Individual Differences in

Second Language Learning

• Two or more English learners are attending the
same English class, having the same
instructors and materials, doing the same
activities and exercises, proceeding for the
same duration of course program, and living in
the same environment.
• In the end of the program, these learners
undergo a kind of English competency
assessment. But they achieve different levels
of competence.
• Factors affecting SLL:
• 1- intelligence
• 2- aptitude
• 3- learning styles
• 4- personality
• 5- motivation and attitude
•
 1- Intelligence
• What is the term used for ?
• It is used traditionally to refer to performance
on certain kinds of tests.
• IQ scores were a good means of predicting
success in SLL which involves language
analysis and rule learning.
• This kind of intelligence may play a less
important role in classrooms where the focus is
on communication and interaction.
 ‘Multiple Intelligences’

• In recent years, many educators have been

influenced by Howard Gardner's (1993)
proposal that individuals have 'multiple
intelligences' and that traditional IQ tests have
assessed only a limited range of abilities.
• Among the multiple intelligences Gardner
includes abilities in the areas of music,
interpersonal relations, and athletics, as well
as the verbal intelligence that is most often
associated with success in school.
1. LINGUISTIC /VERBAL
The ability to use spoken or written words
(authors, journalists, speakers)
2. LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL
Inductive and deductive thinking and reasoning
abilities, logic, as well as the use of numbers and
abstract pattern recognition (scientists, engineers,
accountants)
3. VISUAL-SPATIAL
The ability to mentally visualize objects and
spatial dimensions (architects, artists, sailors)
4. BODY-KINESTHETIC
The wisdom of the body and the ability to
control physical motion (surgeons, crafts people,
dancers, athletes)
5. MUSICAL-RHYTHMIC
The ability to master music as well as rhythms,
tones and beats (composers, musicians, and music
therapists)

6. INTERPERSONAL
The ability to communicate effectively with other
people and to be able to develop relationships
(successful teachers, mental health professionals)
7. INTRAPERSONAL
The ability to understand one’s own emotions,
motivations, inner states of being, and self-
reflection (theologians, psychologists)
8-Naturalist skills
the ability to observe patterns in nature and
understand natural and human-made systems
(farmers, botanists, ecologists, landscapers)
• Gardner later suggested a ninth intelligence -
existential intelligence - a concern with
philosophical issues such as the status of
mankind in relation to universal existence. In
learning situations, the need to see ‘the big
picture in order to understand minor learning
points and details.
• Linguistic intelligence: “ word smart”
• Logical/mathematical intelligence: “
number/reasoning smart”
• Visual/spatial intelligence: “ picture smart”
• Bodily/ kinesthetic intelligence: “ body smart”
• Musical intelligence: “ music smart”
• Interpersonal intelligence: “ people smart”
• Intrapersonal intelligence: “self smart”
• Naturalist intelligence: “ nature smart”
• Existentialist intelligence: “existence smart”
 2- Aptitude
• Language aptitude refers to special abilities to
learn quickly. Thus, we may hypothesize that a
learner with high aptitude may learn with
greater ease and speed but that other learners
may also be successful if they persevere.
• Aptitude tests are based on the following components:
a. identify & memorize new sounds
b. understand the function of words
c. figure out grammatical rules
d. memory for new words

