EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

CHAPTER 5

AYŞE KAMAN ERTÜRK

MA CLASS ,2021

A SUMMARY OF “THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT TO

THE LEARNING PROCESS”

It is undoubtly that learners bring many individual charesteristics to the learning

process which will affect botyt the way in which they learn and the outcomes of thet process.
First things coming to he mind are learner’s age, gender personlaity, aptitude, intelligence and
motivation but there are other elements ; cognitive styles and startegies anxiety and
preparedness to take risks.

Some Problems with the notion of individual differences

Research Methodology

The psychometric approach that has generally been taken to such studies is as follows:

A Hypothesis is made that a particular characteristic is likeyly to influence success in

language learning

A means of assessing that characterstşc is selected or constructed

Aspects f that characteistic and success in language learning are both measured usually with
reference to a specific group of learners

The results of the two measures are submitted to statistical analysis and statistically
significant relationships are sought

Conclusions are drawn about the contribution of the particular characteristic to learning
language.

Test constructions often devote considerable time and energy to strengthening the raliability
adn validity of their tests so that they can be standardised. The tests cab tell us very little
about most individuals whose scores fall somewhere in the middle. What they tell us about is
grups of people and average scores rather than individiauls They can therefore give teachers
very little information about what to do with individual learners in their classrooms.

Selection of Indıvidual Characteristics

The next problem is how the various individaul characteristics described in the
literature are selected.Gradman and Hanania (1991) identified 22 different variables referred
to in the individual diffremces literature whilst Oxford and Erhman (1993) choose to focus on
just nine. Skehn (1989) examines the research on eight slightly different variables.

There are some learning styles and two of them in cognitive style are more apperant.
The most common styles dşscussed in the literature are field dependence adn field
independence. Field dependence is dominated by the whole context they perceivde items in
relation to the context whereas field independent people perceive items as discrete or
unrelated to the surrounding field. Oxford and Erhman make a valiant attempt to bring some
sese to these studies by referring to “global” and “analytic” learning styles. Hıwever learning
a language related activity will depend o-upon a comlex set of interacging variables.

Motivation used to refer to a state of temporary or prolonged goal-orented behaviour which

individuals actively choose to engage in. How highly a person is motivated toperform a
certain task suchh as leanring vucabulary grammar or any other language related activity will
depend on a complex set of şnteracting variables. And there şs a dşmenson about motivation.
That s motivation styles. Motivation is very much context bound but it is also amenable to
change.

Another characteristic is anxiety. Anxiety is also higly situation specific and iitself affected by
a number of other factors. Moreover it is clear that behaviour wich may be constructed as
anxious within one culture would not necessarily be so constructed in another.

Aptitude is the another factor most language teachers would readily testify that şndşvşdual
learners differ in the ease with which they learn a foreign language. If we can measure that
aptitude prior to teaching we should be able to predct the speed at which a learner can learn
adn adjust the pace of our teaching accordingly.

Traditional research on individual differences has been mainly concerned with measuring ,
labellimg and grouping people.

The purpose of such research is usually not to idetify how individuals differe but to group
them according to perceived similarities.

The findings have been of limited practical value because they do not inform us how we can
help any individual to become a more effective learner. In mnay instances they do not even
help us to improve the functioning of the groups that are identified by the research. Research
in this area is often based on a theory of learning which views people’s behaviour as being
heavily influenced by certain traits or attributes which are fixed.

In dealing with averages and statistics we appear somehow to have lost track of the
individual.We need an approach whic will focuson the unique contribution that each
individual brings to the learning situation and on how the teachercan asist the learner in
learning most effectively. Here is the suggested starting points ;

Must start from a theory of learning that is robust and to which as researchers and teachers we
subscribe.
Such atheory should enable us to focus upon the uniqueness f individuals as well as helping
us to see what they have in common.

It should also be a theory of how people change rather than hot they saty the same

This should give rise to implcations for action and intervention

It should enable us also to support indivviduals in taking personal control ot-f their own
learning.

In doing so it must be connected to individual’ views of themselves as learners.

Let’s see three areas that are related to the ways in which individualsperceive themselves.
ANother is “locus of control which is related to how far individulas see themselves as being
in control of their own learning and the last one is “attribution theory “ whic is concerned with
identifying the different factors to which individuals attribute their successes and failures in
learning.

