Diary 4

In the fourth session the topic for discussion was about the Factors affecting language learning.Our discussion was began by talking about learner characteristics.Among the characteristics our first focus was intelligence & Aptitude.There was a question:What is the difference between Intelligence & Aptitude?It was said that Intelligence means being perfect in something but having Aptitude in something means being a faster learner in it.
The other characteristics are Personality, Motivation,Learner preferences & Age of.I will give some key points about each of these.
Personality has many aspects, for example a person may be Introverted or Extroverted.Another aspect of personality which has been studied is Inhibition.It has been suggested that inhibition discourages risk-taking which is necessary for language learning.
Motivation is probably the most frequently used term for explaining the success or acquisition failure of virtually any complex task.Various definitions of motivation have been proposed by the following schools of thought.
From a Behavioristic perspective, motivation is seen as the anticipation of reward.
In Cognition terms, motivation places much more emphasis on underlying needs or drives as the compelling forces for our decisions.
Constructivist view of motivation places more emphasis on social context as well as individual personal choices.
Learner preferences refers to how individuals go about learning new materials.The term learning style has been used to describe an individual`s natural, habitual& preferred way of absorbing, processing & retaining new information & skills.There is a cognitive learning style distinction between Field dependent & Field independent learners.This refers to whether an individual tends to seprate details from the general background or to see things more hollistically.
Another factor that affect language learning is Age of acquisition.most discussions about age and acquisition center on the question of whether there is a critical period of life when language can be acquired more easily & beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to acquire.The critical period hypothesis has been challenged in recent years from several different points of view.In fact according to recent studies there is a critical period for attaining full native-like mastery of a second language & it is some how a matter of accent . there is some research which suggests that older learners may have an advantage , at least in the early stages of second language learning.
Then we focused on the fact that all learners are different.Therefore we need an approach which will focus on the unique contribuition that each individual brings to the learning situition.Infact we need a theory of learning that is :
1)Robust & to which as researchers & teachers we subscribe.
2)such a theory should enable us to focus upon the uniqueness of individuals.
3)It should also be a theory of how people change rathar than how they stay the same.
4)this should give rise to implications for action & intervention.
5)It should give individuals responsiblity in learning.
6)In doing so it must be connected to individuals` view of themselves as learners.
Self-concept was another issue of our discussion.Self-concept is a global term reffering to all of our perceptions & conceptions about ourselves which give rise to our sense of personal identity.One theory which has been proposed to help to explain how this occur is known as SOCIAL COMPARISON theory that suggests that parts of our self-concept are made by our comparisons with each other & infact individual in relationship with others in society.
We also had a glance at ATTRIBUTION theory which is related to how people perceive events & how their perception affects their performance. It is a central aspect of Heider`s theory.Then Weiner suggests that ,on the whole ,peopletend to refer to four main sets of Attributions for their perceived successes & failures in life: a)Ability b)Effort c)Luck d)the perceived difficulty of the task with which they are faced.Ability & Effort are forms of internal attribution, while Luck & Task difficulty refer to external factors. Here we can see the extension of the locus of control notions of internality/externality , although Weiner prefers to use the term Locus of Causality, which he refers to as one of the two major attribution dimension.the other dimension against which attribution elements can be gauged is that of Stablity; that is ,Is the factor stable or it can be changed?
At the end I should say that a sensitive teacher ,who takes learners` individual personalities & learning styles into account, can create a learning environment in which virtually all learners can be successful in learning a second language.