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Lecture five: Individual differences in L2 acquisition
In this section, we will see how differences among learners may lead to differences in their learning success.
It is believed that learners with certain characteristics vary in their success in learning a foreign language.For example,many teachers are convinced that extroverted learners who interact without inhibition in their target language and find many opportunities to practice language skills will be the most successful learners. In addition to personality characteristics,other factors generally considered to be relevant to foreign language learning are intelligence, aptitude, strategies, motivation, attitudes, and ages. All of these characteristics can be classified into three categories: cognitive, affective, and biological factors. In this section we will briefly discuss these factors respectively.
5.1 Cognitive Factors
Cognitively, different learners show individual differences in types of learning, strategies of learning and styles of learning. Therefore, it is the task of the foreign language teaching theory to discuss the cogniti
ve aspects of language learners, because an awareness of these factors will help the teachers to better understand some of the successful and unsuccessful cognitive learning patterns of the learners. Cognitive factors that affect FL learning include intelligence, aptitude, strategies and styles of learning.
1) Intelligence
The term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally used to refer to performance on certain kinds of tests. These tests are often associated with success in school, and a link between intelligence and second language learning has sometimes been reported. Over the years, many studies using a variety of intelligence (IQ) tests and different methods of assessing language learning have found that IQ scores were a good means of predicting how successful a learner would be. Some recent studies have shown that these measures of intelligence may be more strongly related to certain kinds of foreign language abilities than to others,namely,it may be related to reading, grammar and vocabulary,but it may be unrelated to speaking or writing. This suggests that while intelligence, especially as measured by verbal IQ tests, may be a strong factor in language analysis and rule learning, it may play a less important role in classrooms where the instruction focuses more on communication and interaction.
2) Aptitude
Aptitude refers to the specific ability a learner has for learning a foreign language. It is evident that some individuals have an exceptional aptitude for language learning. Learning quickly is the distinguishing feature of aptitude. Researchers have developed various aptitude tests to predict whether individuals will be efficient learners of a foreign language in a classroom setting. The most widely used aptitude tests are the Modern Language Aptitude Test and Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery. Both tests
are based on the view that aptitude is composed of different types of abilities: (i) the ability to identify and memorize new sounds; (ii) the ability to understand the function of particular words in sentences; (iii) the ability to figure out grammatical rules from language samples; (iv) memory for new words. While earlier research revealed a substantial relationship between performance on the MLAT/PLAB and performance in foreign language learning, these studies wee conducted at a time when foreign language teaching was based on Grammar-translation or Audio-lingual Methods. With the adoption of a more communicative approach to teaching, many teachers and researchers came to see aptitude as irrelevant to the process of language acquisition.
3) Learning Strategies
One interesting theme in the studies of FL learning is the good language learner strategies. Strategy refers to the specific way that one employs to solve a given problem.In the field of FL teaching,there are three major types of strategy: communicative strategy, learning strategy and social strategy. Learning strategy refers to the ‘way of input’ of the learner, i.e. how to process, store and retrieve what they learn in the brain. It is the conscious or unconscious process that language learners use in learning a language. Some linguists like Naiman et al (1978) had tried to see what those good language learners had in common. They found six broad strategies shared by good language learners as follows:
(i) Find a suitable learning style. Good language learners become aware of the
types of FL learning. They always find ways of adapting or modifying the teaching situation to suit themselves.
(ii) Involve oneself in the language learning process. Good language learners are very active practitioners of the target language both inside and outside the classroom. They take the initiative and devise situations and language learning techniques for themselves.
(iii) Develop an awareness of language both as system and as communication.
Good language learners see language not only as a complex system of rules but also as something to be used.They combine grammatical and pragmatic competence. Besides learning phonetics, vocabulary and grammar, they also seek out an many opportunities as possible to take part in conversations in the target language.
(iv)Pay constant attention to expanding language knowledge. Good language learners are always trying to learn more about the target language and improve it.
(v) Develop the target language as a separate system. Good language learners do not relate everything to their first language but make the target language a separate system. They always try to think in it. One common strategy they adopt is to engage in silent monologues to practice the target language by giving commentaries to themselves about the passing scene or the coming event.
(vi) Take into account the demands that FL learning imposes. Good language learners are aware that FL learning can be very demanding. They are always ready to meet with any challenges posed by the learning. They are not afraid of
making foolish mistakes in the classroom or elsewhere.
