ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
TIỂU LUẬN MÔN HỌC CUỐI KÌ (NGÔN NGỮ HỌC ỨNG DỤNG) SOME OF THE FACTORS AFECTING LEARNERS’ACHIEVEMENTS IN SECOND OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Giảng viên phụ trách: GS. TS. Hoàng Văn Vân Học viên: Vũ Thị Thương Ngày sinh: 06/04/1989 Khóa học: 20 (2011-2013) Lớp: Anh20D
Hà Nội – 4/2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................1 DISCUSSION...................................................................................................1
1. Factors classification………..........................................................................1 2. Key factors….................................................................................................3 2.1. Motivation...................................................................................................4 2.2. Anxiety........................................................................................................5 2.3. Socio-cultural background..........................................................................6 CONCLUSION…............................………………………….........................7 REFERENCES.................................................................................................8
INTRODUCTION
There remains the fact that different learners of a target language achieve different levels of proficiency. There are a number of students who learn a new language more quickly and easily than others. All having learnt or taught a second or foreign language in a learning setting are able to list various reasons for this issue. These reasons, obviously, fall into the crucial factors that influence second or foreign language learners’ success. It is their complex interplay that determines the speed and facility with which the new language is learnt. In what follows, the current paper summarizes the findings of a significant number of previous studies on these various factors and discusses some of them. DISCUSSION 1. Factors classification
Researches on variables influencing accomplishments of learners of a target language have developed over time. In general, these studies belong to two major trends: studies that have attempts to identify and categorize all the factors into groups (Schumann, 1978; Spolsky, 1988; Tibi, 1998; Powell et al., 2000; Cenoz & Perales, 2000; Huyen, 2010; Gilakjani, 2012) and studies that aim at providing a more profound understanding in one or several factors regarded as key factors by the researchers (Asbjornson, 2000; Renou, 2004; Bernat, & Gvozdenko, 2005; Rubio, 2007; Maeng, 2010; Fewell, 2010; Khamkhien, 2010; Nel & Heléne, 2010; Flege & MacKay, 2011; and Gholami et al., 2012). Initially, in attempting to categorize these factors, each researcher or each group of researchers had their own views. For instance, while Schumann (1978) pointed out nine categories such as social, affective, personality, cognitive, biological, aptitude, situational, input, and instructional, Spolsky (1988) merely put stress on four groups of factors: the language aptitude existing at the beginning of the learning
process, the personal traits and abilities of the learner, the affective motivational field, and the system supporting language acquisition within and outside the formal setting. The same issue could be recognized in a great number of other researches on these factors. However, there remains an agreement among these various studies that all the factors seem to fall into two main broad categories: learner-internal factors and learner-external factors. While internal factors are regarded as those that an individual language learner brings with him to his particular learning setting, external factors are those which illustrate that particular language learning setting. Following table aims at representing almost of the factors that were discussed by mentioned researches and studies: Major groups
Subgroups 1, Aptitude: phonetic coding ability, associative memory,
grammatical sensitivity, inductive language analytic ability 2, Age 3, Motivation and learners’ attitude 4, Personality factors: self-esteem, extroversion, anxiety,
risk-taking, sensitivity to rejection, empathy, inhibition, Internal factors
tolerance of ambiguity 5, Cognitive/ Learning style:
conformists, converges,
concrete learners, communicative learners 6, Understanding of mother tongue and second/foreign language 7, Ability: auditory ability, linguistic ability, memory ability 8, Learning strategies 9, Hemisphere specialization: left and right hemisphere 1, Social effects:
a, Gender roles
b, Community and learners’ parents’ attitudes toward the target language c, Nature of group dynamics in the learning setting External factors
2, Pedagogical effects:
a, Amount and level of comprehension of input b, Amount of interaction or exposure c, Language teaching techniques d, Learning facility and setting
There should be mentioned here the fact that whether one subgroup belongs to learner-internal or learner-external major group does not seem to cause great troubles in the process of achieving the goals of a target language teaching and learning. All things that learners, educators, linguistics and methodologists should do are being well aware of all these possible factors and their influences on their language learning and teaching process. 2. Key factors
As mentioned in the previous part, there have been a significant number of studies that attempt to investigate the effects of one or several particular factors on language learners’ accomplishments. These studies’ issues range from learnerinternal variables such as motivation (Bernaus, 1995; Atchade, 2002; Cote, 2004; Obeidat, 2005; Karahan, 2007; Ghenghesh, 2010; and Choosri & Intharaksa; 2011), anxiety (Chan & Wu, 2004; Cubukcu, 2007; Tanveer, 2007; Zheng, 2008; Andrade & Williams, 2009; Awan, 2010), self-esteem (Rubio, 2007), memory (Maeng, 2010), learning styles and strategies (Fewell, 2010; Renou, 2004), learners’ experience (Khamkhien, 2010), beliefs (Asbjornson, 2000; Bernat, & Gvozdenko, 2005), and age (Flege & MacKay, 2011) to learner-external variables such as
teaching proficiency of teachers (Nel & Heléne, 2010) and social context (Gholami et al., 2012). In what follows, the paper merely presents some factors which seem to appeal attention of many researchers. 2.1. Motivation
