INDIVIDUAL LEARNER DIFFERENCES AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

INDIVIDUAL LEARNER DIFFERENCES AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Presented by: JASMANSYAH (049478)
sources : UNDERSTANDING SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Writer : R. ELLIS (Pp. 99 – 126)

Introduction
 Aspect of SLA influenced by individual learner factors
 Identification and Classification of learner factors
 Personal factors
This methodological problem has been solved in two ways:
First, through the use of diaries studies,
Second, through the use of questionnaires and interviews with individual learners.

 Group Dynamic
 Attitudes to the Teacher and Course Materials
 Individual Learning Techniques
Naiman (1978) and Pickett (1978) identify numerous study techniques:
1. Preparing and memorizing vocabulary lists
2. Learning words in context
3. Practicing vocabulary

 Intelligence and Aptitude
a. Intelligence : A general academic or reasoning ability
b. Aptitude : Specific cognitive needed for SLA.
Cummins (1979) distinguishes two kinds of language ability:
1. Cognitive / academic language ability (CALP);
2. Basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS);

Caroll and Sapon (1985) identify three major components of aptitude:
1) Phonetic coding ability.
Example: To identify the sound which ‘th’ stands for;
2) Grammatical sensitivity.
Example: the subject and object of a sentence;
3) Inductive ability. For example: to recognize that English ‘to’ can denote direction and ‘at’ location;
4. Rote learning ability.

 Attitudes and Motivation
Schumann, 1978:
a. Attitude : a social factor on a par with variables such as size or learning group;
b. Motivation : an affective factor alongside culture shock.

Gardner & Lambert, 1972:
a. Attitude : persistence shown by the learner in striving for a goal
b. Motivation : the L2 learner’s overall goal orientation

Brown, 1981 distinguishes motivation and attitude. He identifies 3 types of motivation:
1. Global motivation
2. Situational motivation
3. Task motivation

 The ‘good language learners’
The good language learner will:
1. be able to respond to the group dynamics of the learning situation;
2. seek out all opportunities to use the target language;
3. make maximum use of the opportunities afforded to practice listening to and responding to speech in the L2;
4. supplement the learning that derives from direct contact with speakers of the L2 with learning derived from the use of study techniques;
5. be an adolescent or adult rather than a young children;
6. posses sufficient analytic skills to perceive, categorize, and store the linguistics feature of the L2;
7. posses a strong reason for learning the L2 and develop a strong task motivation;
8. be prepared to experiment by taking risks, even if this makes the learner appear foolish;
9. be capable of adapting to different learning condition