Personal variation in
language learning
1. Styles and strategies
Types of variation
Style
- Field dependence
- Left and right-brain
dominance
- Ambiguity tolerance
- Reflexivity and
impulsivity
- Sensual orientation
Strategy
- Learning
- Communication
Personality
- Self –esteem
- Inhibition
- Risk-taking
- Anxiety
- Empathy
- Extroversion
- Motivation
Learning styles
Field dependence
Field dependence
- ability to form a
complete picture
- general view
- female feature
- sociability, empathy
- good at the
social/interactive
aspects of LL
Field independence
- ability to see the
details even among
disturbing factors
- increases with age
- male feature
- independent,
competitive, selfconfident
- analysis, classroom
learning, focus on
details
Left and right-brain dominance
Left-brain dominance
- Intellectual
- Verbal
- Objective
- Planned and structured
- Analytic reader
- Talking and writing
- Controlled feelings
- Good at logical problemsolving
- Not good at interpreting
body language
Right-brain dominance
- Intuitive
- Visual
- Subjective
- Fluid and spontaneous
- Synthesizing reader
- Drawing, drama, objects
- Free with feelings
- Good at intuitive problemsolving
- Good at interpreting body
language
Ambiguity tolerance
Tolerance
- Not disturbed bt
uncertainty
- Free to entertian
alternative creative
possibilities
- Good in FLL at the
beginning
- Later might result in
superficial or
unsuccessful learning
Intolerance
- Guards against wishywashiness
- Reject hopeless
solutions and
contradictory ideas
- May result in a rigid,
dogmatic mind
- Prevents creativity
Reflexivity and impulsivity
Reflexivity
- More calculated,
considerate and
thorough
- Slower but accurate
- Make fewer
mistakes in reading
- Benefit from
inductive learning
Impulsivity
- Act on impulse, often
gamle, speak before
thinking
- Faster but less
accurate
- Faster readers, good
at global
comprehension
- Benefit from deductive
learning
Sensual orientation
Visual
Audial
Kinesthetic
Please, look
it up in your
book!
Learning strategies
Good language learners (Rubin, 1975;
Stern, 1975)
take charge of their own learning.
organise info about language.
creative, experimenting.
find opportunities to practice.
live with uncertainty.
use conscious memory strategies for
recall.
learn from errors.
rely on their L1 and other lingusitic
systems.
use contextual cues in comprehension.
make intelligent guesses.
learn chunks and formulas to improve
performance.
learn to keep the conversation going.
learn different styles and vary them
according to context.
Learning strategies
Metacognitive
- Advance organisers
- Selective/directed
attention
- Self-management
- Self-monitoring
- Self-evaluation
Socioaffective
- Cooperation
- Clarification
Cognitive
- Repetition
- Resoucring
- Tranlsation
- Grouping
- Note-taking
- Imagery
- Keyword
- Transfer
- Inferencing
Communication strategies
Oxford (1990), Dörnyei (1995)
Avoidance
- Message abandonment
e.g.:
- I lost my road.
- You lost your road?
- Uh, … I lost. I lost. I got lost.
- Topic avoidance
Compensation
- Circumlocution
e.g. „ the thing you open the bottle with”
- Approximation
e.g. ship for sailboat
- All-purpose words
e.g. „Could you pass me that thingie?”
- Word coinage
e.g. vegetarianist
- Prefabriacted patterns
e.g. „Could you tell me the way to …?”
- Non-linguistic signals
- Literal translation
e.g. „one-and-a-half room flat”
- Foreignizing
e.g. „löncsölni”, „Hozd már ki a hoovert a
bedroomból!”
- Code-switching
e.g. „Where is posta?”
- Appeal for help
e.g. „What do you call…?”
- Time-gaining
e.g. „now, let’s see”, „as a matter of fact”
Ten commandments for good
language learning
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Don’t be afraid.
Take risks.
Believe in yourself.
Find (and seek!) pleasure in learning.
Cooperate.
Get the big picture.
Cope with the chaos.
Go with your hunches.
Learn from your mistakes.
Set your own goals.