Since various researchers were well aware of the fact that that motivation can be one of the key factors affecting learners’ success in second or foreign language learning, a significant number of studies has been carried out to investigate its definition and roles in the process of language teaching and learning. In terms of concept, various researchers share similar views on what is motivation. According to Gardner and Lambert (1972), learners’ motivation is a combination of learners’ effort and desire to achieve the targets of learning a second or foreign language. Also, they stated that motivation can be classified into instrumental and integrative motivation. While the instrumental refers to the desire to acquire a new language for utilitarian purposes, the integrative refers to the desire to learn more about the cultural community of the target language or to assimilate in the target language society. Similarly, Ellis (1994) describes motivation as “the effort which learners put into learning an L2 as a result of their need or desire to learn it”. Also, Wen Qiufang’s (1996) definition is the cause and goal of learning English. As the matter of fact, the definition of motivation, to some extent, indicates that motivation can directly affect the learners’ regularity of using their learning strategies, their self-discipline of learning, their aim setting and then the attainment in learning (Quin, 2002, as cited in Li & Pan, 2009). In terms of function, there also have been a great number of studies attempting to prove the positive impacts of motivation in language learners’ achievements. For instance, in their research findings, Li & Pan (2009) concluded that ‘students with higher motivation always achieve greater success in their language learning while
those lacking in motivation make no attempts in the process of language learning and often fail the exam’ (p.127). Similar results could be found out in various studies such as Bernaus (1995), Atchade (2002), Cote (2004), Obeidat (2005), Karahan (2007), Ghenghesh (2010), and Choosri & Intharaksa (2011). Thus, what could be implicate here is that in classroom setting, teachers and educators should pay more attention to increasing learners’ motivation and developing skills and strategies to make them more competent so that they are able to take ownerships of their own learning. 2.2. Anxiety
Anxiety is one of the most concerned variables by researchers by the fact that its great impact on language learners’ success in second/foreign language learning has been successfully demonstrated by various researchers such as Chan & Wu, 2004; Cubukcu, 2007; Zheng, 2008; Andrade & Williams, 2009; Awan, 2010; and Tanveer, 2007. On the whole, studies on this issue also attempted to shed light on the strong association between second or foreign language classroom anxiety and students’ achievement; and to present a considerable amount of strategies that assisted linguists, educators and methodologists in reducing negative influences of classroom anxiety. For instance, a study conducted by Awan et al. (2010) examining the relation between three types of classroom anxiety (trait anxiety, state anxiety and situational anxiety) on the achievements of 149 undergraduates enrolled in second and sixth semester of different departments of University of Sargodha who are learning English as a foreign language. The results of the study found that the female learners are less anxious in learning English as a foreign language than the male ones. ‘Speaking in front of others’ is rated as the biggest cause of anxiety followed by ‘worries about grammatical mistakes’, ‘pronunciation’ and ‘being unable to talk spontaneously’. Also, the study suggested some teaching implications that the
classroom setting should be encouraging and motivating enough and the language teachers need to be trained in dealing with anxiety-provoking circumstances. 2.3. Socio-cultural background
As the matter of fact, various studies have not only shown the influences of motivation and autonomy in language learners’ learning process but also indicated that different social and cultural background leads to different situation of learners’ autonomy and motivation. Thus, socio-cultural background is one of the major learner-external factors which have great effects on language learners’ achievements. The cross-cultural difference is the distinction between individualism and collectivism. While individualism is regarded as a cultural pattern observed in the West, collectivism is considered in the East. And, it can be seen clearly that there are more and more advocates for autonomy in second or foreign language learning both in the East and in the West. Also, most researchers agree on the fact that autonomy is in harmony with the Western culture because individualists pay their attention on the accomplishment of personal goals, and fame, for themselves, for the purpose of pleasure, autonomy, and self-realization while collectivists focus on the achievement of group goals, and glory, by the group, for the purpose of group well-being, relationships, togetherness, and collective utility (Triandis, 1995). Thus, while the communicative approach which seems to be one of the most effective pedagogical approaches is widely practiced in Western countries but is still at an initial stage in various Eastern nations. This leads to various troubles in Eastern learners of second and foreign language. In general, based on the findings of a significant number of studies on the impact of socio-cultural background on second or foreign language achievements, some pedagogical implications should be mentioned here that teachers and educators of a target language should provide their students with an autonomy-supporting learning context. Only when learners
are given increasing opportunities to have a right in the content and way of learning, their intrinsic motivation is enhanced. CONCLUSION
The current paper did summarize the findings of a considerable number of researches and studies on the variables that have great impacts on second or foreign language learning. As all previous researches, this paper not only fulfills the researcher’s knowledge but makes an attempt to emphasize the significance of understanding of possible influential factors affecting the goals of second or foreign language teaching and learning. Some limitations should be given here. First, due to the short period of time of reviewing the literature, all the factors could not be included. Second, there is one aspect of a majority of prior researches that were not mentioned in the current paper. They are strategies and instructions of the previous researchers to assist to reduce the negative impacts of the discussed factors. There should be another paper to put stress on this aspect.
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