INTRODUCTION TO SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Individual Differences in L2 Acquisition Investigating Students Language Aptitude, Motivation and Learning Strategies

By : Ari Darmawan Reza Wisnu Saputra Isnayani Tabiul M. Aha Ainun Najib (2201410085) (2201410103) (2201410109) (2201410119)

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT SEMARANG STATE UNIVERSITY

1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study So far we have been concerned with describing and explaining the universal aspects of L2 acqusition the main concern of SLA. However, SLA also acknowledges that there individual differences in L2 acquisition. We have seen that social factors to do with the context of learning have an effect on how successful individual L2 learners are, and possibly on how interlanguage develops as well. We will now examine a number of psychological dimensions of difference. These dimensions are many and various. Affective factors such as learners personality can influence the degree of anxiety they experience and their preparedness to take risks in learning and using an L2. Learners preferred ways of learning (their learning styles) may influence their overall orientation to the learning task and the kind of input (for example, spoken and written) they find it easiest to work with. We will focus on two of the major dimensions here language aptitude and motivation and also explore how differences in learning strategies can affect development. In learning L2, sometimes some people already have an ability that will make them easier to learn. It is called language aptitude. Language aptitude is a natural ability of a person that naturally came out from themselves. For examples, sometimes a person is very easy to understand anything about grammar. It is because they have grammatical sensitivity. There is also phonemic coding ability, that is an ability to identify word sounds. Language aptitude can help people easier to learn L2, but beside that, people also needs motivation to learn. Motivation influences the degree of effort that learners make to learn L2. Motivation is very important for learners. Learners have various kinds of motivation. It sometimes comes from themselves, but sometimes, motivation can be from outside, for example, environment, parents, family or friends. Besides language aptitude and motivation, there is a thing that also helps learners learn L2, named learning strategies. Learners often meet any kinds of difficulties in learning, but each of them has their own way to overcome it. That is by making learning strategies. Learning strategies of each person is different, because they are also different in their objective and ability in learning, and this small research will investigate the language aptitude, motivation and also learners learning strategies in learning L2.

1.2 Research Questions 1. What language aptitude do most students have? 2. What kind of motivation do students have in learning English? 3. What learning strategies do students usually use to overcome their objective of learning English?

Keywords : language aptitude, motivation, learning strategies

2. Review of Related Literature

2.1 Theoretical Review 1. Motivation a. The Definition of Motivation Slamet (2003: 180) defines motivation as the feeling of interest to something, without anybody asks to do it. Basically, motivation is the relation between ones inner feeling and something outside ones body. The stronger feeling of interest, the greater motivation will appear. Motivation is the will deep inside ones heart to get everything one wants. Motivation is needed in every occasion, including in the process of learning and teaching. It is because the motivation will influence someone both in process and result. Thus, it is very important for teachers to know about motivation. The other experts have defined some definitions of motivation. Brophy (1998: 3) says that motivation refers to the students subjective experiences, their willingness to engage in teaching learning activities and their reasons for doing this. Weiner (In Elliot et al, 2000: 332) states that motivation is internal states that arouses us to action, pushes us into particular direction, and keep us engage in certain activities. Grocia (1992: 62) says that people learn and study because of the consequence of such behavior satisfy certain and / or external motive. From those definitions above it can be conclude that motivation is an impulse, arousal or desire that moves and leads someone to engage and do a particular action in order to attain a set of goals of teaching learning process. It will give someone motivation to get the goal. In this case is the goal of teaching.

