LEARNER VARIABLES IN SECOND LANGUAGE AQUISITION

Learner Variables in SLA

1. 2.

Learners Beliefs about Language Learning Learners Affective States

Anxiety Self-Esteem Self-efficacy Willingless to communicate Inhibition Risk Taking Empathy

3. 4. 5.

Age Language Aptitude Learning Styles

Field Dependence-Independence Left and Right Brain Dominance Ambiguity Tolerance Reflectivity and Impulsitivity Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Styles

6.

Motivation
Integrative Instrumental Resultative Intrinsic and Extrinsic

7.

Personality

1) Learners Beliefs About Language Learning

Language learners -especially adults- bring a variety of beliefs to the classroom. According to Hosenfeld (1978), students form mini theories of L2 learning such as memorizing vocabulary is the best way to learn a language, some languages are more difficult than others, it is neccessary to know something about English-speaking cultures in order to speak English well. However, little is curently known about the relationship between learners beliefs and success in language learning.

Abraham and Vann (1987) found some evidence that beliefs might affect learning outcomes in a case study of two learners.
Gerardo believed that paying conscious attention to grammar was important, while Pedro did not and expressed a strong dislike of meta-language. Also, Gerardo thought that it was important to persevere in communicating, while Pedro considered topic abandonment the best strategy in some cases. Abraham and Vann characterize Gerardos philosophy of language learning as broad and Pedros as narrow. They suggest that this might have contributed to Gerardos better TOEFL score (523 v. 473) at the end of a course of instruction. Pedro, however, did better o a test of spoken English, which might suggest that different views about language learning result in different kinds of success . Learners beliefs are also likely to be influenced by general factors such as personality and cognitive style as Abraham and Vanns (1987) model of L2 learning suggest.

Little, Singleton, and Silvius (1984) surveyed random samples of undergraduate and postgraduate students of foreing languages at Trinity College, Dublin.
They found that past experience, both of education in general and of language learning in particular, played a major role in shaping attitudes to language learning (1990:14) For example, the students stated that they prefered to learn by production activities (repeating orally and writing) rather than through receptive activities involving listening and reading. Litte and Singleton claim that this belief reflected the general nature of the instruction they had experienced.

2) Learners Affective States

Understanding how human beings feel and respond and believe and value is exceedingly important aspect of a theory of SLA.(Brown, H. Douglas,1941) Learners need to feel secure and to be free of stress before they can focus on the learning task.
One of the beginner learners of German that Ellis and Rathbone (1987) studied reported a period during which she was unable to learn any German because of a boyfriend problem. These and other studies testify to the complexity and dynamic nature of learners affective states and the influence these have on their ability to concentrate on learning .

It is not easy to study the role that affective states play in L2 learning in a systematic manner, because they are so individualistic and changeable .

Anxiety: Anxiety plays a major affective role in SLA. Even though

we all know what anxiety is and we all have experienced feeling of anxiousness, anxiety is still not easy to define in a simple sentence. Spielberger (1983, p.1) defined anxiety as the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system. More simple put, anxiety is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension or worry (Scovel,1978, p. 134). The research on anxiety suggests that anxiety, like self-esteem, can be experienced ar various levels (Horwitz, 2001; Oxford, 1999). Trait anxiety is a more permanent predisposition to be anxious, it is the deepest or global and it is best viewed as an aspect of personality.
State anxiety can be defined as apprehension that is experienced at a particular moment in time as a response to a definite situation (Spielberger, 1983). Situation-specific anxiety consists of the anxiety which is aroused by a specific type of situation or event such as public speaking, examinations or class participation.

 Language anxiety is a part of situation-specific anxiety and it has 3 components; communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative social evaluation. Studies conclude that foreing language anxiety can be distinguished from other types of anxiety and that it can have a negative effect on the language learning process (Maclntyre & Gardner, 1991c,p.112). We should also know the diffirence between debilitative and facilitative anxiety (Albert and Haber, 1960; Scovel, 1978), or Oxford (1999) called harmful and helpful anxiety. In Baileys (1983) study of competitiveness and anxiety in second language learning, facilitative anxiety was one of the keys to success, closely related to competitiveness. Too much and too litte anxiety may hinder the process of successful second language learning.

