Outline Individual Differences Second Language Acquisition Its pedagogical

Outline |Individual Differences |Second Language Acquisition & Its pedagogical implications

I. Individual Differences 1. Language Aptitude 2. Motivation 3. Learning Strategies 4. Personality

1. Language Aptitude Language aptitude here refers to a natural ability for learning a second language. It is believed to be related to a learner’s general intelligence. 语言能力这里喻指天生学 习第二语言的能力。与学 生的一般智力有关。

John Carroll once identified some components of language aptitude: phonemic coding ability (语音编码能力), grammatical sensitivity （语法敏感性）, inductive language learning ability （归纳语言的学习能力）, rote learning ability（机械 学习能力）.

• It has been generally accepted that learners who achieve high scores in language aptitude tests learn rapidly and achieve high proficiency in second language learning. • 它已被普遍接受, 学习语言智力测试取得高 分的学习者, 在第二语言学习中学习速度较 快，而且精准度很高。

2. Motivation While language aptitude works on the learner’s cognitive mechanism, motivation, defined as the learner’s attitudes and affective state or learning drive, has a strong impact on his efforts in learning a second language.

Four types of motivation Instrumental motivation Which occurs when people learn a foreign language for external goals such as passing exams, financial rewards or furthering a career etc. Integrative motivation The drive that people learn a foreign language because of the wish to identify with the target culture.

Resultative motivation Learners learn a second language for external purposes. Intrinsic motivation Learners learn a second language for enjoyment or pleasure from learning.

However, experts have proved that all types of motivation promote learning and complementary to each other. Learners’ motivation may ebb and flow at times and in accordance with their particular interests, learning involvement and the learning context. As learners’ strong motivation promotes their learning , their learning progress or achievement will in return enhance their language learning motivation further.

3. Learning Strategies • The effective use of strategies has been shown to be critical to successful language learning, so much so that Canale and Swain (1980) included "strategic competence" among the four components of conmunicative competence. Research here has also shown significant pedagogical effects. This has given rise to “strategiesbased instruction. "

Strategies are commonly divided into : learning strategies & communicative strategies Although there are other ways of categorizing them. Learning strategies are techniques used to improve learning, such as mnemonics or using a dictionary. Learners (and native speakers) use communicative strategies to get meaning across even when they lack access to the correct language: for example, by using pro-forms like "thing", or non-spoken means such as mime. Communicative strategies may not have any direct bearing on learning, and some strategies such as avoidance (not using a form with which one is uncomfortable) may actually hinder learning.

Besides, learning strategies are learners’ conscious, goal-oriented and problem solving based efforts to achieve learning strategies, those by Chamot (1986) & Oxford (1990) are widely accepted. Which include: Cognitive strategies Metacognitive strategies Affect/social strategies

4. Personality A number of personality characteristics have been proposed as likely to affect L 2 learning , but it has been notoriously difficult to demonstrate the effects in empirical studies , it is largely due to the difficulty in identification and measurement.

Despite the varied results produced by different studies , in terms of communicative ability rather than grammatical accuracy or knowledge of grammatical rules , the personality traits such as extroversion , talkative , self-esteem , selfconfidence can be found in successful L 2 learners. Certain personality traits appear helpful in completing certain tasks in learning a L 2. Therefore , the personality study may be better studied in combination with other factors such as task type , learning context , teacher or materials etc. that contribute to L 2 learning.

II. Second Language Acquisition & Its pedagogical implications All the research findings in SLA have direct pedagogical implications. SLA as a scientific multi -disciplinary study has provided insights into how people learn a L 2 from human’s internal mechanism and external factors which impose impacts to different extents. The learning models and theories , different approaches to language learning , the role of input , the various forms of interaction which facilitate the conversion of input to intake and the personal factors etc.