INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

3 IN SECOND LANGUAGE
LEARNING

Preview
As we saw in Chapter l , children are almost always successful in acquiring
the language or languages that are spoken (or signed) to them in early child
hood, provided that they have adequate opportunities to use the language
over time. This contrasts with our experience of second language learners,
whose success varíes greatly. Both educators and researchers have an interest
in understanding how the characteristics of individuals are related to their
ability to succeed in learning a second language.
Many of us believe that individual differences that are inherent in the learner
can predict success or failure in language learning. Such beliefs may be based
on our own experience or that of people we have known. Por example, many
teachers are convinced that extroverted students who interact without inhi
bition in the second language and seek opportunities to practise language
skills will be the most successful learners. In addition to an outgoing per
sonality, other characteristics often believed to predict success in language
learning are intelligence, motivation, and the age at which learning begins.
To what extent can we predict differences in the success of second language
acquisition if we have information about learners' personalities, their general
and specific intellectual abilities, their motivation, or their age? In this
chapter, we will review sorne of the studies that have sought to understand
the relationships between individual differences and learning outcomes.

AC T I V I T Y Reflect on language learning experience

Befare you read this chapter, use the questionnai re in Table 3.1 to reflect on
you r own experience as a language learner.Usi ng additional copies of the
questionnai re, interview several friends, colleagues, or family mem bers about
llleir experiences of learni ng a second or foreign language. Keep the responses
76 Individual dijferences insecond language learning

to the question naire and refer to them as you read this chapter about
individ ual differences in second language learning.
l a What language do you speak best? Do you speak more than one
language equally well?
1b When did you begin t o learn this language (these languages)?
2 Which second or foreign language(s) have you learned with the
most success?
3 Which second or foreign language(s) have you learned with the
/east success?
4 For the languages you mentioned in response to questions 2 and 3,
answer the following questions in the appropriate colum ns:
Languages learned Languages not
successfully learned successfully
How old were you when
you first tried to learn
the language?
Did you have a choice
about learning this
language or were you
req u ired to learn it?
Do you currently speak
this language regularly?
Do you regularly
read this language
for information or
enjoyment?
How m uch of your
learning experience
with this language was
in a foreign language
classroom?
lf you no longer use this
language on a daily basis,
can you estímate how
many years you spent
learning or usi ng it?
Estimate how many
hours of classroom
instruction you had for
this language.
 Individual differences in second languagelearning 77

How much time have

you spent living in a place
where the language is
spoken?

Have you used the

language t o learn other
subjects at school? At
what level (elementary,
secondary, university)?
Do you have personal or
emotional attachments
to this language? For
exam ple, do you have
peers o r family members
who speak this language?
Do/did you enjoy
studying the grammar of
this language?
Do/did you enjoy
studying vocabulary in
this language?
Are/were you a successful student in other school subjects?
Do you think of you rself as a person who li kes to socialize?
Do you think of you rself as a person who learns a new language easily?

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press

Table 3.1 Individual differences in language learning experience

Research on learner characteristics

Perhaps the best way t o begin our discussion is t o describe how research on
the influence of individual differences on second language learning is usually
done. When researchers are interested in finding out how a variable such as
motivation is related t o second language learning outcomes, they usually
select a group oflearners and give them a questionnaire to measure the type
and degree of their motivation. Then sorne kind of test is used t o assess their
second language proficiency. The test and the questionnaire are both scored,
and the researcher uses a statistical procedure called a correlation. The cor
relation is an indication of how likely it is that learners with high seores on
the motivation questionnaire will also have high seores on the language
78 Individual differences in second languagelearning

test. If the two variables (motivation and language proficiency) are found to
be correlated, the researcher will try to discover just what the relationship
between them is. Note that correlations may be positive or negative. That is,
one may find a pattern suggesting that learners with higher motivation seores
have higher language proficiency seores (apositive correlation), or one might,
in sorne circumstances, find that learners with lower motivation seores do
better on proficiency measures (a negative correlation).
Although the correlation procedure seems straightforward, it requires careful
interpretation. One problem is that, unlike variables such as height or age,
it is not possible to direcdy observe and measure motivation, extroversion,
or even intelligence. These are just labels for an entire range of behaviours
and characteristics. Funhermore, characteristics such as these are not inde
pendent of each other, and researchers have sometimes used the same label
to describe different sets of behavioural traits. For example, in motivation
questionnaires, learners may be asked how often they use their second lan
guage outside a classroom context. The assumption behind the question is
that those who repon that they frequendy do so are highly motivated to
learn. This seems reasonable, but it is not so simple. If a learner responds that
he or she frequendy interacts with speakers of the second language, it may
not be because he or she is more motivated to learn than one who reports less
interaction. Rather, it might be that this individual lives where there are more
o p p o rt u niti e s -o r a greater necessity-for language practice than those who
repon a low frequency of interaction. Because it is usually impossible to
separate these two variables (i.e. motivation or desire to interact and oppor
tunities or the need to interact), we cannot conelude whether it is motivation,
necessity, or opponunity that is being measured by this question.
Perhaps the most serious error in interpreting correlations is the conclusion
that one of the variables causes the other. The fact that two things tend to
occur together or increase and decrease in a similar pattern <loes not neces
sarily mean that one causes the other. While it may be that one variable
influences the other, it may also be that both are influenced by something else
entirely. Research on motivation is perhaps the best context in which to illus
trate this. Learners who are successful may indeed be highly motivated. But
can we conclude that they became successful because of their motivation? It
is also plausible that early success heightened their motivation, or that both
success and motivation are due to their special aptitude for language learning
or the favourable context in which they were learning.
Another difficulty in assessing the relationship between individual learner
characteristics and second language learning is how language proficiency is
defined and measured. In the L2 learning literature, sorne studies repon that
learners with a higher intelligence quotient (IQ) are more successful language
learners than those with a lower IQ, while other studies repon no such cor
relation. One explanation for these conflicting findings is that the language
 Individual differences in second language learning 79

