Individual Learner Differences in SLA (Second Language Acquisition, Band 59) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847694349 ISBN 13: 9781847694348

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Beginning from the conflict between individual learner differences and the institutionalized, often inflexible character of formal language instruction, Individual Learner Differences in SLA addresses the fact that despite this apparent conflict, ultimate success in learning a language is widespread. Starting with theoretically-based chapters, the book follows the thread of learner differences through sections devoted to learner autonomy; differentiated application of learning strategies; diagnostic studies of experienced learners' management of the learning process; and reports on phonological attainment and development of language skills. Rather than providing an overview of all individual variables, the book reveals how some of them shape and affect the processes of language acquisition and use in particular settings.

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Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek both work at the University of Silesia, Poland. Their research interests include psycholinguistics, language acquisition and linguistic pragmatics. They are the editors of Neurolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives on SLA and The Acquisition of L2 Phonology, both recently published by Multilingual Matters. The editors and the contributing authors are active members of many scientific committees and organizations devoted to the investigation of language acquisition processes, and they regularly participate in many conferences and publish extensively. The author list comprises experienced scholars as well as young and promising researchers.

Adam Wojtaszek is Associate Professor and the Deputy Director at the Institute of English, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. His major field of interest is linguistic pragmatics, psycholinguistics and language of persuasion. He has published two books on advertising language, Deciphering Radio Commercials - A Pragmatic Perspective (2002) and Theoretical Frameworks in the Study of Press Advertisements - Polish, British and Chinese Perspective (2011), as well as a number of articles on the topic. Within the area of psycholinguistics and second language acquisition studies, he has co-edited a number of volumes reporting on recent studies and developments, such as Neurolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives on SLA (2010), The Acquisition of L2 Phonology (2011a), Individual Learner Differences in SLA (2011b), Aspects of Culture in Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning (2011c), and recently Studying Second Language Acquisition from a Qualitative Perspective (2014). He is also the author of a chapter on morphosyntactic development in the volume edited by Danuta Gabryś-Barker, Readings in Second Language Acquisition (2012). He is also one of the organizers of the annual international SLA conference held in Szczyrk, Poland, a major event of international recognition, initiated in the mid 1980's by Janusz Arabski.

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Individual Learner Differences in SLA

By Janusz Arabski, Adam Wojtaszek

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2011 Janusz Arabski, Adam Wojtaszek and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-434-8

Contents

Introduction J. Arabski and A. Wojtaszek, 
Part 1: Background Assumptions, 
1 Individual Learner Differences and Instructed Language Learning: An Insoluble Conflict? D. Wolff, 
2 Research into Language Learning Strategies: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead M. Pawlak, 
Part 2: Supporting Learner Autonomy, 
3 Teachers' Perceptions of Individual Differences in Turkish Primary School EFL Classes H. Bedir, 
4 Learning Autonomy Support by Foreign Language Teachers M. Stec and A. Studenska, 
5 Personality and Parenting Styles as Predictors of Self-Regulation in Foreign Language Learning A. Studenska, 
Part 3: Learners' Abilities in Strategy Application, 
6 The Development of Implicit Knowledge through Structured Input Activities: The Importance of Individual Perceptions Concerning Grammar Instruction A. Mystkowska-Wiertelak, 
7 Awareness of Cognate Vocabulary and Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Polish Multilingual and Bilingual Advanced Learners of English A. Otwinowska-Kasztelanic, 
Part 4 Experienced Learners, 
8 A Study of Gender-Related Levels of Processing Anxieties over Three Years of Secondary Grammar School Instruction E. Piechurska-Kuciel, 
9 Challenge or Threat? A Study of Perceived Self-Efficacy of Polish EFL Teachers J. Bielska, 
10 Managing Criticism and Praise by Trainee Interpreters: Looking for Gender Differences A. Lyda, K. Warchal and A. Jackiewicz, 
11 Student Needs Assessment in Teaching English at the Tertiary Level: An Individual Learner Differences Perspective Z.P. Mozejko, 
Part 5: Individual Character of Phonological Attainment, 
12 Regularity and Individual Variation in Native English and Polish Learners' Wh-Question Suprasegmentals A. Porzuczek, 
13 Time-Limited Verbal Fluency Task with Polish–English Unbalanced Bilinguals A. Rojczyk, 
14 The Acquisition of English Vowel Length Differences before Word-Final Stops by Greek Learners of English E. Tsiartsioni, 
Part 6: Focus on Language Skills: Reading and Writing, 
15 Individual Differences in Foreign Language Reading Comprehension: Gender and Topic Interest S. Ay and Ö.S. Bartan, 
16 Individual Differences in L2 Readers' Strategic Behaviour while Performing Reading H. Chodkiewicz, 
17 Current Views on Foreign Language Reading Motivation L. Piasecka, 
18 From Oral Input to Written Output: On Individual Differences in External Storing of Information D. Gabrys-Barker, 
19 Accounting for One Student's Failure and Another's Success on a Written Academic Assignment J. Zalewski, 
20 Online Revisions in FL Writing. General Rules and Individual Differences I. Kowal, 

