Good Learners in SLA Nina

Characteristic of Good Learners (Nina Spada)

Nina Spada

1.          Age of Acquisition

Many adult second language learning become capable of communicating very successfully in the language but, for most, differences of accent, word choice, or grammatical features distinguish them from native speakers and from second language speakers who began learning the language while they were very young.

There was study say that there is a “critical period for second language acquisition”. Critical Period Hypothesis suggests that there is a time in human developments when the brain is predisposed for success in language learning. Language learning which occurs after the end of critical period may not be based on the innate biological structures believed to contribute to first language acquisition or second language acquisition in early childhood. Rather, older learners depend on more general learning abilities.

Younger learners in informal language learning environments usually have more time to devote to learning language, more opportunities to hear and use the language. Older learners often in situations which demand much more complex language and the expression of much more complicated ideas. And that situations often make them frustated to say what they mean in the second language.

Older learners almost inevitably have a noticeable “foreign accent”. Mark Patkowski hypothesized, even if accent were ignored, only those who had begun learning their second language before the age of 15 could ever achieve full, native-like mastery of that language.

Older learner would learn more effective but younger learner has more time to learn from childhood until old.

2.      Intelligence

Over the years, many studies using a variety of intelligence (IQ) tests and different methods of assessing language learning have found that IQ scores were a good means of predicting how successful a learner would be. Some recent studies have a conclusion, say that this characteristic is more strongly than to others.

A study found that, while intelligence was related to the development of French second language reading, grammar and vocabulary, it was unrelated to oral productive skills.

Intelligence is complex and individuals have many kinds of abilities and strengths. Many students whose academic performance has been weak have experienced considerable success in second language learning.

3.      Motivation and Attitude

The overall findings show that positive attitudes and motivation are related to success in second language learning. Motivation can be defined in terms of two factors:

-          Learners communicative needs, if learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency.

-          Learners attitudes towards the second language community, if learners have favourable attitudes towards the speakers of language, they will desire more contact with them.

Other opinion from Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert :

-          Integrative motivation to refer to language learning for personal growth and cultural enrichment.

-          Instrumental motivation for language learning for more immediate or practical goals.

4.      Personality

It is often argued that an extroverted person is well suited to language learning. However, research does not always support this conclusion. Although some studies have found that success in second language learning is correlated with extroversion such as assertiveness and adventurousness, others have found that many successful language learners do not get high scores on measures of extroversion.

Many researchers believe that personality will be shown to have an important influence on success in language learning.

5.      Aptitude

Learning is distinguishing feature of aptitude. There are two tests for aptitude that usually used by many people, MLAT and PLAB, both tests are based on the view that aptitude is composed of different types of abilities:

-          The ability to identify and memorize new sounds

-          The ability to understand the particular words in sentences

-          The ability to figure out grammatical rules from language

-          Memory for new words

One could determine learner’s profile of strengths and weaknesses and use this information to place students in appropriate teaching programs. Some evidence incated that matched students were able to attain significantly higher level of achievement than those who were unmatched.

6.      Learners Preferences

Visual learners usually cannot learn something until they have seen it. Aural learners, seem to need only to hear something once or twice before they know it. Kinasesthetic learners, there is a need to add a physical action to the learning process.

The result of a research is that while field independence is related to some degree to performance on certain kinds of tasks, it is not good predictor of performance on others.

7.      Learner Beliefs

Out there, so many beliefs in many learners that involves a learner in their process of learning. In particular, older learners have strong beliefs and opinions about how their instruction should be delivered. These beliefs are usually based on previous learning experiences and the assumption that a particular type of instruction is the best way for them to learn.

A research indicates that learner beliefs can be strong mediating factors in their experience in the classroom. Several students were convinced that their progress was negatively affected by an instructional approach which was not consistent with their beliefs about the best way for them to learn. This characteristic will influence the kinds of strategies they choose in order to learn new material.