proficiency tests used in different studies do not measure the same kind of
knowledge. For example, I Q may be less closely correlated to measures of
conversational fluency than to tests that measure metalinguistic knowledge.
Research on individual differences must also take into account the social and
educational settings in which learners find themselves. Bonny Norton and
Kelleen Toohey (2001) argue that, even when individuals possess sorne of the
characteristics that have been associated with successful language learning,
their language acquisition may not be successful if they are not able to gain
access to social relationships in situations where they are perceived as valued
partners in communication. Members of sorne immigrant and minority
groups are too often marginalized by social and educational practices that
limit their opportunities to engage in communication with peers, colleagues,
and even teachers. In these social conditions, individuals who approach a
new language with the cognitive and motivational characteristics typical of
successful language learners may not achieve the proficiency that these char
acteristics would predict.
Understanding the relationship between individual characteristics, social sit
uations, and success in second language learning is a challenge. Nevertheless,
research in this area is of great importance to both researchers and educators.
Researchers seek to know how different cognitive and personality variables
are related and how they interact with learners' experiences, so that they can
gain a better understanding of human learning. Educators hope to find ways
of helping learners with different characteristics to achieve success in second
language learning. The larger community is also concerned because of the
enormous impact second language learning has on shaping opportunities for
education, employment, mobility, and other societal benefits.
Let's look at sorne of the individual characteristics that have been investigated
in the effort to discover explanations for differences in learning outcomes.

Intelligence
The term 'intelligence' has traditionally been used to refer to performance on
certain kinds of tests. These tests are often associated with success in school,
and a link between intelligence and second language learning has sometimes
been reported. Over the years, sorne research has shown that IQseores were
a good means of predicting success in second language learning. However,
as suggested above, IQtests may be more strongly related to metalinguistic
knowledge than to communicative ability. For example, in a study with stu
dents in French immersion programmes in Canada, Fred Genesee (1976)
found that, while intelligence was related to the development of French
second language reading, grammar, and vocabulary, it was unrelated to oral
production skills. This suggests that the kind of ability measured by tradi
tional I Q tests may be a strong predictor when it comes to learning that
80 Individual differences insecond language learning

involves language analysis and rule learning but may play a less important
role outside the classroom or in classrooms where the instruction focuses
more on communication and interaction. Indeed, many students whose
general academic performance is weak experience considerable success in
second language learning if they are given the right opportunities.
Many educators have been inB.uenced by Howard Gardner's (1993) pro
posal that individuals have 'multiple intelligences' and that traditional I Q
tests have assessed only a limited range of abilities. Among the 'multiple
intelligences' Gardner includes abilities in the areas of music, interpersonal
relations, and athletics, as well as the verbal intelligence that is most often
associated with success in school.

Language learning aptitude

Specific abilities thought to predict success in language learning have been
studied under the title of language learning 'aptitude'. One of the pioneers
in this area, John Carroll (1991), has characterized aptitude in terms of the
ability to learn quickly. Thus, we may hypothesize that a learner with high
aptitude may learn with greater ease and speed but that other learners may
also be successful if they persevere.
Over several decades, the most widely used aptitude measures have been the
Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) (Carroll and Sapon 1959) and the
Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB) (Pimsleur 1966). All the tests
are based on the view that aptitude has several components, for example, the
ability to identify and memorize new sounds, understand the function of
particular words in sentences, figure out grammatical rules from language
samples, and remember newwords. While early research revealed a substantial
relationship between performance on the MLAT or PLAB and performance
in foreign language learning, these studies were conducted at a time when lan
guage teaching was based on grammar translation or audiolingual methods.
With the adoption of a more communicative approach t o teaching, many
teachers and researchers carne to believe that the abilities targeted by these
tests were irrelevant t o the process oflanguage acquisition. However, others
suggest that sorne of the abilities measured by aptitude tests are predictive of
success even in settings where the emphasis is on communicative interac
tion. Por example, Leila Rama (2002) found that children who were good at
analysing language (one component of aptitude that is targeted by the tests)
were the most successful learners in an English second language programme
in which activities almost never involved direct attention to grammar.
Nick Ellis (2001) and others have hypothesized that working memory
(WM) capacity may be the most important variable in predicting success for
learners in many language learning situations. Working memory, also called
 Individual dijferences in second language learning 81

