this research .................................................................................... 46 Flow and SLA ................................................................................................... 46 The participants ...................................................................................................... 47 Data collection ......................................................................................................... 50 Analysis .................................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 4 - Participants’ experiences ................................................................... 56 Andrew’s experience .............................................................................................. 56 Analysis of Andrew’s experience .......................................................................... 72 Emmanuelle’s experience ...................................................................................... 77 Analysis of Emma’s experience ............................................................................. 98 Rebecca’s experience ............................................................................................ 101 Analysis of Rebecca’s Experience ....................................................................... 116 v Scott’s experience ................................................................................................. 121 Analysis of Scott’s Experience ............................................................................. 143 Chapter 5: Cross Analysis ................................................................................... 149 1. Influence of crosslinguistic factors .................................................................. 149 2. Periods of intensive studying ........................................................................... 151 State of flow vs. motivation ............................................................................ 151 3. Controlling the experience ............................................................................... 153 Monitoring language learning vs. monitoring learning .................................. 153 Monitoring provides a sense of control over the experience .......................... 154 Creativeness and sense of control over the experience .................................. 154 Playing the language game ............................................................................. 157 4. Language Epiphany .......................................................................................... 158 Crystallization of multiple skills to face a greater challenge ......................... 158 Merging Flow Activities ................................................................................. 159 5. From Flow to Flow ........................................................................................... 162 6. Implications for Language Teaching: from being object to subject of learning .................................................................................................................. 164 Students should learn to become their own teachers ...................................... 164 Flow vs. Social Justice ................................................................................... 166 From content to metacontent .......................................................................... 168 Chapter 6: Conclusion ......................................................................................... 169 1. Flow is subjective .............................................................................................. 169 2. Flow in the classroom ....................................................................................... 172 vi A good student is his own teacher .................................................................. 172 Making learning enjoyable and making enjoyment an engine for learning ... 173 Crosslinguistic Factors and the Language Classroom .................................... 174 3. There is a “successful language learner’s” culture ....................................... 174 4. Life, language and subjectivity ........................................................................ 176 References ............................................................................................................. 177 vii List of Tables Table 1. Possible Causes and Expected Effects of Flow .......................................... 40 viii List of Figures Fig. 1. Growth of the self in a state of flow (Csikszentmihalyi 74). ........................ 25 Fig. 2. Scott’s results to the French placement test, screen shot, March 12, 2015. 49 Fig. 3. Andrew Crane Photography .......................................................................... 69 Fig. 4. Andrew Crane, Zhouzhuang Ancient Town, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China ..........