Self-Esteem: It expresses an attitude of approval or

disapproval, and indicates the extent to which individuals believe themselves to be capable, significant, sucessful and worthy. In short, self-esteem is a personal judgement of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that individuals hold toward themselves (Coopersmith, 1967, pp. 4-5).

3) Age

There is a widely-held lay belief that younger L2 learners generally do better than older learners. This is supported by the ctitical period hypothesis, according to which there is a fixed span of years during which language learning can take place naturally and effortlessly, and after which it is not possible to be completely successful.
The effects of age on the acquisiton of native-speaker proficiency
This is the crucial question for the critical period hypothesis. In Neufelds

(1978) study, 20 adult native speakers of English were given 18 hours of intensive intruction in the pronunciation of Chinese and Japanese. To test the nativeness of their pronunciation, the learners were given an imitation test and their utterances judged on a five-point scale by native speakers of the two languages.Nine and eight of the subjects were rated as native for Japanese and Chinese respectively. This study suggest, therefore, that under the right conditions adults can achieve native ability in pronunciation-the area of language generally considered to be the most difficult for adults to acquire. However, his study has been strongly criticized by the supporters of the critical period hypothesis.

Some General Conclusions

1.

Adult learners have an initial advantage where rate of learning is concerned, particularly in grammar. They will eventually be overtaken by child learners who receive enough exposure to the L2. Only child learners are capable of acquiring a native accent in informal learning context. Children may be more likely to acquire a native grammatical competence. The critical period for grammar may be later than for pronunciation( around 15 years). Some adult learners, however, may succeed in acquiring native level of grammatical accuracy in speech and writing and even full linguistic competence. Irrespective of whether native-speaker proficiency is achieved, children are more likely to reach higher levels of attainment in both pronunciation and grammar than adults. The process of acquiring an L2 grammar is not substantially affected by age, but that of acquiring pronunciation may be.

2. 3.

4.

5.

4) Language Aptitude

Language aptitude can be defined as capability of learning a task, which depends on some combination of more or less enduring characteristics of the learner. (Carroll, 1981) The general claim that language aptitude constitues a relevant factor in L2 aquisition entails, in Carrolls view, a number of more specific claims.
The first one; aptitude is separate from achievement. The second one; aptitude must be shown to be seperate from motivation. The third one; aptitude must be seen as stable factor, perhaps even innate.(Learners aptitude is difficult to alter throug training.)

The fourth one; aptitude is to be viewed not as a prerequisite for L2 aquisition.

Finally, aptitude must be found to be distinct from general intelligence .

The two main instruments used to measure aptitude were developed in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) (Carroll and Sapon, 1959) The Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB) (Pimsleur, 1966)

Other less well-known aptitude tests include the Defence Language Aptitude Battery( Petersen and Al-Haik, 1976) and The York Language Aptitude Test(Green,1975). Carroll (1965) identified four factors in language aptitude:
1. 2. 3. 4. Phonemic coding ability (foreign sounds, spell and handle soundsymbol relationships). Grammatical sensitivity (the grammatical functions of words in sentences). Inductive language learning ability (patterns of correspondence and relationships involving form and meaning). Rote learning ability (form and remember associations between stimuli)

5) Learning Styles
Learning styles might be thought of as cognitive, affective, and physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment (Keefe, 1979, p.4). Individuals show general tendecies toward one style or another, but differing contexts will evoke differing styles in the same individual.

Field Dependence: tendect to be dependent on the

total field so that the parts embedded within the field are not easily perceived, although that total field is perceived more clearly as a unified whole. (Field Sensitivity)

Development of a field dependent style has possitive effects; you perceive the whole picture, the larger view, the general configuration of a problem or idea or event. Both of FI and FD are necessary for the most of the cognitive and affective problems we face.

Field Dependence/ Independence

Field Independence: ability to perceive a particular, relevant item or factor in a field of distracting items.
Find the hidden monkeys in the trees.

FI style enables you to distinguish parts from a whole, to concentrate on something like reading a book in a noisy train station. But, too much FI may result in cognitive tunnel vision: you see only the parts and not their relation to the whole.

You cant see the forest for the trees.

FI and FDs Role in SLA

There are two conflicting hypotheses have emerged. The first hypotheses support that FI is closely related to classroom learning that involves analyis, attention to details and mastering of exercises, drills and other focused activities.And , they provided evidence of superiority of a FI style for second language success.