b. The Types of Motivation According to some experts, there are many types of learning motivation. Biggs and Watkins (1995: 84) state that there are four categories of motivation; extrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, social motivation, and intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation is motivation in which the students learn because of consequences to obtain a reward and to avoid the punishment. Intrinsic motivation is motivation in which the students learn because they are interested in task or activities itself. Achievement motivation is motivation in which the students learn in order to compete against the other students, that is winning makes they feel good. Social motivation is motivation in which the students try to make the other people feel pleasure. Ur (1996: 19) defines some kinds of motivation. They are integrated motivation and instrumental motivation. Integrative motivation is the desire to identify with and integrate into target language culture. Meanwhile, instrumental motivation is the wish to learn the language for purposes of study or career. Meanwhile, according to the Rod Ellis (2008: 75) in her book Second Language Acquisition, motivations are divided into: a. Instrumental Motivation The process of learning is caused by some functional reason. Learners will get the benefits from learning for example it will open up educational and economic opportunity. In this case is the learners make efforts to learn L2 for some functional reason such as to pass an examination, to get a better job, or get a place at university. b. Integrative Motivation The process of learning is caused by the learners interest in the target language culture. Some learners may choose to learn a particular L2 because they are interested in the people and culture represented by the target language group. c. Resultative Motivation This motivation is caused by the L2 achievement. It means that learners are more motivated after they succeed in learning L2. They may become more motivated to learn.

d. Intrinsic motivation This motivation comes from the learners themselves. They may be interested in the learning activities and tasks. So, they like to learn more and more. 2. Learning Strategies

Nold & Schaitmann (1997: 136) states that learning strategies are considered as sequences of actions which can be conscious particularly in the early stages when they first arise in the learner. Afterwards, they can then be put into action either in semi- or subconscious way and thus become automated. Wenden (1987a: 7-8) says that learning strategies are the various operations thatlearners use in order to make sense of their learning. William & Burden (1997) indicates when the students are involved in a learning task; they have different resources which they use in different ways to finish the task. That can be termed as a process of learning strategies. Derry and Murphy (1986, p.2) defines learning strategies as a collection of mental tactics employed by an individual in a particular learning situation. Oxford (1990) defines learning strategies as specific actions taken by learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations. Meanwhile, based on Rod Ellis on her book Second Language Acquisition, learning strategies are the particular approaches or techniques that learner employ to try learn an L2. Learning strategies are divided into two types. First, they can be behavioral, for example by repeating new words aloud to help you remember them. Second, they can be mental, for example by using the linguistic or situational context to infer the meaning of a new word. In more details, those strategies are also divided three kinds. They are: a. Cognitive strategies are strategies that are used in the analysis, synthesis, or transformation of learning materials. The example is recombination, which involves constructing a meaningful sentence by recombining known elements of the L2 in a new way

b.

Metacognitive strategies are strategies that are used in planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning. The example is selective attention where the learner makes a conscious decision to attend to particular aspects of the input.

c.

Social/affective strategies are strategies that are used by learner to overcome the learning problem by interacting with other speakers. The example is questioning for clarification. The other example is asking for repetition, a paraphrase, or an example.

From the definitions above, the writer can conclude that strategies are the ways that the learners used to make they understand the learning process and materials easily. By using these strategies, they make the learning process easier, more enjoyable, more transferable, so they get the knowledge from what they learnt easily. Learning strategies can be illustrated as the tactics which is used by the football players in order to achieve their goal; to win a game. As the same as in the football game, the learners also use various strategies to achieve their goal. In this case is, to master an L2. When they start to learn something, they will use their ability to respond to the particular learning situation and to manage their learning in an appropriate way. Sometimes, when they learn an L2 for the first time, they often do some mistakes, or we can say errors instead of mistakes. Those terms are different. Mistakes reflect occasional lapses which occur because the learners are unable to perform what they know, while errors reflect gaps in learners knowledge which occurs because the learner does not know what is correct. Making errors is one of learning strategies. The learners unconsciously use errors as their learning strategy in language acquisition. By making errors, they will be corrected by their teacher and they will get the correct ones. Indirectly, they use those errors as the strategy to get knowledge. So, learners who do some errors cannot be judged as stupid learners. It is a kind of learning strategies or learning process or developmental stages in acquiring an L2. Another conclusion about learning strategies is that learners who study in a different language learning environment might employ different strategies to overcome all problems in their learning process. For example, a learner who learns an L2 and the environment supports him to learn the L2, means that the environment uses the target language. He/she may use social strategies by interacting with other speakers to get the knowledge of the target language. That is different from a learner who learns an L2, but the environment does not support him to learn the L2. He/she may use another strategy, like cognitive strategy. He/she

will use the source such as text book, internet, etc where the information about the target language can be found, in order to get the knowledge about the target language.

