Ideas of a Good Language Learner

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Ideas of a Good Language Learner

• Marina Wiens, Stephanie Hanisch, Maren Wolf,
  Vildan Aytekin

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Good language learner characteristics
• Research problems on the topic
• Variables
• Learning styles success
• Motivation
• Learner beliefs
• Inhibition and anxiety
• Ethnic groups
• Dicussion

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Who is a good language learner?

• Intelligent
• Able to learn quickly (Aptitude)
• Motivation
• Age
• Outgoing personality

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Remaining Issues

• How did research identify the personal
  characteristics that make one learner more
  successful than another?
• To what extent can we predict differences in the
  success of SLA if we have information about
  learners personalities?

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Research on Learner characterictics

• Select group of learners and give them a
  questionnaire to measure the type and degree of
  their motivation.
• Some kind of test is used to assess their
  Language Proficiency.
• ? scoring (Correlation)

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A good language learner
a is a willing and accurate guesser 1 2 3 4 5
b tries to get a message across even if specific language knowledge is lacking 1 2 3 4 5
c is willing to make mistakes 1 2 3 4 5
d constantly looks for patterns in the language 1 2 3 4 5
e pactises as often as possible 1 2 3 4 5
f analyses his or her own speech the speech of others 1 2 3 4 5
g attends to whether his/her performance (..) 1 2 3 4 5
h enjoys grammar exercieses 1 2 3 4 5
i begins learning in childhood 1 2 3 4 5
j has an above-average IQ 1 2 3 4 5
k has good academic skills 1 2 3 4 5
l has a good-image and lots of confidence 1 2 3 4 5
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Problems

• We can not directly observe and measure variables
• Social and educational backgrounds
• Characteristics are not independent from each
  other
• ? successful because of motivation or
• motivated because of success?

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Conclusion

• Researches seek to know how different cognitive
  and personality variables are related and how
  they interact with learners experiences so that
  they can gain a better understanding of human
  learning.
• ? Educators hope to help learners with
  different characteristics achieving success in
  Second Language Learning

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Intelligence

• Traditionally performance on certain kinds of
  tests associated with success at school
• Link between IQ and L2-learning ? predicting
  success
• IQ rather related to Metalinguistic knowledge
  than to communicative ability
• IQ influences language analysis and rule learning
• Nevertheless students with weak academic
  performance often succeed in L2-learning

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Theory of Multiple Intelligences - Howard Gardner
(1993)
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• Traditional IQ tests asses only limited range of
  abilities verbal intelligence
• strength in the language arts speaking, writing,
  reading, listening
• verbal intelligent pupils most successful because
  this kind of intelligence lends itself to
  traditional teaching

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Aptitude

• Specific abilities predicting success in language
  learning
• John Carroll (1991) aptitude ability to learn
  quickly
• Hypothesis learner with high aptitude may learn
  easier and quicker but others may also succeed if
  they keep up

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Aptitude Tests

• Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) by Carroll
  and Sapon 1959
• Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAT) by
  Pimsleur 1966
• Computer tests by Paul Meara 2005

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Several Components of Aptitude

• Ability to
• Identify and memorize new sounds
• Understand the function of particular words in
  sentences
• Figure out grammatical rules from language
  samples
• Remember new words

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Aptitude Test Results

• Positive correlations of performance in Aptitude
  Tests and foreign language performance ? at times
  of Grammar Translation and Audiolingual Methods
• Communicative Approach ? common belief measured
  abilities irrelevant for LA
• Other beliefs some measured abilities predict
  success in communicative settings

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Other Beliefs

• Leila Ranta (2002) good language analytics gt
  most successful in SLL without focus on grammar
• Nick Ellis (2001) Working Memory most
  important predictive variable
• Peter Skehan (1989)
• Due to learners individual differences of
  strengths and weaknesses in the components of
  abilities they succeed in different instructional
  programmes

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Learning Styles

• Simlpy put various approaches or ways of
  learning
• Reid (1995) Learning style individuals
  natural, habitual, and preferred way of
  absorbing, processing and retaining new
  information and skills

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Perceptually-based learning styles

• Visual Learners (Eye)
• Aural Learners (Ear)
• Kinaesthetic Learners (Physical Action)

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Cognitive learning styles

• Field dependence (holistic/global thinking)
• tendency to see the perceptual field as a whole
  without analyis of single parts of the field
  seeing the forest for the trees
• learner excels in classroom learning which
  involves analysis, attention to details, and
  mastering of exercises, drills, and other focused
  activities
• Field independence (analytical thinking)
• tendency to break the field down into its
  component parts and to seperate details from the
  general background
• learner achieves higher success in everyday
  language situations beyond the classroom tasks
  requiring interpersonal communication skills

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Interaction of Learning Styles and Success in
Language Learning

• unchangable differences or development through
  experience?
• Insufficient research in this area
• a single teaching method will never suit the
  needs of all types of learners
• variation of methods needed to accommodate all
  types

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Motivation and attitudes

• Robert Gardner has carried out a program of
• research on the relationship between a
• learner's attitudes toward the second or foreign
• language and its community, and success in
• second language learning.
• But it is difficult to know whether positive
• attitudes produce successful learning or
• successful learning engenders positive
• attitudes.

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Motivation and attitudes

• Motivation in second language learning is a
  complex phenomenon.
• It has been defined in terms of two factors
• Learners' communicative needs
• Attitudes towards the second language community

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Motivation and attitudes

• Zoltán Dörnyei developed a process-orientedmodel
  of motivation that consists of three phases
• 1) 'choice motivation'
• 2) 'executive motivation'
• 3) 'motivation retrospection'

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Motivation in the classroom

• Graham Crookes and Richard Schmidt point to
• several areas where educational research has
• reported increased levels of motivation for
• students in relation to pedagogical practices
• 1)Motivating students into the lesson
• 2)Varying the activities, tasks, and materials
• 3)Using co-operative rather than competitive goals

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Learner beliefs

• Learner beliefs can be strong mediating factors
  in their experience in the classroom.
• Learners' instructional preferences will
  influence the kinds of strategies they use in
  trying to learn new material.

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Inhibition and Anxiety

• Discourages risk taking
• Negative force for second language pronunciation
  performance
• Experiment
• small amount of alcohol ? better pronunciation
• Larger doses of alcohol ? pronunciation
  deteriorated
• Dynamic and dependent on situations and
  circumstances

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Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale
Item Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Dis agree Strongly disagree
I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my English class.
I don't worry about making mistakes in English class.
I tremble when I know that I'm going to be asked to speak in English class.
Even if I am well prepared for English class, I feel anxious about it.
I feel easy when native English speakers are with me.
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• Anxiety can also have a positive effect on
  learning
• Motivation and focus an success
• Positive term tension
• Anxiety can be both useful an harmful

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• Not personality alone but the combination
  with other factors contributes to second language
  learning!

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Ethnic group affiliation

• Languages exist in social contexts
• Children and adults are sensitive to social
  dynamics and power relationships
• Students reluctant to speak in situations of
  imbalanced power
• Learners with a high degree of accuracy
  perceived as less loyal to their ethnic group
  than those with a foreign accent

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• Thank you for your attention!