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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