Personal variation in language learning

2. Personality factors

The affective domain

1. Receiving-tolerating2. Responding-committing3. Valuing4. Organisation of values5. Developing an individual value system

Schuman (1997-1999): amygdala

Learning = emotionally motivated activity

Aspects

Self-esteem Inhibition Risk-taking Anxiety Extroversion Motivation

Self-esteem

„a personal judgement of worthiness” (Coopersmith, 1967)

Types: globalsituational or specifictask-related

MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément &Noels (1998): direct + relation to „willingness to communicate”

Inhibition

Self-defence mechanism to protect ego

Language ego (Guiora, 1972, Ehrman, 1996)

Guiora et. Al. (1972)- the alcohol test?? Effect on muscular tension

Guiora et.al. (1980)- the Valium test?? Significant tester effect

Stevick (1976) alienation between Critical me and performing me L1 culture and L2 culture Self and other learners Self and teacher

Ehrman (1999): thick and thin egos in SLLtolerance of mistakes

Risk-taking

Relation to inhibition and ambiguity tolerance

Moderate risk-taking correlates with language learning success

accurate guessesbased on skill

Low-risk takers=avoidance High-risk takers=wild guesses

Anxiety

Types (Oxford, 1999) Trait State

Language anxitey (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989)

- communication apprehension- fear of negative social evaluation- text anxiety

Debilitative and facilitative anxiety

Extroversion

Extroversion- Sociable, talkative- Western ideal- Need to receive

ego-enhancement, self-esteen from others

Introversion- Quiet, reserved- Derive a sense of

wholeness and fulfillment independent of others

- Inner strength

Motivation

Behaviouristic view

- anticipation of reward- desire for positive reinforcement- external, individual forces in control

Cognitive view

- Degree of effort expended- Internal, individual forces in control- Driven by basic human needs

Exploration Manipulation Activity Stimulation Knowledge Ego enhancement

Constructivist view

- Social context- Community- Social status and group security- Internal, interactive forces in control

Types

Integrative Instrumental Intrinsic Extrinsic

Myers-Briggs character types

Extroversion Sensing Thinking Judging

Introversion Intuition Feeling Perceiving

Measuring affective factors

Problems- accuracy of self-perceptions- self-flattery syndrome- culturally ethnocentric, not transferrable

Solutions- variety of methods and instruments- validating