Hopeless Cases or Just Hard Nuts to Crack? Stories of “Difficult” Foreign Language Learners

Abstract

In accordance with the assumptions of the sociologically grounded labelling theory, an individual’s self-perception and, consequently, their actions, might be influenced by words used to describe them. Also, in the context of education, including the field of foreign language learning, such a process of defining learners in a simplified way, has been proven to have profound consequences of psychological nature. The main purpose of the article is to outline the results of a study in which 37 teachers of English shared the stories of their most “difficult” students. The qualitative analysis of the gathered descriptions allowed the identification of some common features characteristic of, so-called, hopeless cases, among which motivation-related problems are the most often enumerated ones. Additionally, many teachers wrote about their struggles while teaching students with special educational needs. The views expressed by the participants of the study might help understand the way in which opinions about students are formulated as well as point to the need for significant changes to be made in the area of foreign language teacher education and training.