Abraham (1985) found that second language learners who were FI performed better in deductive lessons, while those with FD styles were more successful with inductive lesson designs.

The second of the conflicting hypotheses proposes that a FD style will, by virtue of its assosiation with empathy, social outreach and perception of other people, yield successful learning of the communicative aspects of a second language

The two hypotheses are paradoxical: How could FD

be most important on the one hand and FI equally important?
The anwer is both sytles are important. Depending upon the context of learning, individual learners can vary their utilizationof FI or FD . If a task requires FI, individuals may ivoke a FI style; if it requires FD, they may ivoke a FD style.

In SLA, it may be incorrect to assume that learners should be either FI or FD.

Left and Right Brain Dominance

As the childs brain matures, various functions become lateralized to the left or right hemisphere. The left hemisphere is associated with logical, analytical thought, with mathematical and linear processing of information. The right hemisphere perceives and remembers visual, tactile, and auditory images; it is more efficient in processing holistic, integrative, and emotional information. Despite the diffirences between left and right brain, it is important to remember that the left and right hemispheres operate together as a team.

Krashen, Seliger, and Hartnett (1974) found support for the hypothesis that left-brain-dominant learners appeared to be more successful in an inductive classroom environment.

Stevick (1982) concluded that left-brain-dominant second language learners are better at producing separate words, gathering the specifics of language, carrying out sequences of operations and dealing with abstraction, classification, labeling and reorganization.Right-braindominant learners, on the other hand, appear to deal better with whole images, with generalizations, with metaphors, and with emotional reactions and artistic expressions.

Left and right-brain characterictis(adapted from Torrance,1980)

Left-Brain Dominance

Right-Brain Dominance
Intuitive Remembers faces Responds to demonstrated, illustrated, or symbolic instructions Experiments randomly and with less restraint Makes subjective jugments Fluid and spontanneous Prefers elusive, uncertain information Synthesizing reader Reliance on images in thinking and remembering Prefers drawing and manipulating objects Prefers open-ended questions More free with feelings Good at interpreting body language Frequently uses metaphors Favors intuitive problem solving

Intellectual Remembers names Responds to verbal instructions and explanations Experiments systematically and with control Makes objective judgements Planned and structured Prefers established, certain information Analytic reader Reliance on language in thinking and remembering Prefers talking and writing Prefers multiple-choice test Controls feelings Not good at interpreting body language Rarely uses metaphors Favors logical problem solving

Ambiguity Tolerance

Some people are open-minded in accepting ideologies and events and facts that contradict their own views; we can say that they are ambiguity tolerant. Others, more close-minded and dogmatic, tend to reject items that are contradictory with their existing system;we can say that they are ambiguity intolerant.They wish to see every proposition fit into an acceptable place in their cognitive organization, and if it does not fit, it is rejected.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Being Tolerant In second language learning, a great amount of apparently contradictory information is encountered:
words that differ from native language rules that not only differ but that are internally inconsistent because of certain exceptions sometimes a whole cultural system that is distant from that of the native culture.

Succesful language learning necessitates tolerance of such ambiguities. However, too much tolerance of ambiguity can have a detrimental effect. People can become wishy-washy, accepting everything without looking they are meaningful or not.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Being Intolerant

A certain intolerance at an optimal level prevents learners from wishy-washiness.

But intolerance can close the mind too soon, if ambiguity is perceived as a threat; the result is rigid, dogmatic and brittle mind that is too narrow to be creative. This may be particularly harmful in second language learning.

Reflectivity and Impulsitivity

If a learner tends to make slow and more calculated decisions,s/he is a reflective learner. If s/he tends to make either a quick or gambling guess at an answer to a problem, s/he is an impulsive learner.

It has been found that children who are conceptually reflective tend to make fewer errors in reading than impulsive children (Kagan, 1965); however, impulsive persons are usually faster readers, and eventually master the psycholinguistic guessing game(Goodman, 1970) of reading so that their impulsive style of reading may not necessarily deter comprehension.

Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic Styles

Another dimension of learning style is the preference that learners show toward either visual, auditory, and kinesthetic input.
Visual learners tend to prefer reading and studying charts, drawings and other graphic information. Auditory learners prefer listening to lectures and audiotapes. Kinesthetic learners will show a preference for demonstrations and physical activity involving bodily movement.