How can teachers make use of learning strategies? The chief moral is that the students often know best. It is the learners’ involvement, the learners’ strategies, and the learners’ ability to go their own ways that count, regardless of what the teacher is trying to do. The students must be encouraged to develop independence inside and outside the classroom and to take on responsibility for their own learning. Moreover, teachers should provide methods to enable students to discover the learning strategies that suit them best or provide a wealth of activities to heighten their awareness of strategies and their ability to use them.Strategy-training assumes that conscious attention to learning strategies is beneficial. Teachers should organize trainings that help the students to be aware of strategies.
4) Learning Styles
The term ‘learning style’ has been used to describe an individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skills. Some people cannot learn something until they have seen it. They are called ‘visual’learners. Other people, who may be called ‘aural’ learners, seem to need only to hear something once or twice before they know it. For others, who are referred to as ‘kinesthetic’ learners, there is a need to add a physical action to the learning process. In contrast to these perceptually based learning styles,considerable research has focused o
n a cognitive learning style distinction between field independent and field dependent learners. This refers to whether an individual tends to separate details from the general background or to see things more holistically. Another category of learning styles is based on the individual’s temperament or personality.
Task 13: What are the learning strategies you adopt frequently? What strategies will you teach your students in learning English?
5.2 Affective Factors
Students’ emotional status and other affective factors filter what they learn. In language learning, it is quite evident that strong positive or negative emotions are involved in the success or failure of the target language. The affective factors create the first filter for the language input and have a decisive impact on the learner in the language learning. Affect refers to emotion or feeling. It includes such factors as empathy, extroversion, anxiety, attitude and motivation. In this section we only make
a brief discussion on attitude and motivation.
1) Learning Attitude
In FL learning research,most research on attitudes(with regard to language learning) has tended to concentrate on attitudes towards target languages and their speakers. Attitudes are closely related to the achievement and success of foreign language learning.Different attitudes can result in different proficiency.Usually, positive attitudes toward self, the teacher, the learning tasks given, the target language and its culture can enhance proficiency while negative attitudes may lead to decreased motivation,input and interaction,and ultimately to unsuccessful attainment of proficiency.
2) Learning Motivation
Motivation in language learning can be defined as the learner’s overall goal or orientation. Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972) coined the terms integrative motivation to refer to language learning for personal growth and cultural enrichment (the learner wishes to identify with the culture of the target language group), and instrumental motivation for language learning for more immediate or practical goals (e.g. to get a job or to pass an examination). Another kind of motivation is task motivation, i.e. the interest felt by the learner in performing different learning tasks. There has been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in foreign language learning. Undoubtedly, motivation is related to success in foreign language learning. But unfortunately, the research cannot indicate precisely how motivation is related to learning. We do not know whether it is the motivation that prod
uces successful learning or successful learning that enhances motivation or whether both are affected by other factors.
Task 14:What is motivation? How do you usually motivate your students in learning English?
Task 15: Are learners more highly motivated because they are successful, or are they successful because they are highly motivated?
5.3 Biological Factors
Some linguists believed that there is a critical period for foreign language learning, which is called the Critical Period Hypothesis. The Critical Period Hypothesis refers to the claim that human beings are only capable of learning their first language between the age of two years and the early teens. Developmental changes in the brain, it is argued, affect the nature of language acquisition. According to this view, language learning which occurs after the end of the critical period may not be based on the innate biological structures believed to contribute to first language acquisition or second language acquisition in early childhood. Rather, older learners depend on more general learning abilities—the same ones they might use to learn other kinds of skills or information. It is argued that these general learning abilities are not as successful for language learning as the more specific, inna
te capacities which are available to the young child. It is most often claimed that the critical period ends somewhere around puberty, but some researchers suggest it could be even earlier.
The Critical Period Hypothesis has been challenged in recent years from several different points of view. Some studies of the foreign language development of older and younger learners who are learning in similar circumstances have shown that, at least in the early stages of foreign language development, older learners are more efficient than younger learners. In educational research, it has been reported that learners who began learning a foreign language at the primary school did not fare better in the long run than those who began in early adolescence. Furthermore, there are countless anecdotes about older learners who have reached high levels of proficiency in a foreign language. Does this mean that there is no critical period for second language acquisition?
Task 16: Do you agree to the Critical Period Hypothesis? Why or why not?（摘自陆云、陈光伟、李晓、汤燕瑜、刘昌海，《英语教学论》，2004）
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