• Learners’ strengths and weaknesses in these different

components may account for their ability to succeed in
different types of instructional programs.
 3-Learning Style
• The term is used to describe an individual's
natural, habitual, and preferred way of
absorbing, processing, and retaining new
information and skills.
• Information enters our brain in three main
ways: sight, hearing and touch, which one you
use the most is called your Learning Style.
• Visual Learners learn by sight.
• Auditory Learners learn by hearing.
• Kinesthetic Learners learn by touching or
physical action.
Those styles are called perceptually –based
learning styles.
• Visual Learners: Prefer to see information
such as pictures, diagrams, cartoons,
demonstrations
• Picture words and concepts they hear as
images.
• Easily distracted in lecture with no visual aids.
• Benefit from using charts, maps, notes, and
flash cards when studying.
• Auditory Learners : Prefer to hear
information spoken
• Can absorb a lecture with little effort.
• May not need careful notes to learn.
• Often avoid eye contact in order to concentrate
• May read aloud to themselves.
• Like background music when they study.
• Kinesthetic Learners : Prefer touch as their
primary mode for taking in information
• In traditional lecture situations, they should
write out important facts.
• Create study sheets connected to vivid
examples.
• Role-playing can help them learn and
remember important ideas.
• There are many questions about how learning
styles interact with success in LL.
• However, we should encourage learners to use
all means available to them.
• The challenge is to find instructional
approaches that meet the needs of learners
with a variety of aptitude and learning styles
profiles.
 4- Personality
• Personality refers to those aspects of an
individual’s behaviour, attitudes, beliefs,
thought, actions and feelings which are seen as
typical and distinctive of that person.
 • A number of personality characteristics have
been proposed as likely to affect SLL. The
main ones are:
• Extroversion
• Anxiety
• Self-esteem
• Empathy.
 Extroversion/Introversion
• An introvert is a person who tends to avoid
social contact with others and is often
preoccupied with his or her inner feelings,
thoughts and experiences.
• An extrovert is a person whose conscious
interests and energies are directed towards
other people and events than towards
him/herself.
• An extroverted person is well suited to
language learning.
• Research, however, does not always support
this conclusion .
In certain learning situations the quiet
observant may have greater success.
 3- Anxiety:

• Anxiety refers to learners’ feelings of worry,

nervousness, and stress when learning a second
language.
• Recent research acknowledges that anxiety is dynamic
and dependent on situations or circumstances.
• Anxiety can play an important role in SLL if it interferes
with the learning process.
• It has been argued that not all anxiety is bad and a
certain amount of tension can have a positive effect and
even facilitate learning. For example, a learner’s
willingness to communicate has been related to anxiety.
• Research states that learners who willingly
communicate in a wide range of conversational
interactions are able to do so because their
prior language learning has led to develop self-
confidence.
• Many researchers believe that personality has
an important influence on success in language
learning, however it is not personality alone
but the way in which it combines with other
factors that contribute to second language
learning.
• However, in general, the available research does not
show a single clearly defined relationship between
personality traits and second language acquisition. And,
as indicated earlier, the major difficulty in investigating
personality characteristics is that of identification and
measurement.
• Another explanation that has been offered for the mixed
findings of personality studies is that personality
variables may be a major factor only in the acquisition
of conversational skills, not in the acquisition of
literacy or academic skills.
 5- Motivation and Attitudes
• Motivation is generally considered to be one of
the primary causes of success and failure in
second language learning.
• Robert Gardner and his colleagues have
carried out a program of research on the
relationship between a learner's attitudes
towards the second or foreign language and its
community, and success in second language
learning.
 Types of motivation
• Intrinsic motivation:
• motivation to participate in an activity because
it is enjoyable. (it could be derived from
knowledge, accomplishment, stimulation).
• Extrinsic motivation:
• motivation to participate in an activity in order
to achieve an instrumental end.
• Instrumental motivation:
Learners with an instrumental motivation want to
learn a language because of a practical reason
such as getting a salary bonus or getting into
college. Many college language learners have a
clear instrumental motivation for language
learning: They want to fulfill a college language
requirement.
• Integrative motivation:
Integratively motivated learners want to learn the
language so that they can better understand and
get to know the people who speak that language.
• Motivation has been defined in terms of two
factors:
• a. learners’ communicative needs: If
learners need to speak the second language in
a wide range of social situations or to fulfill
professional ambitions, they will perceive the
communicative value of the second language
and will therefore be motivated to acquire
proficiency in it.
• b. Learners’ attitude to SL community: if
learners have favourable attitudes towards the
speakers of the language, they will desire more
contact with them.
• It is difficult to know whether positive attitudes
produce successful learning or successful learning
engenders positive attitudes, or whether both are
affected by other factors.
• Although research cannot prove that positive
attitudes and motivation lead to success in
learning, there is ample evidence that positive
motivation is associated with a willingness to
keep learning .