To Get You Thinking Before You Read
- 1.How many individual differences can you think of?
- 2.Are they important for successful language learning? How? Why?
- 3.Do you agree that individual differences interact with each other in complex ways? Can you think of any examples?
- 4.Are individual differences dynamic (i.e. are they subject to change)? Which ones?
- 5.How does ecological or sociocultural context relate to individual differences?
- 6.Do you think a holistic view is important? Why/not?
Background
Historically, much of the research into language learning has been concerned with establishing commonalities and considering how these universal factors might be applied to teaching and learning (e.g. Eckman, Bell, & Nelson, 1984). As Skehan (1989) points out, much of the previous research into language acquisition had focused on “how learners are similar, and what processes of learning are universal” (p. 1, author’s italics). However, if language learning is to be successful, we need also to consider some of the factors which are generated from within individuals, which make them different from each other, and which will inevitably impact on their success.
Interest in individual variables began to expand exponentially towards the end of the twentieth century, leading Ellis (1994) to comment on the “veritable plethora of individual learner variables which researchers have identified as influencing learning outcomes” (p. 472). An understanding of these multiple variables is critical, since, as Horwitz (1999) reminds us “language learners are individuals approaching language learning in their own unique way” (p. 558), and these variable learner characteristics may have a “significant bearing on how learning proceeds” (Cohen & Dörnyei, 2002, p. 170). As a result of increased awareness of the role played by individual learner variables in successful language development, interest in the field has continued unabated (e.g. Afflerbach, 2015; Arabski & Wojtaszek, 2011; D’browska & Andringa, 2019; Dörnyei, 2005; Gregersen & MacIntyre, 2014; Pawlak, 2012; Roberts & Meyer, 2012).
Why Are Individual Differences (IDs) Important?
An early advocate of the key role played by individual differences was Selinker (1972), who was emphatic when he stated: “a theory of … language learning that does not provide a central place for individual differences among learners cannot be considered acceptable” (p. 213, author’s italics). A decade later, but still relatively avant-garde, Wong Fillmore (1982) commented: “Anyone who works with … language learners, whether in teaching or in research, discovers quickly how much individual variation there is” (p. 157).
Individual differences are important for language teachers for several reasons. If they become aware of learner differences in their classrooms, they can develop materials, change their teaching style, adopt new instructional strategies, and give feedback considering all the learner differences in the classroom. Although it may be challenging to unravel what is universal and what is individual (Ehrman, Leaver, & Oxford, 2003), the teacher needs to provide options for an optimal learning environment for every student.
What Should Be Included as an Individual Difference?
A review of the literature reveals that what should be included as an individual difference is far from universally agreed, even among those who are considered experts and who have published on the subject. Skehan (1989), one of the first to deal at length with the subject, included aptitude, motivation, language learning strategies, extroversion/introversion, risk-taking, intelligence, field in/dependence and anxiety among the topics he discussed. More than a decade and a half later, Dörnyei (2005) listed personality, aptitude, motivation, strategies and beliefs, while Arabski and Wojtaszek (2011) included strategies, autonomy, personality, gender and self-efficacy, and Pawlak (2012) dealt with aptitude, age, intelligence, affect and motivation among the individual factors in his book.
As we can see, then, consensus is far from complete on the question of what should be included as an individual difference. For the purpose of the present book, the concept of individual difference will be taken fairly broadly to include:
characteristics which make learners different from each otherand which affect the way that they behave in the classroom and beyond.
For the purpose of this book, these will include age, sex/gender, race/ethnicity/nationality/culture, aptitude, personality, style, strategies, autonomy, beliefs, affect/emotion and motivation. Each of these will receive a chapter-length treatment, and some may include other related factors mentioned in the literature, such as
- intelligence and working memory (which will be included under aptitude)
- intro/extroversion, in/tolerance of ambiguity, ego boundaries and willingness to communicate (which will be included under personality)
- risk-taking, style-stretching and field in/dependence (which will be included under style)
- metacognition and self-regulation (which will be included under autonomy)
- anxiety, attitude, attribution, empathy, inhibition and self-concept (which will be included as affective/emotional variables)
- volition, investment, goal-orientation and motivational self-system (which will be included under motivation)
Rationales for each of these will be included in the relevant chapters.
It should be noted that some of these individual differences might be considered to be of a fundamentally different nature from others. Age, sex and race, for instance, are essentially biological, while others are sociocultural and/or ecological (especially nationality and culture), while yet others (perhaps the majority) are psychological. Nevertheless, as any teacher will know, all of these factors can play a noticeable role in classroom dynamics, and for this reason, they will be included in the present volume which focuses on the role of individual variables in language development.
Theoretical Perspectives
Complex/Dynamic Systems
It is generally Diane Larsen-Freeman who is credited with applying Complexity Theory developed in other disciplines (such as the physical sciences) to language learning. As Larsen-Freeman (1997) explains, language can be described as a complex system in that it consists of many different but interdependent subsystems (grammar, vocabulary, phonology, semantics, etc.). This means that:
A change in any one of them can result in a change in the others…..In other words, the behaviour of the whole emerges out of the interaction of the subsystems. Thus, describing each subsystem tells us about the subsystems, it does not do justice to the whole of language. (p. 149)
As a result of this complexity, “we cannot get a true measure of the influence of a factor if we isolate it from the others and examine it one at a time” (Larsen-Freeman, 2015, p. 14). Mercer (2014) further explains: “the collective functioning of the system as one organic whole cannot be deduced from an understanding of the individual components. Thus, the properties of the system as a whole are more than merely the sum of its separate parts” (p. 163).
Not only this, but because a complex system is in a constan...