In one study of adult learners of ESL, Joy Reid (1987) found some significant cross-cultural differences in visual and auditory styles.Among Reids results; Korean students were significantly more visually oriented than native English-speaking Americans ; Japanese students were the least auditory students, significantly less auditorily inclined than Chinese and Arabic students. The researches on learning styles prods us as teachers to help students first of all to take charge of their language learning process-to become autonomous learners, and then to become aware of their styles, preferences, strengths and weaknesses, and finally to take appropriate action on their second language learning challenges.

6) Motivation
Three views of motivation

Behavioristic
Anticipation of reward Desire to receive positive reinforcement External, individual forces in control

Cognitive
Driven by basic human needs (exploration, manipulation, etc.) Degree of effort expended Internal, individual forces in control

Constructivist
Social context Community Social status Security of groups Internal, interactive forces in control

Motivation is something that can, like self-esteem, be global, situational, or task-oriented. Learning a foreign language requires some of all three levels of motivation.

Instrumental and Integrative Orientations

According to Gardners socio-educational model, an integrative orientation involves an interest in learning an L2 because of a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other language group (Lambert 1974:98). It contrasts with an instrumental orientation, which concerns the practical value and advantages of learning a new language. Orientation, however, is not the same as motivation, which is defined by Gardner as
effort + desire to achieve the goal of learning the language +favourable attitudes towards learning the language (1985:10).

Thus, whereas orientation refers to the underlying reasons for studying an L2, motivation refers to the directed effort individual learners make to learn the language.
According to Gardner, orientation and L2 achievement are only indirectly related,but motivation and achievement are directly related.

Resultative Motivation

Gardner (1985) claims that motivation constitutes a causative variable, altough he is also prepared to accept that some modifications of learnes attitudes can arise as a result of positive learning experiences, particularly in courses of a short duration. Other studies suggest that learners motivation is strongly affected by their achievement. Resultative Hypothesis claims that learners who do well are more likely to develop motivational intensity and to be active in the classroom. A high level of motivation does stimulate learning, but perceived success in achieving L2 goals can help to maintain existing motivation and even create new types.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Edward Deci (1975, p. 23) defined intrinsic motivation:

Intrinsically motivated activities are ones for which there is no apparent reward except the activity itself. People seem to engage in the activities for their own sake and not because they lead to an extrinsic reward...Intrinsically motivated behaviours are aimed at bringing about certain internally rewarding consequences, namely, feelings of competence and self-determintion.

On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is fueld by the anticipation of reward from outside and beyond the self. Typical extrinsic rewards are money, prizes, grades and even certain types of positive feedback. Which form of motivation is more powerful?
Maslow (1970) claimed that intrinsic motivation is clearly superior to extrinsic. According to his hierarchy of needs, motivation is dependent on the satisfaction first of fundemmental physical necessities (air, water,food), then of community, security, identity and self esteem, the fulfillment of which finally leads to self-actualization.

7) Personality

In the eyes of many language teachers, the personality of their students constitutes a major factor contributing to success or failure in language learning. Moreover, there are dozens of tests and questionnaires designed to tell about personality. Among those tests, the widely popular one is the Myers-Briggs test(Myers, 1962). Borrowing from some of Carl Jungs (1923) types, the MyersBriggs team tested four dichotomous styles of functioning in the Myers-Briggs test:
Introversion vs. extroversion Sensing vs. intuition Thinking vs. feeling Judging vs. perceiving

Extroversion vs. Introversion

Extraverts are sociable, like parties, have many friends and need excitement; they are sensation-seekers and risk-takers, like practical jokes and lively and active. Introverts are quiet, prefer reading to meeting people, have few but close friends and usually avoid excitement. (Eysenck and
Chan,1982:154)

There are two hypotheses regarding the relationship between extroversion/introversion and L2 learning. The first one is that extroverted learners will do better in acquiring basic interpersonal communication skills. The rationale for this hypothesis is that sociability will result in more opportunities to practice, more input, and more success in communicating in the L2. The second hypothesis is that introverted learners typically enjoy more academic success, perhaps because they spend more time reading and writing (Griffiths 1991b).

Which one are you?

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

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