3. Language Aptitude Rod Ellis in her book Second Language Acquisition states that language aptitude is believed as a natural ability which is possessed by the learner for learning an L2. It is considered as the part of intelligent. Intelligent itself comes from Latin intelligentia means ability to understand, brightness of the mind. By possessing the language aptitude, language learners are able to learn and acquire an L2 easily and quickly. According to Caroll (1981 as cited in Ellis, 1997), aptitude refers to the specific ability for language learning which learners are hypothesized to possess. Cook (2001) says that aptitude refers to the variations in language learning. Aptitude also has almost invariably been used in connection with students in classroom (p.124). Elsewhere, Robinson (2005, p.46) defines aptitude within cognitive paradigm, second language aptitude is characterized as strengths individual learners have in the cognitive abilities information processing draws on during L2 learning and performance in various context and different stages. John Caroll also has divided the language aptitude into four components. They are: Phonemic coding ability: the ability to identify the sounds of a foreign language. With that ability, they can remember all of the sounds in the target language. It is also defined as the ability to handle sound-symbol relationship, for example to identify the sound which th stands for. Grammatical sensitivity: the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words in sentences, for example the subject and the object of a sentence. Inductive language learning ability: the ability to identify patterns of correspondence and relations between form and meaning, for example to recognize that in English to can be used to show direction and at can be used to show location.

Rote learning ability: the ability to form and remember associations between stimuli for example vocabulary learning.

From those definitions above, language aptitude can be concluded as the natural/innate ability which possessed by the language learners for learning an L2. With this ability, the learners are able to learn an L2 with greater ease and speed. Consequently, they will acquire the target language quickly.

2.2 Theoretical Framework Based on the theoretical review above about the terminology definitions, in this part will be explained about the function of three terminologies in detail. A. Language Aptitude Language aptitude has the important role in mastering a foreign language because it is the special ability that people have for learning L2. There are so many abilities in English as the first second language that is learnt by students especially in Indonesia that should be considered. John Caroll has divided the language aptitude into four components. They are Phonemic coding ability: the ability to identify the sounds of a foreign language. With that ability, they can remember all of the sounds in the target language. It is also defined as the ability to handle sound-symbol relationship, for example to identify the sound which th stands for, Grammatical sensitivity: the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words in sentences, for example the subject and the object of a sentence, Inductive language learning ability: the ability to identify patterns of correspondence and relations between form and meaning, for example to recognize that in English to can be used to show direction and at can be used to show location, Rote learning ability: the ability to form and remember associations between stimuli for example vocabulary learning. By those allotments, we can consider whether everyone that can master English well in learning process has the similar understanding or not. It means that by looking at the 4 components in language aptitude, we as the researcher can examine those to get the concrete relevant in mastering English one to each other.

B. Motivation

In learning a foreign language, every learner should have motivation that can influence their mind set in learning process. According to Weiner (In Elliot et al, 2000: 332) states that motivation is internal states that arouses us to action, pushes us into particular direction, and keep us engage in certain activities. It means that the role of motivation is important for wakening their interest in language learning. By using motivation, the learners can improve their ability that has not been dug yet optimally. Various kinds of motivation that can be given or stimulated directly or indirectly such as according to Biggs and Watkins (1995: 84) state that there are four categories of motivation; extrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, social motivation, and intrinsic motivation. Meanwhile, according to the Rod Ellis (2008: 75) in her book Second Language Acquisition, motivations are divided into: Instrumental motivation, Integrative motivation, resultative motivation, and intrinsic motivation. Actually between two experts opinions above, those have the similarity each other.

