Applied Linguistics
Lecture 6: Individual Differences in Second Language Learning
6.1 Who is a ‘good language learner’?
Researchers seek to know how individual learner characteristics are related to
success in second language learning.
Eight characteristics have shown to affect the language learning: intelligence,
aptitude, learning styles, personality, motivation and attitudes, identity and ethnic
group affiliation, learner beliefs, and age of acquisition and the Critical Period
Hypothesis.
6.2 Intelligence
 It was traditionally believed that there is a link between intelligence and second
language learning.
 That is, high IQ score means success in second language learning.
 However, IQ score is related to metalinguistic knowledge than communicative
ability. So the link is drawn between IQ score and learning that involves language
analysis and rule learning but not leaning that is based on communication and
interaction.
 Gardner’s (1993) proposed of ‘multiple intelligences’ adding five abilities to the
first two abilities, which have been traditionally identified:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
linguistic
logical-mathematical
spatial (the ability to find one's way around an environment, and to form
mental image of reality.
musical (the ability to perceive and create pitch and rhythmic patterns)
bodily-kinesthetic (fine motor movement)
interpersonal (the ability to understand others, how they feel, etc.)
interapersonal intelligence (the ability to see oneself, to develop a sense of
self-identity).
Gardner’s (1993) ‘multiple intelligences’ relate some abilities to success in
language learning
1.
2.
3.
linguistic
logical-mathematical
spatial
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4.
5.
6.
7.
musical intelligence  is related to the ease in perceiving and producing the
intonation patterns of a language.
bodily-kinesthetic  is related to phonology of language
interpersonal  is related to communicative process
interapersonal intelligence  assists second culture learning in growing
comfortable in the new environment.
6.3 Aptitude
 Aptitude is characterized in terms of the ability to learn quickly.
 Learners with high aptitude may learn with greater ease and speed, but other
learners may be successful if they persevere.
 Most widely used aptitude tests are
a. Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT)
b. The Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB)
 The tests measure the ability to
i. identify and memorize new sounds
ii. understand the function of particular words in sentences
iii. figure out grammatical rules from language samples
iv. remember new words
 Some believe that the tests worked successfully with traditional teaching methods
such as Grammar Translation Method and The Audiolingual Method but not with
more recent communicative methods.
 However, others believe that they also work in communicative teaching methods.
 Some believe that working memory may be the most important variable in
predicting the success of language learning.
 However, others believe that working memory is not the most important. Learners
who have strong memory may be average in the other components. All
components indicate the strengths and weaknesses of individuals which account
their success in different instructional programs.
6.4 Learning styles
 A ‘learning style’ is ‘an individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred way of
absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skills’
 In other words, it is the individual preference.
 Among learning styles are:
i. field independent (FI) vs. field dependent style (FD): focusing on the
details or the general view.
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ii.
left- vs. right- brain-dominant learners: either logical, using the left
hemisphere more, or emotional, using the right hemisphere.
iii. ambiguity tolerant vs. ambiguity intolerant style: open-minded,
accepting new ideas and concepts easily, or close-minded.
iv. reflective vs. impulsive style: quick or gambling guesses in answering
questions or slower and more calculated in making a decision.
v. visual vs. auditory vs. kinesthetic styles: seeing and reading charts,
listening to lectures, or demonstrating physical activity.
6.5 Personality
A number of personality characteristics seem to affect second language learning:
1. Extroversion vs. introversion
An extroverted person 
 is more gregarious, outgoing,
and talkative.
An introverted person
 is quiet and reserved.
Who is better?
 It is often argued that extroverts are well suited to language learning.
 However, Wong-Fillmore (1979) found that, in certain learning situations, the
quiet observant learner have a greater success.
2. Inhibition
 As a person grows up  his understanding of self-identity grows up 
inhibitions or defenses of the ego are built up.
 In adolescence, those defensive inhibition boundaries are mounting between
themselves and others to protect the ego.
 Inhibition was suggested to have discourages risk-taking, which is necessary for
progress in language learning.
 It was argued that is a negative force at least for second language pronunciation
performance.
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3. Anxiety
 Anxiety is the ‘feeling of worry, nervousness, and stress that many students
experience when learning a second language’
 It was argued that anxious students do not learn as quickly as relaxed students
because they are focusing on both the task and their reactions.
 More recent research acknowledges that anxiety is more likely to be dynamic and
dependant on particular situation
 On the other hand, certain amount of tension has a positive effect and facilitates
learning as motivates the learner.
4. Willingness to communicate
 A learner’s willingness to communicate has been related to anxiety: less anxiety
means more willingness to communicate.
6.6 Motivation and attitudes
 Positive attitude is related to successful learning, although it is difficult to
determine which one yields to the other.
 Motivation is related to learner’s communicative needs:
If learners need to speak the second language → they will perceive
communicative value of L2 → and will be motivated to acquire it.
 Motivation is also related to the attitude toward the second language community:
Positive attitude towards the speakers of the language → more desire to
contact with them → high motivation to learn their language.
 Motivation is of two kinds: instrumental or integrative motivation:
▫ Instrumental orientation is to learn the language in order to achieve
instrumental goals such as academic goal in reading technical material,
translation, etc.
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▫ integrative orientation is learning the language to be integrated into the
culture of the second language and become involved in social interchange in
that group
 In a process-oriented model of motivation, motivation passes through three
phases:
‘choice motivation’
getting started, setting goals

‘executive motivation’
carrying out the necessary
tasks to maintain motivation
.

‘motivation retrospection’
students’ appraisal of and
reaction to their performance.
6.7 Identity and ethnic group affiliation
 Social factors affect motivation, attitudes, and language learning success.
 A learner's identity affects second language learning
Case study 1: language learning of immigrant women in Canada (Peirce 1995:10)
Despite that they were highly motivated, there were reluctant to speak in social
situations in which there was power imbalance.
 The feeling of ethnic affiliation affects second language pronunciation
Case study 2: learners with less loyal feeling toward their ethnic group have
achieved a high degree of accuracy in pronunciation than those whose second
language speech retained a strong ‘foreign accent’ Gatbonton, Trofimovich, and
Magid (2005)
6.8 Learner beliefs
 Older learners have strong beliefs and opinions about their instruction that affect
second language learning.
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 In Yorio’s (1986) survey, the learners were convinced that their progress was
negatively affected by an instructional approach that was not consistent with their
beliefs.
 In Schulz’s (2001) study, almost all students expressed a desire to have their
errors corrected while very few teachers felt this was desirable.
6.9 Age of acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis
 The critical period is the time in which the human brain is predisposed for success
in language learning.
 After the critical period, neurological changes occur affecting the nature of
language acquisition.
 Instead of the innate biological structure, older learners depend on more general
learning abilities such as metalinguistic knowledge, memory strategies, and
problem solving skills.
 Beside biologically, children differ from adults time-wise and emotion-wise:
▫ time: children have more time and opportunities for L2.
▫ affect: children do not get embarrassed the way adults do.
 Studies show that children and adults also differ in the following learner
characteristics:
▫ Children learners show more successful language proficiency than
adults not only in accent.
▫ Children show better grammaticality judgment than adults learners.
▫ Adults learn faster in the first period of second language development.
▫ Later start of second language learning is recommended over an early
start
Reading for this lecture:
Lightbown & Spada (3th ed.): 53-50
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