'short-term memory' refers to the active processing of information. Although

long-term memory capacity is very large indeed, working memory capacity
is limited. That means that only a certain amount of information can be
processed at a given time, and individuals differ in the amount of informa
tion they can process in working memory. Peter Skehan (1989) suggests that
successful language learners need not be strong in all of the components of
aptitude. For example, sorne may have strong memories but only average
abilities in language analysis.
Learners' strengths and weaknesses in these different aptitude components
may account for their ability to succeed in different types of instructional
programmes. In a Canadian language programme for adult learners of
French, Marjorie Wesche (1981) studied the progress of students who were
placed in instructional programmes that were either compatible or incom
patible with their aptitude profile. In the compatible groupings, students
with high analytic ability but average memory were assigned to teaching that
focused on grammatical structures; learners with good memory but average
analytic skills were placed in a class organized around the functional use of
che second language. In the incompatible groupings, students were placed in
classes that did not correspond to their aptitude profiles. Wesche reponed a
high level of student and teacher satisfaction when students were matched
with compatible teaching environments. In addition, sorne evidence indi
cated that matched students were able to attain significantly higher levels of
achievement than those who were mismatched. While few schools could
offer such choices to their students, teachers may be able to ensure that their
ceaching activities are sufliciently varied to accommodate learners with dif
ferent aptitude profiles.
Further support for the claim that a particular type of instruction cannot
benefit all learners in the same way comes from a study with secondary stu
dents of French as a foreign language in New Zealand. Rosemary Erlam
(2005) explored whether there was a relationship between aptitude and the
effectiveness of three different types of instruction, which she called deduc
tive, inductive, and structured input. Students were assessed on three measures
oflanguage aptitude: language analytic ability, phonemic coding ability, and
working memory.They were then divided into three groups and given differ
e n t types of instruction on direct object pronouns in French.

Learners in the deductive instruction group received explicit rule-based

grammar instruction followed by the opportunity to practise the rules they
had learned. Learners in the inductive group received no grammar instruc
rion; instead they participated in activities that encouraged them to figure
o u t the different meanings conveyed by direct object pronouns and then to
produce them. Learners in the structured input instruction group received
aplicit rule-based grammar instruction but did not produce the target
82 Individual differences in second languagelearning

forms. Instead they participated in activities that exposed them to spoken

and written examples of direct object pronouns.

Erlam found that ali learners benefited from the deductive instruction
regardless of differences in aptitude. This was interpreted as support far Peter
Skehan's ( 1989) hypothesis that more structured teaching may even out indi
vidual differences compared with less structured teaching. Erlam's findings
also showed that learners with greater language analytic ability and memory
capacity were able t o benefit more from the inductive and structured input
instruction on written (but not oral) tests. This supports the hypothesis thar
learners with greater aptitude can figure out the rules of language based on
input, and that they are able t o consolidate this knowledge without the need
to produce language-at least in terms of their written ability.
Befare we leave the topic of language learning aptitude, it is perhaps appro
priate t o look at two extremes of the aptitude continuum. Sorne people
whose academic performance is usually very good find themselves frustrated
in their attempts to learn a foreign language. Lenore Ganschow and Richard
Sparks (2001) and their colleagues have studied many cases of young adults
who find foreign language learning exceedingly difficult. They identified
several ways in which these students differ from successful learners. Most
perform poorly on at least sorne of the measures that make up aptitude tests.
Sorne have problems with certain kinds of verbal skills, even in their own lan
guage. What is perhaps most important about this research is that, with great
effort and instructional support, sorne of these students are able to succeed
in spite of their difficulties. The challenge is t o find instructional approaches
that meet the needs oflearners with a variety of aptitude profiles.
 Individual differences in second languagelearning 83

At the other end of the aptitude continuum we find individuals whose

achievements seem to defy every prediction about what is possible in second
language learning. Lorraine Obler (1989) reponed on the case of one
American man who seemed able to acquire oral fluency in a new language in
'a matter of weeks'. Neil Smith and lanthi-Maria Tsimpli (1995) followed a
polyglot savant who learned many languages with apparent ease. This
achievement was panicularly astonishing in light of the fact that his overall
cognitive functioning and social skills were quite limited.
Such exceptional learners suggest that an aptitude for language learning is at
least partly independent of cognitive, social, and personality characteris tics
that are often associated with successful learning. Nevenheless, Michael
Erard's (2012) review of the cases of sorne of history's most successful learners
of multiple languages shows that their unusual talent was also associated with
a willingness to work hard at tasks that many would consider too boring or
difficult, such as using word cards to study vocabulary.

