نوره الاحمري
Individual Differences
Individual Differences in Second Language Learning
Language Acquisition/ MAAL.521
Norah Alahmari
Date (March 11, 2019)
King Khalid University, College of Languages and Translation
Supervised by: Dr. Khairia Abu Dadi
Introduction
I. A historical perspective
Psychology science interested in studying human being previously. In the past, the term of individual differences was introduced by astronomy scientists, not by psychologists. According to what has stated by Mansoor &Razg (2004), in 1796, the astronomer (Pezil) expelled one man of his team, because he noticed that he was failure in the observation ability, sometimes he committed errors while he was making the statistics of monitoring and observation the movement of moon, unlike his stuff. As a result, the idea of individual differences has come to Pezil'smind and he read intensively about it. Also, he interpreted this case as one form of individual differences phenomenon. Therefore, this historical event has attracted the attention of psychologist and then they make a lot of studies and established the book titled " DifferentialPsychology Science" in 1900. (Mansoor, Razg, 2004).
'' why do individuals differ so much in the second language attainment success? After all, every healthy human being in an intact social environment masters a first language to a degree of fluency that, in other skill domains, would be recognized as elite or near elite levels….''. (Segalwitz,1997, p.85). Indeed, the science of psychology studied the mind of human being from two perspectives: the first is to identify the principles and the second is to explore the individual uniqueness of the human mind. Thus, the individual uniqueness was the basic study in the traditional field which has been named as deferential psychology (Dornyei, 2005). Hence, our role as a linguist is to identify the IDs among learners by making statistics or study cases. There are many definitions of IDs which were defined by philosophers as well as psychologists. The term of individual differences (IDs) refers to the individual's traits or characteristics which distinct one person from the others (Fisher, et al., 2018). For instance, someone's competence is highly in productive skills more than in perceptive skills, this is considered as ID. It is notable that IDs is related to the field of education especially in the process of second language acquisition (SLA). Moreover, Caprara and Cervone claimed that IDs psychology is the study of factors that mainly shape the unlimited ways in which individuals might differ from one to another in their behaviors (2000). This is normal phenomena that occurs among all the students in a class. In this paper, instead of reviewing the experimental findings, I strive to address some real-world examples about how people do differ from one another in this contemporary world.
II. Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition
We have known that the psychological perspectivefocused on the differences among learners themselves during the process of learning a second language. They are age, sex, aptitude, personality, motivation and learning styles. This paper will focus on three factors: age, personality and motivation.
1. Age
There is a common belief claimed that children are more successful than adult, but there is no clear evidence for this claim (Troike, 2006). Children have the characteristics of brain plasticity, they are flexible while they learn. According to Chomsky, children are born with language acquisition device (LAD), it is a hypothetical too in the child's mind that enables them to acquire the language quickly and assist to structure unlimited range of sentences which have never heard before (1965). So, are children more successful than adult? From my point of view, I believe in this assumption because according to Lenneberg, 1967), there is a critical period that can be applied to the second language acquisition in the same way as in the first language acquisition. This is very tangible in our everyday life, for example in the case of the students in the colleges, we have seen some L2 learners can achieve native like accent despite their age, as well as adult learnerswill be more analytic even though their linguistic input is still limited.
2. Personality
Pervin and Jhon (2003, p.3) asserted that '' personality is the part of the field of psychology that most considers people in their entirety as individuals as complex being''
The characteristics and behaviors shape the personality of people. As we know the introversion and extroversion dimensions play a vital role in the field of language acquisition and there are many theoretical studies have shown that extroverts acquire second language effectively more than introverts (Zhang, 2008). Zhang stated that one of these studies was reflected this point, made by Nemanand Canadian students (2008). So, the extroverted learners tend to learn by contacting with others (communication), sharing their experiences , not like the introverted learners who are self-study and want to remain alone. I think that the extroverted learners learn second language through social skills and this will enhance learning process. On the other hand, introverts will be shy, and this sense will make a psychological barrier that will prevent them to learn properly. In this regard, the methodology of personality should be adapted to the IDs in personality and one of the most important implications is to support the idea CALL, hence the learner will choose the suitable way in his learning style and will enhance his learning.
3-Motivation It is the most important factor that influence the degree of success in learning process. In fact, successful learning depends mainly on the learner himself. There are many factors that may enhancethe motivation process such as parent encouragement, rewards and some personal interests. From my opinion, learners should specify certain goals and make efforts to achieve their needs. As well as, exposure to foreign language will motivate the learner's interaction (Patricia et al., 2003). For example, having scholarship will increase the need to learn unconsciously.
In conclusion
We believe that people differ notably and obviously in many ways. Therefor, the role of the linguist is to find out the factors that may affect the individuals and come up with the suitable techniques, strategies to facilitate the process of learning. In addition, the linguists should pay attention to the background of the learners from the side of psychological and cultural to understand the IDs properly.
References
Caprara, G. V., & Cervone, D. (2000). Personality: Determinants, dynamics, and potentials. New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of The Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MIT Press.
Dõrnyei, Z. (2005). The Psychology of Language Learner, individual differences in
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Fisher, A.J.; et al. (2018). Lack of Group to Individual Generalizability is a Threat to Human Subjects Research. PNAS. 115 (27).
Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language. New York: Wiley and Sons.
Mansoor, A., Razg, A. (2005). Educational psychology.University of Damascus.
Patricia, K. Feng-Ming. T, & Huei-Mei, L. (2003). Foreign-language experience in
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Pervin, L., Jhon, O. (2018). Personality: theory and research. Jhon Wiley & sons.
Segalowitz, N. (1997). Individual differences in second language acquisition. In A. de
Groot, M. B. & J. F. Kroll (Eds.), Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 85–112). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Zhang, Y. (2008). The Role of Personality in Second Language Acquisition. Asian Social Science, 4, (5).