The development and Importance of Self-Concept

Self-Concept is referring to the amalgamation of all our perceptions and conceptions

abput ourselves which gşve rise to our sense of personal identity. Owever the self concept is
extremely complex and difficult to measure because of its multifaceted nature (Wylie made
explicit (1979).It is convinced of the importance for every language learner of attaşnşng an
approprite level of self esteem since this must be related to developing feelings of competence
and self confidence , it is remained unconvinced of the practical value of much of the work in
this area . First it has been subjected to the same problems of measurement that we ciriticised
earlier. Second the very global nature of such constructs as self-concept and self-esteem
makes it difficult to provide other than general statements abput their contribution to
successful learning. This has şled to seek alternative ways of encapsulating the specific nature
of the relationship between people’s beliefs about themselves as learners and learning
outcomes. One particularly promising avenue has been to examine the feelings of contol that
people have over different aspects of their lives.

Locus of COntrol

The sense of personal conrol over what is happening. (LOC) Refers to a person’s
beliefs abput conrol over life events.

Internalisers and Externalisers.

It s in the approach to learning perhaps that the results mst pertinent to our purposes here have
been found. Those with a high internal locus of control show strong tendencies to seek
information and use it appropriatey in problem solving tasks to be active and aasertive and to
exhibit a high degreee of exploraotry behaviour and excitement abput leanring. They exhibit a
great deal of persistence and show a willingness to delay rewards in order to maximise them.
Those demonstrating high externality tend to be relatively passive compliant non exploratory
and inattentive. But we can change it as teachers.
Adaptive Learning Enviroment

It ncudes some skills to make active learner’s locus of control. This is Adaptive Learning
Enviroment Model ( ALEM) . A key element f this model is instruction in and opportunities
to practice self-management skills. Such skills involve :

PLanning and carrying out routine classroom managament tasks. Rather than expecing the
teacher to organise this.

Ways of searching for ordering and oragnising nformation to be learned and remembered

Breaking complex tasks into meaningful and manageable subparts

Setting realistic personal learning goals

Estşmating the amount of time and effort that will be required to complete a task.

In this sense gşving responsibilities is significant to help and emcourage learners . Some
presumptions that language teachers could help and encourage learners to

İdentify theşrown atttudes towards language learning and theşr strengths and weakmess both
cognitively and socially

Develop their own individual plans for learning the language

Take responsibilitr for caarying out their own plans

Evaluate realistically theşr progress and the reasons for their successes and failures

Participate in the selection of learning activities

Take responsibility for helping each other in carrying out learning plans.

Attribution Theory

People tend to refer to 4 main sets of attributions for their perceived successes and
failures in life

Ability , Effort, luck, the difficultity of tasks

The natıre of the event will affect the attributions. Attrbutions tend to be situation
specific rather than global.

People develop different attributions to account for success and failure possiblly as a means of
protecting teşr self-esteem. Ability and effort are internal attirbutions wileluck and task
dfficulty are external. Weiner prefers to use of LOcus of <casuality. She added some
dimensions on this sense.

Stability: That is ıs the factr stable or can it be changed. All theseatributions are related to
internal/external and stable /unstable.
Controllability : it distinguished between elements that people felt were wthin their control or
not within their control. An external factor can be made as internal factor controlling the use
of appropriate strategies.

Research into Attriibutions in Teaching Language

Two profiles indicated that teachers A and B have markedly different attributions for
their perceived failures. A , for example never perceives hersefl as not very good at learning
new languages whereas B quite often sees hersefl as not very good. Individual perceptions
differed abpout control. Teacher C for example, saw her ability as quite often within her
control while teacer D considered that her ability was not often within her control. It does
provide a methodology for looking at individuals as opposed to groups pf people. It gives us
considerable scope for arriving at a better understanding of individuas thereby indicating how
we canactully help them in their leaning of a language.

COnclusion

Fort he language teacher, understanding that every each person is unique and there is
never the same perspectives on the world and teachers help learners to build their learning
world and give them control of their techncs. Being a language teacher is not only abput
teaching a langauge it is all about your talent which gives a chance to learners for building up
a learning world as human and also educators.

References;

Ehrman, M. E., & Oxford, R. L. (1990). Adult language learning styles and strategies in
an intensive training setting. The Modern Language Journal, 74, 311–327.
http://doi.org/cntwhf

Ehrman, M. E., Leaver, B. L., & Oxford, R. L. (2003). A brief overview of individual
differences in second language learning. System, 31, 313–330. http://doi.org/d4cgx6

Gardner, R. C. (1990). Attitudes, motivation, and personality as predictors of success in

foreign language learning. In T. S. Parry & C.W. Stansfield (Eds.), Language aptitude
reconsidered (pp. 179–221). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.

Oxford, R. L. (1990a). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know.
New York: Newbury House.