Learning styles
Sorne researchers have investigated individual differences in terms of 'learn
ing style', defined as an individual's 'natural, habitual, and preferred way(s)
of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skills' (Reid
1995: viii). We have all heard people say that they cannot learn something
until they have seen it. They would fall into the group called 'visual' learn
ers. Others, who may be called 'auditory' learners, seem to learn best 'by ear'.
For others, referred to as 'kinaesthetic' learners, physical action such as
miming or role-play seems to help the learning process. These are referred to
as perceptually-based learning styles. Considerable research has also focused
on distinctions between different cognitive learning styles. Individuals have
been described as field independent or field dependent, according to
whether they tend to separare details from the general background or to see
things more holistically.A typical measure of this cognitive style is the embed
ded figures test, in which panicipants are asked to find a simple geometric
shape embedded in a more complex one. For a number of years, it was widely
reponed that there was a strong relationship between field independence and
success in second language learning. However, a review of the research led
Zoltán Dornyei and Peter Skehan (2003) to conclude that more research will
be needed to identify the nature of the relationship.
84 Individual differences in second languagelearning

There are many questions about how learning styles interact with success in
language learning. For one thing, it is difficult to determine whether they
reflect immutable differences or whether they develop (and thus can be
changed) through experience. There is a need for considerably more research.
Nevertheless, when learners express a preference for seeing something written
or spending more time in a language laboratory, we should not assume that
their ways of working are wrong, even if they seem to be in confüct with the
pedagogical approach we have adopted. Instead, we should encourage learn
ers to use all means available to them. At a minimum, research on learning
styles should make us sceptical of claims that a single teaching method or
textbook will suit the needs of all learners.

Personality
A number of personality characteristics have been proposed as likely to affect
second language learning, but it has not been easy to confirm in empiri cal
studies. As with other research investigating the effects of individual
characteristics on second language learning, studies of a similar personality
trait produce different results. Por example, it is often argued that an extro
verted person is well suited to language learning but research does not always
support this conclusion. Although sorne studies have found that success in
language learning is correlated with learners' seores on questionnaires meas
uring characteristics associated with extroversion such as assertiveness and
adventurousness, others have found that many successful language learners
would not get high seores on measures of extroversion. Lily Wong Fillmore
(1979) observed that, in certain learning situations, the quiet observant
learner may have greater success.
Another aspect of personality that has been studied is inhibition. lt has been
suggested that inhibition discourages risk-taking, which is necessary
 Individual dijferences in second languagelearning 85

for progress in language learning. This is often considered t o be a particular

problem for adolescents, who are more self-conscious than younger learn
ers. In a series of studies in the 1970s, Alexander Guiora and his colleagues
(1972) found support for the claim that inhibition is a negative force, at
least for second language pronunciation performance. One study involved
an analysis of the effects of small doses of alcohol, known for its ability to
reduce inhibition, on pronunciation. Study participants who drank small
amounts of alcohol did better on pronunciation tests than those who did not
drink any. While results such as these are interesting, they may have more t o
do with performance than with learning. We may also note, in passing, that
when larger doses of alcohol were administered, pronunciation rapidly
deteriorated!
Learner anxiety-feelings of worry, nervousness, and stress that many stu
dents experience when learning a second language-has been extensively
investigated. For a long time, researchers thought of anxiety as a perma nent
feature of a learner's personality. In fact, the majority of language anxiety
scales like the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz,
Horwitz, and Cope 1986) measure anxiety in this way. So, for example, stu
dents are assumed t o be 'anxious' if they 'strongly agree' with statements such
as 'I become nervous when I have t o speak in the second language classroom'.
However, such questionnaire responses do not take account of the possibility
that anxiety can be temporary and context-specific.
Other researchers investigating learner anxiety in second language classrooms
see anxiety as dynamic and dependent on particular situations and circum
stances. This permits distinctions t o be made between for example, feeling
anxious when giving an oral presentation in front of the whole class but not
when interacting with peers in group work. Whatever the context, anxiety
can interfere with the learning process. Peter Maclntyre (1995) argues that
'because nervous students are focused on both the task at hand and their
reactions t o it ... [they] will not learn as quickly as relaxed students' (p. 96).
Of course, it has also been argued that not all anxiety is bad and that a certain
amount of tension can have a positive effect and even facilitare learning.
Experiencing anxiety befare a test or an oral presentation can provide the
right combination of motivation and focus t o succeed. Because anxiety is
often considered to be a negative term, sorne researchers have chosen t o use
other terms they consider t o be more neutral. In a study of young adults
learning French in an intensive summer programme, Guy Spielmann and
Mary Radnofsky (2001) used the term 'tension'. They found that tension, as
experienced by the learners in their study, was perceived as both beneficia!
and detrimental and that it was also related to the learners' social interactions
inside and outside the classroom.
86 Individual differences in second language learning