Extrinsic motivation is motivation in which the students learn because of consequences to obtain a reward and to avoid the punishment.

Biggs and Watkins (1995: 84) Intrinsic motivation is motivation in which the students learn because they are interested in task or activities itself.

Achievement

motivation

is

motivation in which the students learn in order to compete against the other students, that is winning makes they feel good.

Social motivation is motivation in which the students try to make the other people feel pleasure.

Rod Ellis (2008: 75):

Instrumental Motivation The process of learning is caused by some functional reason. Learners will get the benefits from learning for example it will open up educational and economic opportunity. In this case is the learners make efforts to learn L2 for some functional reason such as to pass an examination, to get a better job, or get a place at university.

Resultative Motivation This motivation is caused by the L2 achievement. It means that learners are more motivated after they succeed in learning L2. They may become more motivated to learn.

Intrinsic motivation This motivation comes from the learners themselves. They may be interested in the learning activities and tasks. So, they like to learn more and more.

Integrative Motivation The process of learning is caused by the learners interest in the target language culture. Some learners may choose to learn a particular L2 because they are interested in the people and culture represented by the target language group.

The similarity between extrinsic motivation and Achievement motivation is similar to resultative motivation in Rod Ellis opinion, Social motivation is similar to integrative motivation, and intrinsic motivation is similar to each other. In this case, both theory of Ellis and Watkins can be used because they have the similarities.

C. Learners strategies The third step that should be done in order to get the target in learning process is doing the exact strategies in learning. Sometimes the learning ways from one learner and each others is different. According to Derry and Murphy (1986, p.2) that defines learning strategies as a collection of mental tactics employed by an individual in a particular learning situation. In this case, among language attitude and motivation have the big influence for applying the appropriate strategies. It is as if a chain that is connected each other.

Language Aptitude as the special ability in langauge learning

Giving an appropriate motivation or building motivation to improve the English skill

Applying the appropriate learning strategies for getting the goal in L2 learning

The applying of learning strategies occasionally can influence the language attitude in learning and understanding English quickly if it is done well. Based on Rod Ellis on her book Second Language Acquisition, Learning strategies are divided into two types. First, they can be behavioral, for example by repeating new words aloud to help you remember them. Second, they can be mental, for example by using the linguistic or situational context to infer

the meaning of a new word. In more details, those strategies are also divided three kinds. They are: a. Cognitive strategies are strategies that are used in the analysis, synthesis, or transformation of learning materials. The example is recombination, which involves constructing a meaningful sentence by recombining known elements of the L2 in a new way b. Metacognitive strategies are strategies that are used in planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning. The example is selective attention where the learner makes a conscious decision to attend to particular aspects of the input. c. Social/affective strategies are strategies that are used by learner to overcome the learning problem by interacting with other speakers. The example is questioning for clarification. The other example is asking for repetition, a paraphrase, or an example. In short, in this theoretical framework, the whole gist is the writer tries to figure out the correlation among individual language aptitude in learning a foreign language, motivation that is given, and learners strategies for getting the goal in their expectation. Those probably can be used to observe whether the students still use those steps or maybe use another steps in learning a foreign language.

3. Research Methodologies
In order to pursue the objectives of this study, the writer applies the following methodologies which are divided into six sections: (1) subject of the study, (2) population (3) samples, (4) instruments, (5) research design, (6) research procedure, (7) method of data analysis and (6) data analysis techniques. Subject of the Study The subject of this study is eight students in the first semester from English Department Semarang State University. Population The population of the study is covering all of the English Department students in Semarang State University. Samples The writer put the sample of the study on the students in the first semester / class of 2012. Instruments Instrument is an important device to collect data in a research program. In this study, the writer would like to use questionnaire as the instrument of collecting data. It is used to measure the students motivation and passion on studying English.

