Individual Difference Factors in Second Language Acquisition
YIN Sheng-kai
(Tongji University,Shanghai200092,China)
Abstract:This study investigates the role of individual difference factors in cond language acquisition among people.The fac⁃tors include language aptitude and motivation,which are important to expound why some cond language learners learn faster and better,if not more successfully than others.This rearch is reviewed and related to existing aptitude tests,as well as to different types of motivation that are the focus of more recent rearch in cond language learning.人生价值观
Key words:cond language acquisition;individual difference;language aptitude;motivation
中图分类号：H0文献标识码：A文章编号：1009-5039(2019)08-0100-02
We cannot ignore the fact that some individuals learn a c⁃ond language faster and better,if not more
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山银花successfully than others. Some of the factors may be responsible for the individual differ⁃ences.Among which,language aptitude and motivation are two do⁃mains of significance that shed light on the idiosyncrasy of people learning a cond language.
Language aptitude is one of the central individual differences in language learning.Harvard psychologist John Carroll(1973)de⁃fined it as the“rate at which persons at the condary school,uni⁃versity and adult level learn to criterion”(p.5).In the early half of the century,various attempts were made.However,they all suf⁃fered from two drawbacks.First,the relations with the achievement scores yielded were not convincing,and cond,they relied too much on the grammar-translation methodology,which only tested the leaner’s ability of grammar(Carroll,1965).Until recently,lan⁃guage aptitude has been measured by standardized test such as Modern Language Aptitude Test(MLAT)and the Language Apti⁃tude Battery(LAB).According to Carroll(1989),the modern lan⁃guage aptitude test should be comprid of three major factors:The first is the phonetic coding ability,which is the ability to store new sound information in memory.This is definitely a skill esntial for cond language learning.The cond is the grammatical nsitivi⁃ty,which is defined as"the individual's ability to demonstrate his awareness of the syntactical patterning of ntences in a language" (Carroll,1973,p.7).It is apparently true that learners with this ability can benefit from lear
ning a language.The third component of the test is called“inductive ability”.This is the ability to infer, induce or abduct rules or generalizations about language from sam⁃ples of the language.A learner excellent in this ability usually can learn by themlves instead of relying heavily on well-prented rules from a teacher or from any materials.And the final one is memory and learning,previously called ,the abili⁃ty to associate the words and phras in a native and cond lan⁃guage.As can be en from the four components of language apti⁃tude,they can safely lead us to believe that any learners who is ex⁃cellent in one or more of the abilities would em to be in the foreground in learning a cond language.Though,as is to be ex⁃pected,more recent empirical work has shown that the picture is even more complex,becau we need more than tho components to test the language aptitude of a learner. Following aptitude,motivation has something to do with learn⁃ing cond language as well and is a pivotal factor for why people decide to do something,how much time and energy they want to put into it and how long and hard they can stick to it(Dör nyei&Ske⁃han,2003,p.614).Generally speaking,motivation appears to be the cond strongest predictor of success,trailing only aptitude(Ske⁃han,1989).We all know that the main claim with regard to motiva⁃tion is that the learner’s drive plays a significant role.Although the exact nature of motivation is not very clear among scholars,the best theory regarding motivation and achievement is from Gardner.He becomes a primary figure in the field of L2language learning through the work with
窗前美丽女孩Lambert and other colleagues.He propos that motivation in L2learning involves four aspects,“a goal,effort⁃ful behavior,a desire to attain the goal and favorable attitudes to⁃wards the activity in question”(Gardner,1985,pp.50).Since the definition and the study of motivation encounters many problems, demonstrating its effects has also been far from simple.Several viewpoints on the effects of motivation have been discusd.A lay⁃man’s approach is among them.It tries to deal with two sources of motivation,one such source might be the learning activity itlf, and the other one is lying in the success experienced by learners. This viewpoint is later developed by Gardner and Lambert,they try to define two types of motivation,the first one is integrative motiva⁃tion,it is the sheer interest and affinity of a person to learn a c⁃ond language,they want to get to know the people who speak that language.They are also interested in the culture associated with that language.Several empirical studies have shown that language learners who are integratively motivated are more successful be⁃cau their motivation is stronger,compared with instrumental mo⁃tivation,which is another theory Gardner and Lambert propod. Learners with an instrumental motivation want to learn a language becau of some practical reasons such as obtaining a job,getting a
收稿日期：2018-09-28修回日期：2018-10-26
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刘汉被抓作者简介：殷晟恺（1993—），男，上海人，同济大学研究生在读，主要方向为英语翻译、二语习得。
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