A learner's willingness to communicate (WTC) has also been related to

anxiety. We have all experienced occasions when we tried to avoid commu
nicating in a second language. W T C may change with the number of people
present, the topic of conversation, the formality of the circumstances, and
even with whether we feel tired or energetic at a given moment. A colleague
in Canada, who works in the area of second language learning and speaks
several languages, recently confessed that he avoided the comer store in his
neighbourhood because the proprietor always spoke French to him. He rec
ognized the proprietor's efforts to help him improve his skills in this new
language, and was grateful for it, but, as he told us with embarrassment, it
was just easier to go to the store where he could use English.
This is consistent with research carried out by Richard Clément, Peter
Maclntyre, and their colleagues, who argue that learners who willingly
communicate in a wide range of conversational interactions are able to do
so because of their communicative confidence. In a series of studies they
have shown that communicative confidence is shaped by two variables: how
relaxed L2 learners are and how competent (or incompetent) they feel about
their L2 ability. These factors are directly influenced by previous contacts
with L2 speakers and are considered to be the main contributors to commu
nicative confidence (Clément, Baker, and Maclntyre 2003).
Several other personality characteristics such as self-esteem, empathy, domi
nance, talkativeness, and responsiveness have also been studied. The research
does not show a clearly-defined relationship between one personality trait
and second language acquisition. And, as indicated earlier, the major dif
ficulty in investigating personality characteristics is that of identification and
measurement. Another explanation has been offered for the mixed findings.
Personality variables seem to be more consistently related to conversational
skills than to the acquisition of grammatical accuracy or academic language.
Finally, most of the research on personality variables has been carried out
within a quantitative research paradigm, that is, an approach that relies
heavily on relating learners' seores on personality questionnaires to their
language test performance. Sorne researchers have argued that a more quali
tative approach to understanding and investigating personality variables is
needed to adequately capture their depth and complexity, especially as they
emerge and evolve over time.
Despite the contradictory results and the problems involved in carrying out
research in the area of personality characteristics, many researchers believe
that personality will be shown to have an important influence on success in
language learning. This relationship is an intricate one, however, in that it is
probably not personality alone, but the way in which it combines with other
factors, that influences second language learning.
 Individual differences insecond language learning 87

Attitudes and motivation

Roben Gardner and his colleagues have carried out a programme of research
on the relationship between a learner's attitudes toward the second or foreign
language and its community, and success in second language learning
(Masgoret and Gardner 2003). As is the case with other variables, it is not
easy to determine whether positive attitudes produce successful learning or
successful learning engenders positive attitudes, or whether both are affected
by other factors. Although the research cannot prove that positive attitudes
cause success in learning, there is ample evidence that positive attitudes are
associated with a willingness to keep learning.
Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon. lt has
been defined in terms of two factors: on the one hand, learners' communi
cative needs, and on the other, their attitudes towards the second language
community. 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 are therefore likely to be
motivated to acquire proficiency in it. Similarly, if learners have favourable
attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire more contact
with them. Roben Gardner and Wallace Lamben (1972) coined the terms
instrumental motivation (language learning for immediate or practica! goals)
and integrative motivation (language learning for personal growth and cul
tural enrichment through contact with speakers of the other language). For a
long time integrative motivation was considered to be the stronger predictor
of successful learning. In sorne contexts, however, instrumental motivation
was found to be a better predictor. Thus, both types of motivation have been
found to be related to success in second language learning. However, in sorne
learning environments, it is difficult to distinguish between these two types
of orientation to the target language and its community. Funhermore, early
research tended to conceptualize motivation as a stable characteristic of the
learner. More recent work emphasizes the dynamic nature of motivation and
tries to account for the changes that take place over time.
Zoltán Dornyei (2001a) developed a process-oriented model of motivation
that consists of three phases. The first phase, 'choice motivation' refers to
getting staned and to setting goals, the second phase, 'executive motivation',
is about carrying out the necessary tasks to maintain motivation, and the
third phase, 'motivation retrospection', refers to students' appraisal of and
reaction to their performance. An example of how one might cyde through
these phases would be: a secondary school learner in Poland is excited about
an upcoming trip to Spain and decides to take a Spanish course (choice moti
vation). After a few months of grammar lessons he becomes frustrated with
the course, stops going to dasses (executive motivation) and finally decides
to drop the course. A week later a friend tells him about a great Spanish
88 Individual differences in second language learning

conversation course she is taking, and his 'choice motivation' is activated

again. He decides to register in the conversation course and in just a few
weeks he develops sorne basic Spanish conversational skills and a feeling of
accomplishment. His satisfaction level is so positive (motivation retrospec
tion) that he decides to enrol in a more advanced Spanish course when he
returns from his trip t o Spain.
In a book devoted t o helping second language teachers generate and maintain
learners' motivation, Dornyei (2001b) proposes and describes concrete and
innovative methods and techniques that can help teachers motivate learners
throughout these three phases.

Motivation in the classroom

In a teacher's mind, motivated students are usually those who participare
actively in dass, express interest in the subject matter, and study a great deaL
Teachers also have more influence on these behaviours and the motivation
they represent than on students' reasons for studying the second language
or their attitudes toward the language and its speakers. Teachers can make a
positive contribution t o students' motivation t o learn if dassrooms are places
that students enjoy coming to because the content is interesting and relevant
t o their age and level of ability, the learning goals are challenging yet manage
able and dear, and the atmosphere is supportive. Teachers must also keep in
mind that cultural and age differences will determine the most appropriate
ways for them to motivate students.
Litde research has investigated how pedagogy interacts direcdy with moti
vation in second/foreign language dassrooms. One exception is a study by
Marie Guilloteaux and Zoltán Dornyei (2008) who explored the links
between teachers' motivational practice and students' motivation for L2
learning. l t was a large-scale study with 27 teachers and over 1,300 learners
in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) dassrooms in Korea. The teach ers'
motivational strategies were described using a dassroom observation
s c h e m e - t h e Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching (MOLT).
MOLT identified 25 motivational practices used by the teachers that were
relatively easy t o define and t o observe. They were divided into four cat
egories that are described below along with examples of the motivational
behaviours induded within each.
1 Teacher discourse: arousing curiosity or attention, promoting autonomy,
stating communicative purpose/utility of activity
2 Participation structure: group work/ pair work
3 Activity design: individual competition, team competition, intellectual
challenge, tangible task product
4 Encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation and activity design:
effective praise, elicitation of self/peer correction session, dass applause.
 Individual differences in second languagelearning 89