Research Design The research design of this study is ethnography. Based on Nunan (2004: 52),

Ethnography concerns on a scientific description of the culture of a society by someone who has lived in it. Thus, by observing a group of students randomly, the writer will analyze and evaluate the students motivation in studying English by following some steps from the research procedure.

Research Procedure The procedure observation includes the following steps: a. Choosing the samples of data b. Conducting the questionnaire test c. Analyzing d. Evaluating

Method of Data Analysis After the data have been collected, the writer will analyze deeper the result of the

analysis in the evaluation process. The result will show us whether the use of cohesive devices has been applied appropriately or not. Data Analysis Techniques The writer uses questionnaire test because it has some advantages. Those are: a. There is no wrong answer in the questionnaire test, because the answer is based upon the sample opinion. b. It is easy to make and answer the question c. It is more practical for the students to answer.

In this study, the writer will conduct the questionnaire using 3 questions of essay. The students have to answer the test by them self in 35 minutes.

4. Data Analysis
These data are taken from the students of English Department Semarang State university year 2012 / 2013. There are six data which will be analyzed. These are the analysis:

Data A This data is taken from the student, Natalia. The data for this research is collected by using questionnaire. There are three questions

given to her. First question is Do you like learning English? If you say yes, explain what makes you are motivated to learn English? This question is used to get the students motivation in learning English. She said that she likes learning English because English is an important language. While the researchers directly asked to her more detailed, she said that she wanted to learn English because nowadays English is the International language. It is used in every occasion. Furthermore, she wants to be an English teacher later on. She has to study hard to make it happen. From the spoken and written answer given by her, the researchers conclude that she is motivated in learning English because of some functional reasons. One of them is to get a job as an English teacher. Based on the Rod Elis framework, this motivation in learning a language (L2) belongs to instrumental motivation. Instrumental motivation is the motivation

in which the learners make efforts to learn an L2 for some functional reasons, such as to pass an examination, to get a better job, or to get a place at university. In this case, Natalia wants to get a job as an English teacher. In order to get a job, she has to master English. That is what the researcher called instrumental motivation; learners learn an L2 for purposes of study or career. This motivation seems to be the major force determining success in L2 learning. An example which proves that instrumental motivation seems to be the major force determining success in L2 learning is learning a language for the purpose of getting a place in university. In order to pass the exam of the university enrollment, students need to study English since it is one of the subjects for the exam. They are more motivated to learn English because they want to pass the exam, so they will get the place in the university. That motivation will affect to the learners desire in learning English in order to achieve their goal. Second question is In learning English, what is the most difficult chapter to be mastered / to be learned? Then, how do you solve those problems in learning English? She answered that the most difficult chapter is grammar. Most of students, sometimes, feel that grammar is the most difficult chapter. That is because in grammar, there are many aspects which have to be understood, such as the use of tense, the plural forms, articles, etc. Some students also think that it is difficult to create a sentence grammatically both spoken and written. Then, she also answered that she solves those problems in learning English by listening to the western music and watching western movie. That is what the researchers called learning strategies. Learning strategies as stated in the book Second Language Acquisition are, the particular approaches or techniques that learner employ to try learning an L2. The strategy which is used by Natalia can be classified into cognitive strategies. Basically, learning strategies is the way the learners choose in order to make the process of language learning easier, more fun, and more enjoyable. She chooses media, like music and movie as the media to learn language. Learning a language by using those media is an interesting way. Besides the way is very fun, it is effective way as well. From the movie, students not only get the knowledge about the language, but also the culture. It will help them to enrich their knowledge about the target language. As stated above, basically, the strategy is used by the learners to make their learning process easier to be understood. Third question is Do you take any courses in order to improve your abilities in learning English? She answered that she does not take any courses in order to improve her

abilities in learning English. Actually, this question has a function to find out about the language aptitude. Language aptitude is the natural ability which is possessed by the learners for learning an L2. This ability will help the learners to learn an L2 quickly. The assumption is she does not take any courses because she has the ability to learn quickly. When the researchers asked more detailed why she does not take any courses, she said that she does not take any courses because she likes to study by herself. She prefers studying at home to taking a course because she can understand the material by studying at home. Then, the researchers conclude that learning aptitude can help the learners learning language easily and quickly.

