scholarly journals Who Are Our Students? A Synthesis of Foreign and Second Language Research on Individual Differences with Implications for Instructional Practice

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Oxford
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Instructional Practice ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Language Learning Strategies ◽  
Tolerance Of Ambiguity ◽  
Language Research

Teachers of second or foreign languages, to be most effective, must understand who their students really are. This means teachers must comprehend differences among their students in many individual characteristics, such as age, sex, motivation, anxiety, self-esteem, tolerance of ambiguity, risk-taking, cooperation, competition, and language learning strategies and styles. This article synthesizes previous and current research on these individual differences among students and provides implications for instructional practice. Researchers, teachers, and administrators should heed the article's message: we need to have keys for knowing our students better, and here are some of the most significant keys available.

Second Language Research on Individual Differences

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 188-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Oxford ◽  
Madeline Ehrman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
Tolerance Of Ambiguity ◽  
Individual Difference Variables ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Excellent Teachers ◽  
And Gender

To provide the most effective instruction possible, teachers of a second language (L2) should learn to identify and comprehend significant individual differences in their students. Many excellent teachers have learned to do some of this intuitively, but explicit understanding of individual-difference dimensions can enhance the work of all teachers. Among the most important such variations are differences associated with nine factors: aptitude, motivation, anxiety, selfesteem, tolerance of ambiguity, risk-taking, language learning styles, age, and gender. All of these variables and many more have been shown to be related to L2 learning in various ways. In fact, Gradman and Hanania (1991) identify 22 individual-difference variables that can affect success in learning a new language.

One Size Doesn't Fit for All

2020 ◽  
pp. 216-224
Author(s):  
Anto Maria Eusobia
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Language Learning Strategies ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
The Individual

Language is a means of communication. Learning a mother tongue is an ecstasy, but learning a second language is an acrimonious bliss. There is many research which focus on the enhancement of L2 learning. One of the ways to enhance the L2 learning is to focus on the individual differences (IDs) of the learners. Where one size does not fit for all. Each learner enjoys and searches the apt one for their size. This chapter focuses on one of the IDs i.e. language learning strategies (LLS). It is the actions, plans, and steps possessed and developed by the learner to enhance the L2 learning. This chapter is an attempt to investigate the awareness of rural learners about their LLS, and to identify the strategy preferences of the rural intermediate level learners and the tertiary level learners. Thus, this chapter identifies the awareness and preferences of LLS of rural learners.

scholarly journals Determinanty korzystania ze strategii uczenia się języka angielskiego przez studentów poznańskich uczelni

Neofilolog ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 89-103
Author(s):  
Jakub Przybył
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Language Learning Strategies ◽  
Individual Variables ◽  
Polish Adaptation ◽  
Gender Type

The study described in the present paper aimed to account for all the three dimensions of learners’ strategic self-regulation, i.e. cognitive, affective, and sociocultural-interactive language learning strategies (LLS) (Oxford 2011), and attempted to explore their relationships with learners’ personality and other individual variables, such as gender, type of university and area of studies, or the level of proficiency in English. The participants of the study, who formed a representative sample of BA/BS students of AMU and WSB University (722 students in total), completed two questionnaires, a Polish adaptation of SILL ver. 7.0 (Oxford 1990), and the adaptation of NEO-FFI recommended by the Polish Association of Psychology (Zawadzki et al. 2010) for research. The goodness criteria for psychometric research tools (Hornowska 2007) were analysed for both questionnaires. The obtained results confirm the role of most of the above-mentioned individual characteristics in strategy choice, validate the importance of learners’ personality in language learning, and provide evidence of the significance of openness to experience in learning a foreign language.

TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS IN POLAND

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena Ivashko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Educational Needs ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Language Learning Strategies ◽  
Third Age ◽  
The Third

The article tackles the problem of teaching foreign languages to seniors. The general trends in FL education for the third-age learners are outlined. The institutions in which seniors can study foreign languages in Poland are enumerated. The psychological, physiological, methodological and social peculiarities of teaching a foreign language to the third agers are analyzed. Special emphasis is laid upon educational needs of the Third Age learners. Some language learning strategies which help seniors’ foreign language learning are suggested.

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