In each lesson, the learners' motivation was measured in terms of their level
of engagement. The proportion of students who paid attention, who actively
participated, and who eagerly volunteered during activities was calculated.
A three-level scale was used to measure engagement in each observed lesson:
very low (a few students), low (one third to two thirds of the students) and
high (more than two thirds of the students). Learners also completed a ques
tionnaire about their motivation levels specifically related to their EFL class.
The researchers found significant positive correlations between the teachers'
motivational practices, the learners' engagement behaviours, and the learners'
self-reports on the questionnaire. The researchers acknowledge that corre
lation results do not indicate cause-effect relationships. Nevertheless, the
findings are important because this is the first study to provide 'any empiri
cal evidence concerning the concrete, classroom-specific impact oflanguage
teachers' motivational strategies' (Guilloteaux and Dornyei 2008: 72).

Identity and ethnicgroup affiliation

Social factors in the wider community can also affect motivation, attitudes,
and language learning success. One such factor is the social dynamic or
power relationship between languages. For example, members of a minority
group learning the language of a majority group may have different attitudes
and motivation from those of majority group members learning a minority
language. Even though it is impossible to predict the exact effect of such
societal factors on second language learning, the fact that languages exist in
social contexts cannot be overlooked when we seek to understand the vari
ables that affect success in learning. Children as well as adults are sensitive to
social dynamics and power relationships.
A good example of how relations of power in the social world affect interac
tion between second language learners and target language speakers comes
from the work of Bonny Norton Peirce. Drawing from data collected in a
longitudinal case study of the language learning experiences of immigrant
women in Canada, she argues that concepts such as instrumental and inte
grative motivation do not adequately capture the complex relations of power,
identity, and language learning. lnstead, she uses the term 'investment' to
·capture the relationship of the language learner [and his/her identity] to the
changing social world.' (Norton Peirce 1995: 10).All the participants in her
smdy were highly motivated to learn English. However, there were social
situations in which they were reluctant to speak and these were typically ones
in which there was a power imbalance. Their experiences in those situations
limited the opportunities they had to practise and to continue to develop the
second language outside the classroom.
Working with immigrant children in English-medium kindergarten classes,
Kelleen Toohey (2000) observed that they were quickly assigned identities
90 Individual differences insecond language learning

such as successful/unsuccessful, big/small, talkative/quiet, etc. in their first

year of school. Of course, they also had the identity of 'being ESL'. Because
learners' identities impact on what they can do and how they can participare
in classrooms, this naturally affects how much they can learn. For example.
one of the 'ESL' children was consistently excluded from imaginative interac
tive activities with her peers; another learner was perceived as someone who
never listened or did the 'right thing'. Toohey argues that these identities
could eventually lead to their isolation and to restricted or less powerful par
ticipation in their classroom community. While Toohey is careful to point
out that identities are not static and can change over time, it is equally impor
tant to keep in mind that 'classrooms are organized to provide occasions
upon which sorne children look more and sorne less able, and judgements are
made which become social facts about individual children' (Toohey 2000:
77).
The two studies above describe how issues of identity and investment play
important roles for both children and adults when learning a second lan
guage. Research has also documented how these factors contribute in
complex and sometimes contradictory ways when learning a foreign lan
guage. For example, it has been observed that Japanese students are often
reluctant to speak English in communicative lessons despite high levels of
motivation to learn the language. Furthermore, when students with high
levels of English language proficiency do communicate they often speak with
a strong Japanese accent and intentionally produce grammatical errors for
fear that they might be perceived as considering themselves to be superior
(Greer 2000).
In a study with secondary school Japanese learners of English as a foreign lan
guage, Yasuyo Tomita (2011) observed that the students were more willing to
communicate during activities that combined a focus on form and meaning
than in exclusively meaning-based activities. In observations and interviews
with the students, she concluded that learners were not willing to invest in
English communication with each other unless they were able to establish
their identities as 'learners' by discussing language form and raising ques
tions about grammar. In exclusively communicative activities learners were
reluctant to use English to communicate their ideas or opinions for fear that
they would be identified as 'show offs' and pretending to be someone other
than Japanese.

