Abdullah Alamer

Dr Abdullah Alamer is an assistant professor of the Psychology of Language Learning and holds a PhD from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and a Master of Applied Linguistics from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. His areas of expertise include second language motivation, anxiety and learning interest. He applies advanced quantitative research methods including structural equation modelling (SEM). His works have appeared in the top journals in the field including Applied Linguistics published by the University of Oxford and Studies in Second Language Acquisition published by the University of Cambridge. He has recently authored a new psychological theory referred to as ‘autonomous single language interest’ which has been published in System, a leading journal in the field.

Achievement and motivation

The study concludes that there is a clear link between autonomous motivation, when the learner is keen to learn for their own reasons, wants to improve and is, therefore, a self-starter and achievement.

Want to reduce student anxiety? Increase their proficiency

Is there a direct link between anxiety and achievement? By following a large group of students over a seventeen week period, Abdullah Alamer concluded that there is a correlation and that teachers need to be aware of it in order to focus on ways of improving performance.