Data B This data is taken from student, Fatma K. Three same questions are given to this student. First question is Do you like learning

English? If you say yes, explain what makes you are motivated to learn English? The answer is that she likes learning English because she wants to travel to Alaska. She will not confuse if she will speak to the others while traveling to the Alaska. This motivation can be classified into integrative motivation. She is interested in the people and culture represented by the target language group. So, she learns the target language in order to be able to travel to Alaska. Most of students purpose in learning language is they do not want to get confused if they go abroad. They have to be able to speak in the target language before they go abroad. That is one of the students motivations for learning a language. Second question is In learning English, what is the most difficult chapter to be mastered / to be learned? Then, how do you solve those problems in learning English . She answered that grammar is the most difficult chapter to be learned. As stated above, most of students believe that grammar is the most difficult chapter to be mastered. Then, she answered that she solves those problems by reading more about grammar and study hard. According to Rod Ellis book, this strategy belongs to cognitive strategies. Learning strategies can be behavioral, mental, and social. In this case, the strategy is the behavioral ones. She does more reading and studies hard about grammar in order to solve the problems in grammar. Behaviorists believe that learning a language is similar to learn how to ride a bicycle. Once people acquire a language, they will not forget how to use it. Learning a language is the

matter of habit. People will be able to acquire a language quickly if they make a habit by using the target language frequently. So, by reading more and study hard, she will be able to solve the problems in learning English. Third question is Do you take any courses in order to improve your abilities in learning English? The answer is yes. She takes a course in order to improve her ability. Some people may take a course to enhance their language ability. It does not mean that they are stupid and they do not possess language aptitude. After taking a course, she said that she was able to improve their skill. It indicates that she has language aptitude, the ability to learn a language quickly.

Data C This data was taken from Esi Irawati. According to questionnaire that is given about motivation, why she learn English and

what makes her motivated to learn English, she answered that She liked English and learnt English because she wanted to travel all around the world. So, it can be included that she has instrumental motivation that influences her interest in learning a foreign language. In instrumental motivation, learners may make efforts to learn an L2 for some functional reason such as to pass exam, to get a better job, to get a place at university, or to travel around the world. In the question about learning strategies that are about the most difficult chapter to be mastered/ to learned and how she solves those problems in learning English, she said that the most difficult chapter in English to be mastered are speaking, listening, and writing. To solve the problems that are faced in those chapters, she does some exercises. It means that she uses metacognitive strategies that involved in planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning because she does some exercises that actually it should be done regularly so that she can get a good impact and the impact can be identified only by evaluating during learning process. She can be included into typically problem-oriented learners; learners employ learning strategies when they are faced with some problems and then try to solve it again and again until getting the point.

In language aptitude question about whether she takes any courses or not in order to improve her abilities in learning English, she answered she did not take any courses. It means that she learns English independently and by teachers at school. Data D This data was taken from Ika Uswah M. In the first question about motivation, why she learn English and what makes her motivated to learn English, she answered that she wanted to improve her English and became a professional English like her aunt. It means that in learning English, she has intrinsic motivation and integrative motivation because in those kinds of motivation, it involves the arousal and maintenance of curiosity and flow as a result of such factors as learners particular interests and the extent to which they feel personally involved in leaning activities and she is interested in the people that influence her in learning English. In the question about learning strategies that are about the most difficult chapter to be mastered/ to learned and how she solves those problems in learning English, she said that the most difficult chapter in English to be mastered are grammar and listening. To solve the problem that is faced in those chapters, she always tries to learn it by myself. It means that she uses metacognitive strategies that involved in planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning because she does some exercises that actually it should be done regularly so that she can get a good impact and the impact can be identified only by evaluating during learning process. She can be included into typically problem-oriented learners; learners employ learning strategies when they are faced with some problems and then try to solve it again and again until getting the point. In language aptitude question about whether she takes any courses or not in order to improve her abilities in learning English, she answered she did not take any courses. It means that she learns English independently and by teachers at school similar to the previous one.