Learner beliefs
Second language learners are not always aware of their individual cognitive or
perceptual learning styles, but virtually all learners, particularly older learn
ers, have strong beliefs and opinions about how their instruction should be
delivered. These beliefs are usually based on previous learning experiences
 Individual differences in second languagelearning 91

and the assumption (right or wrong) that a particular type of instruction is

the best way far them to learn.
Research on learner beliefs about the role of grammar and corrective feedback
in second language learning confirms that there is often a mismatch between
students' and teachers' views. In two large-scale studies Renate Schulz (2001)
found that virtually all students expressed a desire t o have their errors cor
rected while very few teachers felt this was desirable. In addition, while most
students believed that 'formal study of the language is essential t o the even
tual mastery of the language', j ust over half of the teachers shared this view.
Shawn Loewen and his colleagues (2009) asked 745 learners of different
languages to express their beliefs about grammar instruction and corrective
feedback. They found that sorne but not all learners valued grammar instruc
tion. For example, learners of English as a second language did not value it as
much as did learners of foreign languages. This might have been related to the
fact that the ESL learners had more years of previous grammar instruction
compared to the foreign language learners and thus they were less enthusi
astic about it and ready far more focus on communication. Overall, learners
did not value corrective feedback as much as grammar instruction except far
those learning Chinese and Arabic who valued both. The researchers sug
gested that this might be because the two languages are non Indo-European
and thus more difficult far English speakers t o learn than, far example,
Spanish, German, and French.
Nina Spada and her research team (2009) have examined not whether learn
ers perceive grammar instruction as useful but rather if they have preferences
far when it should be taught. In a series of studies with learners (and teachers)
of English as a second language and English as a foreign language, question
naires were administered t o 450 learners, asking them whether they preferred
t o focus on grammar separately from or embedded within communicative
practice. The overall results indicated that both groups oflearners preferred
integrating attention t o grammar within communicative practice. However,
the ESL learners also reponed that they valued separating grammar from
communicative interaction much more than the EFL learners. This makes
intuitive sense given that in the ESL context where there are more oppor
tunities far communication outside the classroom, learners appreciate the
opportunity to focus on grammar separately from communication when
they are in the classroom. In the EFL context, however, where few opportu
nities far exposure t o the L2 are available, the classroom is seen as the only
place far co mmu nicatio n - thus a preference far integrating grammar with
communicative practice. The results from the ESL and EFL teachers who
also participated in the studies showed that they tended to share their stu
dents' views (Spada and Santos Lima 201O (in preparation)).
92 Individual differences in second language learning

Individual differences and classroom

instruction
There are many questions about how the existence of individual differences
should influence instruction. On a simple practica! level, it is not possible
for a teacher with 50 students-or even one with 1O students-to customize
instruction to suit the abilities or preferences of each one. Nevertheless, there
can be little doubt that an instructional approach that rigidly adheres to a
single way of teaching all students and an expectation that all students can
learn in the same way will deprive sorne students of learning opportunities.
Zoltán Dornyei (2005) has reviewed the research on individual differences
and proposes a number of ways for educators to help learners make the most
of their individual abilities and learning preferences.
Learners' instructional preferences, whether due to inherent differences in
their approach to learning or to their beliefs about how languages are learned,
will influence the kinds of strategies they use in trying to learn new mate
rial. Teachers can help learners expand their repertoire of learning strategies
and thus develop greater flexibility in their ways of approaching language
learning.

Age and second language learning

We now turn to a learner characteristic of a different type: the age at which
learning begins. Age is easier to define and measure than personality, apti
tude, or motivation, but the relationship between age and success in second
language acquisition is hardly less complex or controversia!.
It is frequendy observed that most children from immigrant families even
tually speak the language of their new community with native-like fluency,
while their parents often fall short of such high levels of proficiency, especially
in the spoken language. To be sure, many adult second language learners
achieve excellent language skills. One often sees reference to Joseph Conrad,
a native speaker of Polish who became a majar writer in the English language,
and it is not uncommon to find adult second language learners with a rich
vocabulary, sophisticated syntax, and effective pragmatic skills, even though
there may be subde differences between their language use and that of those
who began learning the language while very young.
As we saw in Chapter 1, the Critica! Period Hypothesis is that there is a time
in human development when the brain is predisposed for success in
language learning. lt has been hypothesized that there is a critica! period for
second language acquisition just as there is for first language acquisi tion.
Developmental changes in the brain, it is argued, affect the nature of
language acquisition, and language learning that occurs after the end of the
 Individual differences in second language learning 93

critica! 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 may depend on more general learn
ing abilities-the same ones they might use to acquire other kinds of skills
or information. lt is argued that these general learning abilities are not as
effective for language learning as the more specific, innate capacities that are
available to the young child. l t is most often claimed that the critica! period
ends somewhere around puberty, but sorne researchers suggest it could be
even earlier. Others find evidence that there may be multiple critica! periods,
related to different aspects of language learning. For example, the ability to
acquire the pronunciation patterns of a new language may end earlier than
the ability to acquire vocabulary.
Of course, as we saw in Chapter 2, it is difficult to compare children and
adults as second language learners. In addition to possible biological dif
ferences suggested by the Critica! Period Hypothesis, the conditions for
language learning are often very different. Younger learners in informal lan
guage learning environments usually have more time to devote to learning
language. They often have more opportunities to hear and use the language in
environments where they do not experience strong pressure to speak Huently
and accurately from the very beginning. Furthermore, their early imperfect
efforts are often praised, or at least accepted. Older learners are more likely to
find themselves in situations that demand more complex language and the
expression of more complicated ideas. Adults are often embarrassed by their
lack of mastery of the language and they may develop a sense of inadequacy
after experiences of frustration in trying to say exactly what they mean. Such
negative feelings may affect their motivation and willingness to place them
selves in situations where they will need to use the new language.
Research based on the CPH in addition to personal experience or informal
observation of adult learners' difficulties has led sorne educators and policy
makers as well as many parents to conclude that second language instruction
is most likely to succeed if it begins when learners are very young. However,
sorne studies of the second language development of older and younger learn
ers learning in similar circumstances have shown that older learners are more
efficient than younger learners. By using their metalinguistic knowledge,
memory strategies, and problem-solving skills, they make the most of second
or foreign language instruction. In educational settings, learners who begin
learning a second language at primary school level do not always achieve
greater proficiency in the long run than those who begin in adolescence.
Furthermore, there are countless anecdotes about older learners (adolescents
and adults) who achieve excellence in the second language. Does this mean
that there is no critica! period for second language acquisition?
94 Individual differences in second language learning

