Individual Differences in

Second Language Learning

2

The “Good Language Learner”

• Are there personal characteristics that make one learner more successful than another?

Types of variation

Motivation

Age

Attitude

Personality

Aptitude

Motivation

Evaluate these statements:

• Studying a foreign language is important to my students because they will be able to participate more freely in the activities of other cultural groups.

• Studying a foreign language can be important for my students because it will some day be useful in getting a good job.

Keywords:

• integrative motivation: learning the language in order to take part in the culture of its people.• instrumental motivation: learning the language for a career goal or other practical reason.

Motivation

• The child learning a first language does not have good or bad motivation in any meaningful sense

• The usual meaning of motivation for the teacher is probably the interest that something generates in the students:

(a particular topic, a particular song, may interest the students in the class, to the teacher’s delight).

Why do people learn languages ? A survey in six countries of the European union

94%

•Communication abroad

86%

•Facilitation of computer work , and comprehension of music texts

64%

•Sounds better in English

51%

•No expression in national language

Another survey by (EuroBarometer, 2006).

Integrative motivation Vs. Instrumental motivation

• Some people want to learn a second language with an integrative motivation such as ‘I would like to live in the country where it is spoken’, or with an instrumental one such as ‘For my future career’, or indeed with both, or with other motivations entirely.

Integrative motivation Vs. Instrumental motivation

• The distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation has been used as a point of reference by many researchers.

• Zoltan Dornyei (1990) argues that it is biased towards the Canadian situation where there is a particular balance between the two official languages, English and French. He therefore tested the motivation of learners of English in the European situation of Hungary. He found that an instrumental motivation concerned with future careers was indeed very powerful. Though an integrative motivation was also relevant, it was not, as in Canada,

Motivation and teaching

• Students will find it difficult to learn a second language in the classroom if they have neither instrumental nor integrative motivation. (Schoolchildren have no particular contact with the foreign culture and no particular interest in it, nor do their job prospects depend on it; their attitudes to L2 users may depend more on the stereotypes from their cultural situations than on any real contact).

Motivation and teaching

• Otherwise teachers may have to go along with the students’ motivation, or at least be sufficiently aware of the students’ motivation so that any problems can be smoothed over.

• In a teacher’s ideal world, students would enter the classrooms admiring the target culture and language, wanting to get something out of the L2 learning for themselves, eager to experience the benefits of bilingualism and thirsting for knowledge.

Motivation and teaching

• Motivation also goes in both directions. High motivation is one factor that causes successful learning; in reverse, successful learning causes high motivation. The process of creating successful learning which can spur high motivation may be under the teacher’s control, if not the original motivation.

For example, the choice of teaching materials and the information content of the lesson should correspond to the motivations of the students.

Attitude

Evaluate these statements :• It is important to be able to speak two

languages.

• I will always feel more myself in my first language than in my second.

Attitude

Keywords:Additive Bilingualism: L2 learning that adds to the learner’s capabilities in some way. Subtractive Bilingualism: L2 learning that takes away from the learner’s capabilities Acculturation: the ways in which L2 users adapt to life with two languages

Additive and Subtractive bilingualism

• In additive bilingualism, the learners feel they are adding something new to their skills and experience by learning a new language, without taking anything away from what they already know.

• In subtractive bilingualism, they feel that the learning of a new language threatens what they have already gained for themselves.

Acculturation

Is it considered to be of value to maintain cultural identity and characteristics?

Acculturation

Is it considered to be of value to maintain relationships with other groups?

Acculturation(the acculturation model)

Discussion topic

Some people say "I'm no good at learning languages". Is this just a question of attitude (because of a previous bad experience) or were some people born lacking the ability to learn a new language?