Data E This data is taken from Sudarmaji Kusuma Putra.

From his answer in the questionnaire given to him, he said that he likes English so much. He learns English beacuse he is motivated by his parents. And his problem in English is grammar, and the way to overcome it is by studying hard about this. From his answer, it can be concluded that he is good in another part besides grammar, for example, from the inductive language learning ability. Grammar is actually difficult, even for many people learning English. This student has been good in distinguishing the use of at, from, for, in, to and so on. He knows when and in what context he can use each of those words. From the motivation he gets from his parents, it can be grouped into integrative motivation that is learners are motivated by people and culture represented by target language. He said that his parents is good in English, he like the way they speak and act in English, so that he is motivated by his parents and wants to be like them, that is good in English. Back to his difficulty in understanding grammar, he doesnt give up that way as he realizes that he is hard to understand grammar. He makes his own way to overcome it. He studies hard on it and do any exercises about grammar that can improve his understanding about it.

Data F This data was taken from Friska S.S. She said that she learns English because she likes English and she wants to speak

English well and can speak with foreigner. From this statement, it can be concluded that her motivation in learning L2 is instrumental motivation. Instrumental motivation is a motivation which believes that L2 can open up educational and economic opportunity for learners. From the term of language aptitude, this student has problems in speaking and listening. It may be because she speaks and listens something in English less. On the other hand, from a short interviewed I gave to her, she said that she has been quite good in grammar. So it means that she has grammatical sensitivity. She is good in identifying grammatical context. Beside that, she has tried many ways to overcome her problems in speaking and also listening. She said that she tries to listen everything in English, either songs or movies in order to improve her listening ability. She also takes conversation course outside her lecture to

improve her speaking ability. That is her way or her strategy to overcome her problems in learning L2.

5. Closing
5.1 Conclusions After conduction the mini research, the researchers are able to draw some conclusions: Individual differences make the process of language acquisition different from one learner to the others. It will describe why some learners seem to be better than the others.

 There are three aspects which distinguish the process of language acquisition from one learner to the others. They are: motivation, learning strategies, and language aptitude. Motivation is the desire that makes the learner interested in learning a language. Motivation is divided into four types. They are: instrumental motivation, integrative motivation, resultative motivation, and intrinsic motivation. Learning strategies are the way which is used by the learners in order to make the learning process easier, more fun, and more enjoyable. Learning strategies are divided into three types. They are: cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and social strategies. Language aptitude is the natural ability possessed by the learners which helps learners acquiring a language quickly. Language aptitude is divided into four types. They are: phonemic coding ability, grammatical sensitivity, inductive language learning, and rote learning ability.

5.2 Suggestions There are some suggestions for some learners in acquiring a language: Learners should make the use of learning strategies in order to help them acquiring a language. Even though, each learner does not possess language aptitude, he/she is still able to improve the language ability by studying hard. Learners should have at least one motivation for learning a language in order to make them more interested in learning a language.

6. References
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/language-aptitude http://webspace.webring.com/people/ap/panandrew/intelligence.htm http://webdoc.gwdg.de/edoc/ia/eese/artic98/finkb/10_98.html Ellis, R. (2008). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford university press. Wenden, A. L. (1987a). Conceptual background and utility. In A. L. Wenden & J. Rubin (Eds.), Learner strategies in language learning, 3-13. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Brophy, J. 1998.Motivation Students to Learn.USA: McGraw-Hill.