State Self-Esteem, Personal Investment, and Initial L2 Lexical Acquisition

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Self-esteem is critical to learning, but it is a multifaceted construct with complex effects. The present study investigates domain-specific self-esteem in memory for novel lexis and its interaction with self-reference effects. In total, 144 Saudi learners processed novel English trait adjectives in four conditions (referenced to themselves, an intimate other, a familiar other, or synonyms). They evaluated their self-esteem at the time each item was processed and later recalled the meaning of each item (item memory) and the conditions under which they processed it (source memory). Results revealed that self-esteem had a significant impact on both item and source memory and interacted significantly with self-referential processing conditions. Participants recalled little when self-esteem was low, regardless of processing condition, but they did significantly better when self-esteem was high. Additionally, when self-esteem was high, learners recalled items processed in the personal investment conditions (with reference to themselves or an intimate other) significantly better than in the non-personal investment conditions (with reference to a familiar other or a synonym). Personal investment and self-esteem thus had synergistic effects. These findings are discussed in terms of how self-esteem and personal investment may inform instructional design, particularly by tailoring content to align with personally meaningful and positive task content.