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Highly motivated L2 learners tend to be more successful in L2 learning.

Types of motivation:

Integrative Motivation: ‘an open and accepting orientation towards the other language community’ (Gardner, 2010, as cited in Mitchel, 2013, p.23).

Instrumental motivation: is related to the concrete advantages of learning an L2 (find a better job, educational purpose, etc).

The Social-Psychological approach:

Gardner highlights the relationship between integrative motivation (in turn made of positive attitudes) and L2 success.

Basic idea: the more people learn an L2 for love of the language, its speakers, and culture, the more they are likely to achieve higher success.

The cognitive-situated approach → research on motivation in a more contextualized way.

Focus on:

The learning context and its specific aspects, such as the teacher, the tasks, the curriculum, the class, etc. → determine learners’ motivation/demotivation and consequently different learning success.

The dynamic nature of motivation.

The reinterpretation of Gardner’s concept of integrative motivation →the case of Global English.

When a language has international prestige, learners may be guided by an aspiration to integrate with the international community.

Recent developments of L2 motivation: The L2 Motivational Self-System (Dörney, 2005, p.53):

Learners' motivation consists of 3 dimensions:

1. The Ideal L2 Self: the person who learner aspire to be.If the imagined ideal self is a good L2 speaker, the learner is more likely to succeed.

2. The Ought-to self involves the various extrinsic pressures guiding the learning process.

3. The L2 Learning Experience involves motives related to the learning environment.

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The relationship between intelligence and L2 success has often been studied by comparing the score of IQ tests with those of other tests aiming to measure students' language skills.

Findings:
1. Genesee’s research (1976):

No correlation between intelligence and ‘communication skills (i.e., speaking and listening)

A relationship between intelligence and ‘academic skills’ (i.e., reading and writing)

2. Chastain’s research (1969):

in audiolingual classes: no relationship between intelligence and L2 success

in cognitive code classes: a relationship between intelligence and L2 success

Importance of intelligence:

intelligence is useful for skills that require cognitive effort (reading, writing, learning grammar rules, parsing, etc)

intelligence is strictly related to school success.

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‘The rate at which persons at the secondary school, university, and adult level successfully master a foreign language’ (Carroll, 1973, as cited in Johnson, 2017, p.112).

How can aptitude be measured?

The Modern Language Aptitude Test  (Carroll and Sapon, 1959):

A predictive tool of language learning success in formal setting.

It consists of four subtests:

1. Phonetic coding ability: the ability to associate sounds with symbols and to remember these associations.

2. Grammatical sensitivity: the ability to identify the grammatical function of words in given sentences (i.e., Subject, Direct/Indirect Object, etc.)

3. Rote learning ability: the ability to learn vocabularies alongside their meanings and to remember them.

4. Inductive learning ability: the ability to recognize rules dominating a sample of language material.

Limits of the MLAT:

It does not consider the different contexts and teaching methods.

Post Carrol research on aptitude focused on:

Different cognitive skills (working memory, linguistic coding ability, particularly phonological) related to SLA process.

Different kinds of aptitude related to the specific learning situation. For example, Robinson suggested the idea that learners possess different aptitude complexes which may enhance/inhibit language learning success in different situations.

The importance of other variables in shaping aptitude (affective variables).

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Types of attitudes:

Attitude towards the target language speakers.

Attitude towards the learning context, the teacher, the tasks, etc.

Attitude towards success.

Attitude towards the native country.

These attitudes (which can be positive or negative) are the result of stereotypes, beliefs, and personal experiences.

Positive or negative attitudes are important for two main reasons:

They shape motivation.

They determine success/ failure in L2 learning.

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Common belief: children are better than adults in learning an L2 → Critical Period Hypothesis: the ability to acquire an L1 is limited to a specific period (2-10 years of age), after which language acquisition will never take place properly.

Age and SLA:

1. Age and learning rate:

Singleton proposed a distinction between short/long advantages related to age (Singleton, 1989, as cited in Cook, 2016, p.148)

Adults and older children have some initial benefits: they learn faster than children.

Possible explanation: cognitive and metacognitive abilities.

However, after this fast start, they gradually slow down.

Conversely, children start slowly and gradually accelerate, surpassing the initial advantages of adults.

2. Age and L2 ultimate attainment (supports the CPH)

As far as morphosyntactic and phonological competences are concerned, children are more likely to develop native-like competences

Explanation: once the first language is well developed, it might influence L2 accent.

Research on the effect of age is far from a consensus.

It is not age per se that matters, but other factors should be considered: learning context, time of the study, different attitudes and motivations related to age, etc.

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Language Anxiety origins from learners’ low self-concept and it influences L2 learning and performance.

Anxious learners:

avoid speaking in class/ with L2 speakers.

obtain low grades.

underestimate their true L2 competence

feel frustrated.

Willingness to communicate:

this construct includes:

L2 communicative confidence (in turn it consists of anxiety and self-perceived confidence).

L2 attitudes.

Negative or positive feelings towards these two traits differently affect the WTC.

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Different ways of thinking, processing, and remembering information.

The most studied cognitive styles in the field of SLA are the Field independent and Field dependent cognitive styles.

They are bipolar dimensions each one with its potential advantages and disadvantages

Field independence:

Advantages:

recognizing patterns;

learning grammatical rules;

self-monitoring while speaking;

Field dependence:

Advantages:

a more holistic view of the language.

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Researchers argue that certain personality traits might encourage or inhibit the likelihood of L2 success.

Different personality models have been used to investigate the relationship between personality traits and L2 success (the Eysenck’s model, the Myers-Briggs Personality type model, and the Big Five model).

The most studied personality traits in SLA are extroversion and introversion.

Common belief: extroverts are better than introverts in acquiring an L2, and several researchers support this idea.

However, other researchers prefer to investigate the positive effect of both traits rather than demonstrate which facet could be related to L2 success.

Dewaele and Furnham (2000, as cited in Ortega, 2008) investigated the impact of introversion/extroversion, especially under stressful contexts.

They found that extroverts are more fluent, conversely, introverts are less fluent and hesitate a lot, but they focus on accuracy.

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Learning strategies are techniques used by learners to facilitate the process of L2 acquisition.

Early research conducted by Naiman et al. aimed to identify the strategies used by good language learners.

Other researchers focused on the classification of the LLS. Among them, noteworthy instances are:

1. O’ Malley and Chamot’s classification into cognitive, metacognitive, and social strategies.

2. Oxford’s taxonomy:

Direct strategies:

Memory: (e.g. creating mental images/associations)

Cognitive: (analysing, practicing, etc.)

Compensation: (guessing, generalizing)

Indirect strategies:

Metacognitive: (planning, self-evaluating)

Affective: (control emotion)

Social: (collaborating, asking for repetition and clarification)

Some criticisms have concerned the definition of learning strategies, and some researchers have moved in favor of the Self-regulation theory (Dorney, 2005, as cited in Ortega, 2008).

Focus on the humans' ability to take control over the learning process by self-regulating their actions, thoughts, emotions, etc.

Of course, learners have different capacities to self-regulate, and this can determine different L2 success.

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Cook, V. (2016). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. Routledge. http://search.ebscohost.com.bishopg.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1233911&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid

Dörnyei, Z. (2006). Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition. AILA Review, 19, 42-68.

Johnson, K. (2017) An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. Taylor & Francis Group. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bishopg/detail.action?docID=4799861.

Mitchell, R., Myles, F., & Marsden, E. (2013). Second Language Learning Theories. Routledge. http://search.ebscohost.com.bishopg.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=634601&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid

Ortega, L. (2008). Understanding second language acquisition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com