LERARNER FACTORS

LERARNER FACTORS

The certain learner factors have exercised language teaching theory for a long time. The questions most frequently which are debated in the language teaching are:

1.      What is the optimal age for language learning?

2.      Can a specific language learning aptitude be identified?

3.      If so, how can it be described and assessed?

4.      Are there differences in learning style or cognitive style which should be taken into account in pedagogy?

5.      What role do motivation and attitude play in language learning?

6.      Are there particular qualities of personality that favor or hinder progress in a second language?

To answer all questions above, the administrators have some answers; they would like to start foreign languages in school system at the psychologically right age, or they would prepare to make allowance for learner aptitude or personality factors in the planning language classes or in teaching methodology.

There are 3 (three) crucial learner factors:

1.      The age question

2.      Language learning aptitude and  other cognitive characteristics

3.      Affective and personality factors

1.      The optimal age question

Among the learner factors, the question of age in relation to second language learning has been one of the most debated issues in language teaching theory.

a.       Brief history of argument

The brief history of the argument has been observed that young children seem to learn a second language more easily than adults

b.      Empirical findings

To improve the effectiveness of language education by taking into account the timetable of language development in childhood

There are some propositions about the age issue:

1.      Language learning may occur at different maturity levels from the early years into adult life.

2.      All age levels face second language learning in similar ways

3.      Language learning is not monolithic

4.      Pre-school children, young school children, older child learner, adolescents and adult differ psychological in their approach to second language learning

5.      Each stage of development may have certain advantages and certain disadvantages  for second language learning

6.      The different age level of language learning will be revealed

7.      The best age for language learning a strictly developmental balance sheet, based on psychological studies, cannot be the only consideration

2.      Language aptitude and other cognitive factors

The concept of an aptitude for languages is derived from everyday experience that some language learners appear to have a gift for languages’ which others lack. The concept of second or foreign language aptitude can thus be used to focus on specific cognitive learner qualities needed in second language learning. The definition of second language aptitude and its measurement depend upon underlying language teaching theories and interpretations of learner characteristics and of the language learning process.

MLAT = Modern Language Aptitude Test

EMLAT = Elementary Modern Language Aptitude Test

PLAB = Pimsleur’s Language Aptitude Battery

Both MLAT and PLAB represent not only a more advanced approach to test construction, but also they reflect the audio-lingual principles of the fifties and sixties.

The characteristics which both batteries regard as specific to the learning,  both MLAT/EMLAT and PLAB identify three features, they are :

1.      The ability to pay attention to, and discriminate the speech sounds of languages

2.      The ability to establish sound-symbol relationship

3.      The ability to pay attention to the formal characteristic of language; grammatical sensitivity

The MLAT/EMLAT series includes a fourth characteristics, lacking in PLAB, verbal rote memory. They are :

a.       The auditory capacity, speech sound discrimination, and memory of significant speech sounds is an ability to which, commonly much attention is paid.

b.      Sound-symbol relations, second language learning in the classroom usually also involves relating speech sounds to some form of script, for example, in note taking, reading aloud, and dictation.

c.       Grammatical abilities. it is an essential ability the capacity to isolate linguistic forms, in other words, to posses grammatical sensitivity and to inter language rules from linguistic data,

d.      Verbal memory. It is a capacity to memorize and recall new verbal material in a second language by rote or simple association.

3.      Affective and personality factors

Affective and personality factors have received  much less attention. But any language teacher-and for that matter, any learner-can testify that language learning often involves strong positive or negative emotions.

Studies of attitudes and motivation

A more systematic investigation of affective and personality factors in language learning has interested researcher since the early fifties. These studies (for example Gardner 1979; Gardner and Smythe 1981) have focused on learners’ social attitudes, values, and the motivation of learners in relation to other learner factors and the learning outcome.

Personality factors

Studies on personality, prejudice and child raining suggest that the attitudes to countries, ethnic groups and the movie language and at the Canada  should be considered against the background of more deep-seated generalized attitudes or personality factors than as mere responses to immediate experiences alone.

Language learning requires other qualities of personality. Recent studies have attempted to identify them and to interpret them in the light of clinical or personality psychology. Another group of personality characteristics relates to the social and communicative nature of language.

Gardner distinguishes four main categories on affect an personality;  they   are:

1.      Group specific attitudes. This component consists of attitudes towards the community and people who speak the target language.

2.      Course related characteristics. This component comprises attitudes towards the learning situation itself.

3.      Motivational indices.  This category refers to the learner’s motives for learning the language, the goals pursued by the learner, and the intensity of effort put into the language.

4.       Generalized attitudes. It includes a general interest in foreign languages and certain personality characteristics.

Summing up the analysis of the affective aspect, the following distinction can be made:

1.      basic predispositions in the individual and relatively pervasive personality characteristics which are likely to have bearing on language learning ( for example,  tolerance of ambiguity, need for achievement)

2.      more specific attitudes related to second language learning, such as attitudes to language, and language learning .

3.      the motivation of  learners that initiates and maintains the learning process, or the leads to the avoidance or rejection of learning.

Our knowledge of learning styles or personality factors is simply neither comprehensive nor  refined enough, nor sufficiently secure to base clear-cut administrative decisions on it. The concept of learner characteristics should have a place in our language teaching theory and both cognitive and affective factors should be included. An analysis of affective and personality characteristics can indicate how the individual is likely to respond to emotional, motivational, and interpersonal demands of language learning.