CHAPTER 1

Individual Learner Differences and Instructed Language Learning: An Insoluble Conflict?

D. WOLFF

Introduction

For quite some time now, second language acquisition (SLA) researchers have shown interest in the individual differences that can be identified in the learning processes of learners acquiring a second, a third or a fourth language. Researchers have come up with a large number of such features, which reach from differences that are identifiable fairly easily, such as age or gender, to features that are more difficult to grasp, such as motivation and learner preferences. They have shown that these differences influence the results of second language learning processes and lead to different linguistic abilities and skills in the foreign language.

Although these findings have been taken into account by theoreticians, they are not favoured so much by practitioners in the foreign language classroom. This is rather disappointing, because the empirical evidence that such differences exist should be sufficient to support new proposals of approaching practical language teaching issues. In fact, in the mainstream foreign language classroom, teachers focus on the abilities and skills of a virtual learner who represents the average norm – Helmke (2008: 8) calls him the 'imaginary average pupil' – and do not accept that learners are different in approaching language learning tasks. This is true not only for the foreign language classroom but also for all the other subjects taught in school as well: It leads to large numbers of students being left alone because they do not fit into this hypothetical construct of an average norm that has never been described or specified by anyone. The learning abilities of the individual student are assessed by most of the teachers on the basis of this imaginary norm. Individual learner differences are taken into account by foreign language teachers only marginally, although the terms 'learner orientation' and 'individualisation' are not unknown to language teaching methodology any more. So my claim at this stage is – maybe somewhat daringly – that the lack of considering the individual learner and his distinctive learner features is not the result of too large numbers of pupils in the classroom, as teachers generally maintain, but rather results from the unconditional belief in the hypothetical norm.

Despite all the progress that has been made in foreign language teaching during the last 20 years, despite the introduction of communicative language teaching and its different models, the mainstream language classroom is still determined by a form of classroom discourse that English foreign language theoreticians describe – somewhat mockingly – as teacher-controlled interaction, a form of discourse which is planned and directed by the teacher and gives the students only the opportunity to react. During the interaction the teacher assesses the student's utterances only with respect to their compatibility with his own views (language and content wise) and rejects them if they do not correspond. In a lesson that is designed in this way, the teacher will rarely take care of the individual student.

I do not want to conceal the fact that teaching and learning are different in some schools, but in general they take place in an environment in which the teacher directs and controls the students in their learning processes. Only in the context of the so-called 'internal differentiation' (in German Binnendifferenzierung), ideas of individualisation are put into practice, which relate to our knowledge of individual learner differences. Overstating my argument one could say that teacher-controlled interaction is the approach that teachers choose, because it fulfils their expectations with respect to the hypothetical norm and keeps alive their beliefs in the imaginary average student.

In my contribution I would like to come up with some ideas as to how this problem can be dealt with and how it might even be solved in the long run. I will first discuss, very briefly, the concept of individual learner differences. In the second part of my chapter I will take up some fundamental assumptions of cognitive psychology that are, in my opinion, suited to clarify the aspect of individuality inherent in this concept. In the third part I will show that in foreign language teaching we require approaches that do justice to the individual differences of each learner and are thus fundamentally different from the ones commonly used in the classroom. The assumptions discussed in the second part will be helpful here. In the last part I will sketch...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847694349
• ISBN 13: 9781847694348
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 340
• Herausgeber: Arabski Janusz, Wojtaszek Adam
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland