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some key factors which affect language learning
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ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
TIỂU LUẬN MÔN HỌC CUỐI KÌ
(NGÔN NGỮ HỌC ỨNG DỤNG)
SOME OF THE FACTORS AFECTING LEARNERS’ACHIEVEMENTS IN
SECOND OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Giảng viên phụ trách: GS. TS. Hoàng Văn Vân
Học viên: Vũ Thị Thương
Ngày sinh: 06/04/1989
Khóa học: 20 (2011-2013)
Lớp: Anh20D
Hà Nội – 4/2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................1
DISCUSSION...................................................................................................1
1. Factors classification………..........................................................................1
2. Key factors….................................................................................................3
2.1. Motivation...................................................................................................4
2.2. Anxiety........................................................................................................5
2.3. Socio-cultural background..........................................................................6
CONCLUSION…............................………………………….........................7
REFERENCES.................................................................................................8
INTRODUCTION
There remains the fact that different learners of a target language achieve different
levels of proficiency. There are a number of students who learn a new language
more quickly and easily than others. All having learnt or taught a second or foreign
language in a learning setting are able to list various reasons for this issue. These
reasons, obviously, fall into the crucial factors that influence second or foreign
language learners’ success. It is their complex interplay that determines the speed
and facility with which the new language is learnt.
In what follows, the current paper summarizes the findings of a significant number
of previous studies on these various factors and discusses some of them.
DISCUSSION
1. Factors classification
Researches on variables influencing accomplishments of learners of a target
language have developed over time. In general, these studies belong to two major
trends: studies that have attempts to identify and categorize all the factors into
groups (Schumann, 1978; Spolsky, 1988; Tibi, 1998; Powell et al., 2000; Cenoz &
Perales, 2000; Huyen, 2010; Gilakjani, 2012) and studies that aim at providing a
more profound understanding in one or several factors regarded as key factors by
the researchers (Asbjornson, 2000; Renou, 2004; Bernat, & Gvozdenko, 2005;
Rubio, 2007; Maeng, 2010; Fewell, 2010; Khamkhien, 2010; Nel & Heléne, 2010;
Flege & MacKay, 2011; and Gholami et al., 2012).
Initially, in attempting to categorize these factors, each researcher or each group of
researchers had their own views. For instance, while Schumann (1978) pointed out
nine categories such as social, affective, personality, cognitive, biological, aptitude,
situational, input, and instructional, Spolsky (1988) merely put stress on four
groups of factors: the language aptitude existing at the beginning of the learning
process, the personal traits and abilities of the learner, the affective motivational
field, and the system supporting language acquisition within and outside the formal
setting. The same issue could be recognized in a great number of other researches
on these factors. However, there remains an agreement among these various studies
that all the factors seem to fall into two main broad categories: learner-internal
factors and learner-external factors. While internal factors are regarded as those
that an individual language learner brings with him to his particular learning
setting, external factors are those which illustrate that particular language learning
setting.
Following table aims at representing almost of the factors that were discussed by
mentioned researches and studies:
Major groups Subgroups
Internal factors
1, Aptitude: phonetic coding ability, associative memory,
grammatical sensitivity, inductive language analytic ability
2, Age
3, Motivation and learners’ attitude
4, Personality factors: self-esteem, extroversion, anxiety,
risk-taking, sensitivity to rejection, empathy, inhibition,
tolerance of ambiguity
5, Cognitive/ Learning style: conformists, converges,
concrete learners, communicative learners
6, Understanding of mother tongue and second/foreign
language
7, Ability: auditory ability, linguistic ability, memory ability
8, Learning strategies
9, Hemisphere specialization: left and right hemisphere
External factors
1, Social effects:
a, Gender roles
b, Community and learners’ parents’ attitudes toward the
target language
c, Nature of group dynamics in the learning setting
2, Pedagogical effects:
a, Amount and level of comprehension of input
b, Amount of interaction or exposure
c, Language teaching techniques
d, Learning facility and setting
There should be mentioned here the fact that whether one subgroup belongs to
learner-internal or learner-external major group does not seem to cause great
troubles in the process of achieving the goals of a target language teaching and
learning. All things that learners, educators, linguistics and methodologists should
do are being well aware of all these possible factors and their influences on their
language learning and teaching process.
2. Key factors
As mentioned in the previous part, there have been a significant number of studies
that attempt to investigate the effects of one or several particular factors on
language learners’ accomplishments. These studies’ issues range from learner-
internal variables such as motivation (Bernaus, 1995; Atchade, 2002; Cote, 2004;
Obeidat, 2005; Karahan, 2007; Ghenghesh, 2010; and Choosri & Intharaksa; 2011),
anxiety (Chan & Wu, 2004; Cubukcu, 2007; Tanveer, 2007; Zheng, 2008; Andrade
& Williams, 2009; Awan, 2010), self-esteem (Rubio, 2007), memory (Maeng,
2010), learning styles and strategies (Fewell, 2010; Renou, 2004), learners’
experience (Khamkhien, 2010), beliefs (Asbjornson, 2000; Bernat, & Gvozdenko,
2005), and age (Flege & MacKay, 2011) to learner-external variables such as
teaching proficiency of teachers (Nel & Heléne, 2010) and social context (Gholami
et al., 2012).
In what follows, the paper merely presents some factors which seem to appeal
attention of many researchers.
2.1. Motivation
Since various researchers were well aware of the fact that that motivation can be
one of the key factors affecting learners’ success in second or foreign language
learning, a significant number of studies has been carried out to investigate its
definition and roles in the process of language teaching and learning.
In terms of concept, various researchers share similar views on what is motivation.
According to Gardner and Lambert (1972), learners’ motivation is a combination of
learners’ effort and desire to achieve the targets of learning a second or foreign
language. Also, they stated that motivation can be classified into instrumental and
integrative motivation. While the instrumental refers to the desire to acquire a new
language for utilitarian purposes, the integrative refers to the desire to learn more
about the cultural community of the target language or to assimilate in the target
language society. Similarly, Ellis (1994) describes motivation as “the effort which
learners put into learning an L2 as a result of their need or desire to learn it”. Also,
Wen Qiufang’s (1996) definition is the cause and goal of learning English. As the
matter of fact, the definition of motivation, to some extent, indicates that
motivation can directly affect the learners’ regularity of using their learning
strategies, their self-discipline of learning, their aim setting and then the attainment
in learning (Quin, 2002, as cited in Li & Pan, 2009).
In terms of function, there also have been a great number of studies attempting to
prove the positive impacts of motivation in language learners’ achievements. For
instance, in their research findings, Li & Pan (2009) concluded that ‘students with
higher motivation always achieve greater success in their language learning while
those lacking in motivation make no attempts in the process of language learning
and often fail the exam’ (p.127). Similar results could be found out in various
studies such as Bernaus (1995), Atchade (2002), Cote (2004), Obeidat (2005),
Karahan (2007), Ghenghesh (2010), and Choosri & Intharaksa (2011). Thus, what
could be implicate here is that in classroom setting, teachers and educators should
pay more attention to increasing learners’ motivation and developing skills and
strategies to make them more competent so that they are able to take ownerships of
their own learning.
2.2. Anxiety
Anxiety is one of the most concerned variables by researchers by the fact that its
great impact on language learners’ success in second/foreign language learning has
been successfully demonstrated by various researchers such as Chan & Wu, 2004;
Cubukcu, 2007; Zheng, 2008; Andrade & Williams, 2009; Awan, 2010; and
Tanveer, 2007. On the whole, studies on this issue also attempted to shed light on
the strong association between second or foreign language classroom anxiety and
students’ achievement; and to present a considerable amount of strategies that
assisted linguists, educators and methodologists in reducing negative influences of
classroom anxiety.
For instance, a study conducted by Awan et al. (2010) examining the relation
between three types of classroom anxiety (trait anxiety, state anxiety and situational
anxiety) on the achievements of 149 undergraduates enrolled in second and sixth
semester of different departments of University of Sargodha who are learning
English as a foreign language. The results of the study found that the female
learners are less anxious in learning English as a foreign language than the male
ones. ‘Speaking in front of others’ is rated as the biggest cause of anxiety followed
by ‘worries about grammatical mistakes’, ‘pronunciation’ and ‘being unable to talk
spontaneously’. Also, the study suggested some teaching implications that the
classroom setting should be encouraging and motivating enough and the language
teachers need to be trained in dealing with anxiety-provoking circumstances.
2.3. Socio-cultural background
As the matter of fact, various studies have not only shown the influences of
motivation and autonomy in language learners’ learning process but also indicated
that different social and cultural background leads to different situation of learners’
autonomy and motivation. Thus, socio-cultural background is one of the major
learner-external factors which have great effects on language learners’
achievements.
The cross-cultural difference is the distinction between individualism and
collectivism. While individualism is regarded as a cultural pattern observed in the
West, collectivism is considered in the East. And, it can be seen clearly that there
are more and more advocates for autonomy in second or foreign language learning
both in the East and in the West. Also, most researchers agree on the fact that
autonomy is in harmony with the Western culture because individualists pay their
attention on the accomplishment of personal goals, and fame, for themselves, for
the purpose of pleasure, autonomy, and self-realization while collectivists focus on
the achievement of group goals, and glory, by the group, for the purpose of group
well-being, relationships, togetherness, and collective utility (Triandis, 1995).
Thus, while the communicative approach which seems to be one of the most
effective pedagogical approaches is widely practiced in Western countries but is
still at an initial stage in various Eastern nations. This leads to various troubles in
Eastern learners of second and foreign language. In general, based on the findings
of a significant number of studies on the impact of socio-cultural background on
second or foreign language achievements, some pedagogical implications should be
mentioned here that teachers and educators of a target language should provide
their students with an autonomy-supporting learning context. Only when learners
are given increasing opportunities to have a right in the content and way of
learning, their intrinsic motivation is enhanced.
CONCLUSION
The current paper did summarize the findings of a considerable number of
researches and studies on the variables that have great impacts on second or foreign
language learning. As all previous researches, this paper not only fulfills the
researcher’s knowledge but makes an attempt to emphasize the significance of
understanding of possible influential factors affecting the goals of second or foreign
language teaching and learning.
Some limitations should be given here. First, due to the short period of time of
reviewing the literature, all the factors could not be included. Second, there is one
aspect of a majority of prior researches that were not mentioned in the current
paper. They are strategies and instructions of the previous researchers to assist to
reduce the negative impacts of the discussed factors. There should be another paper
to put stress on this aspect.
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