INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SLA MÀSTER DE FORMACIÓ DE PROFESSORAT DE SECUNDÀRIA BATXILLERATS I EOIs

1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SLAMÀSTER DE FORMACIÓ DE PROFESSORAT DE SECUNDÀRIA BATXILLERATS I EOIs Helena Roquet Pugès Departament de Traducció i Ciències del Llenguatge Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Oct 2013 Grup d’Adquisició de Llengües des de la Catalunya Multilingüe (ALLENCAM) LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN MULTILINGUAL CATALONIA

2. OUTLINE • INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES (ID) in SLA (Oxford, R. & Ehrman, M. 1993) Aptitude Motivation Anxiety Self-esteem Tolerance of ambiguity Risk-taking Language learning styles Age Gender • Noticing hypothesis (Schmidt) • Output hypothesis (Swain) • Errors

3. SECOND/FOREIGN LANGUAGE • Noteveryonereachesthesamelevels of competence in an L2: • Similarities (route of acquisition) • Individual differences (level of attainment, speed)

4. Aptitude • The individual may be thought of as possessing some current state of capability of learning that task. 4 independent abilities in SL (Carroll, 1981): • Phonetic coding ability • Grammatical sensitivity • Learning ability for FL materials (the ability to learn associations between sounds and meaning rapidly and efficiently) • Inductive language learning ability

5. Motivation • High motivation spurs learners to interact with native speakers of the L, which in turn increases the amount of input (Krashen, 1982). • Extrinsic: external reward, compulsion, outside relationships.. • Instrinsic: personal satisfaction and psychic reward • Integrative: to integrate oneself with the Tculture • Instrumental: to get a better job or to meet a requirement

6. Anxiety • A state of apprehension and a vague fear (Scovel, 1978) • Facilitating anxiety: It keeps students alert • Debilitating anxiety: It harms L2 learners’ performance

7. Self-esteem • It is a self-judgment of worth or value based on feelings of “efficacy” (White, 1959) • Positive beliefs about oneself and one’s learning ability make a definite contribution to learning success

8. Tolerance of ambiguity • It is the acceptance of confusing situations • When learning an L2 there is uncertainty about meanings, referents, and pronunciation, so a degree of tolerance is essential (Ely, 1989)

9. Risk-taking • Research indicates that it is more useful for L learners to take moderate but intelligent risks (guessing meanings based on knowledge despite making mistakes) rather than taking no risks at all or taking extreme risks.

10. Language learning styles • The general approaches students use to learn any subject (Oxford, Ehrman and Lavine, 1991) • Analytic/parameter (field independence, field dependence) • Sensory preferences: visual, auditory, kinesthetic

11. Language learning styles • Analytic/global (field independence, field dependence) • Analytic: They tend to concentrate on grammatical details and avoid more general communicative abilities • Global: They use socially interactive, communicative strategies which emphasize the main idea over details

12. Age • Older learners have an advantage in terms of rate of acquisition of syntax and morphology; however, ultimate fluency and native-like pronunciation in a new language are acquired better among those who start learning it as children (Scarcella, Oxford, 1992)

13. Age • Adults proceed more rapidly through the initial stages of syntactic and morphological development than children but not at the later stages, and they often experience fossilization –the permanent cessation of S/F L development (Selinker, 1972)

14. Gender • Research indicates that women used more learning strategies than men and use them more often (Oxford, Nykos and Ehrman (1988)

15. Instructional implications ? Aptitude Motivation Anxiety Self-esteem Tolerance of ambiguity Risk-taking Language learning styles Age Gender

16. Instructional implications ? Motivation Do everything to heighten L2 learning motivation: Materials and tasks communicative, exciting, relevant, challenging, stimulating, and presented according learning styles

17. Instructional implications ? Anxiety Do everything to reduce anxiety Avoidance of overcorrection, intimidation, sarcasm, rewards, fair testing, cooperative learning, music, humor..

18. Instructional implications ? Self-esteem Helping students assess their progress realistically and positively Aid students in discounting, when feasible, the perceived importance of those areas in which they do not perform well

19. Instructional implications ? Tolerance of ambiguity and risk-taking These can be developed through a nonthreatening classroom atmosphere and training in strategies that facilitate taking risks (guessing, using synonyms) We must help learners relax and not be worried if they do not understand everything right away

20. Instructional implications ? Learning and teaching styles Teachers must be aware of students’ styles (there are styles inventories) and provide varied, multisensory lessons that appeal to many different learning styles It is also important that we help learners stretch beyond their “stylistic comfort zone” to develop new language learning strategies

21. Instructional implications ? Age and Gender Adults need relevant material and topics to do their best. Content will be very different from children content Male and female students often prefer different content. Cultural differences are also important