lhe critica/ period: More thanjust pronunciation?

Most studies of the relationship between age of acquisition and second
language development have concluded that older learners typically have a
noticeable 'foreign accent' in the spoken language. But what about other
linguistic features? Is syntax (word order, overall sentence structure) as
dependent on age of acquisition as phonological development? What about
morphology?
Mark Patkowski (1980) studied the relationship between age and the
acquisition of features of a second language other than pronunciation. He
hypothesized that, even if accent were ignored, only those who had begun
learning their second language before the age of 15 could achieve full,
native-like mastery of that language. Patkowski studied 67 highly educated
immigrants t o the United States. They had started t o learn English at various
ages, but all had lived in the United States for more than five years. He
compared them to 15 native-born Americans with a similarly high level of
education, whose variety of English could be considered the second language
speakers' target language.
The main question in Patkowski's research was: 'Will there be a difference
between learners who began to learn English before puberty and those who
began learning English later?' However, he also compared learners on the
basis of other characteristics and experiences that sorne people have sug
gested might be as good as age in predicting or explaining a person's success in
mastering a second language. Por example, he looked at the total amount of
time a speaker had been in the United States as well as the amount of formal
ESL instruction each speaker had had.
A lengthy interview with each person was tape-recorded. Because Patkowski
wanted t o remove the possibility that the results would be affected by accent,
he transcribed five-minute samples from the interviews and asked trained
native-speaker judges to place each transcript on a scale from O (no knowl
edge of English) t o 5 (a level of English expected from an educated native
speaker).
The findings were quite dramatic. The transcripts of all native speakers and
32 out of 33 second language speakers who had begun learning English
before the age of 15 were rated 4+ or 5. The homogeneity of the pre-puberty
learners suggests that, for this group, success in learning a second language
was almost inevitable. In contrast, 27 of the 32 post-puberty learners were
rated between 3 and 4, but a few learners were rated higher (4+ or 5) and one
was rated at 2+. The performance of this group looked like the sort of range
one would expect if one were measuring success in learning almost any kind
of skill or knowledge: sorne people did extremely well; sorne did poorly; most
were in the middle.
 Individual differences in second language learning 95

When Patkowski examined the other factors that might be thought to affect
success in second language acquisition, the picture was much less dear. There
was, naturally, sorne relationship between those factors and learning success,
but it often turned out that age was so dosely related to the other factors that
it was not really possible to separate them completely. Por example, length of
residence in the United States sometimes seemed to be a fairly good predic
tor. However, it was often the case that those with longer residence had also
arrived at an earlier age. Similarly, amount of instruction, when separated
from age, did not predict success as well as age of immigration did. Thus,
Patkowski found that far learners who acquire a second language primarily in
the 'natural' environment, age of acquisition is an important factor in setting
limits on the development of native-like mastery of a second language and
that this limitation does not apply only to pronunciation.

lntuitions ofgrammaticality
Jacqueline Johnson and Elissa Newport (1989) conducted a study of 46
Chinese and Korean speakers who had begun to learn English at different
ages. All were students or faculty members at an American university and all
had been in the United States far at least three years. The study also induded
a comparison group of 23 native speakers of English. The participants were
asked to make grammaticality judgements of a large number of sentences
that tested 12 rules of English morphology and syntax. They heard recorded
sentences and had to indicate whether each sentence was correct. Half of the
sentences were grammatical, half were not.
Johnson and Newport found that age of arrival in the United States was a
significant predictor of success on the test. Learners who began earliest
achieved the highest seores on the judgement task. Those who began later
were less likely to judge the sentences correcdy and their performance on the
test varied more widely.
Robert DeKeyser (2000) carried out a replication of theJohnson and Newport
study, working with Hungarian immigrants to the United States. He also
found a strong relationship between age of immigration and performance on
the judgement task. In addition, he asked participants to take language
aptitude tests and found that, far participants who began learning English as
adults, aptitude seores were correlated with success. However, there was no
such correlation far those who learned English in childhood. These findings
appear to confirm the hypothesis that adult learners may learn language in a
way that is different from the way young children learn.
96 Individual differences in second language learning

Rate oflearning
Sorne research suggests that older learners may have an advantage in terms of
the rate of learning. They appear to learn faster in the early stages of second
language development. In 1978, Catherine Snow and Marian Hoefnagel
Hohle published a study on a group of English speakers who were learning
Dutch as a second language while living in the Netherlands. The learners
included children as young as three years old as well as older children, ado
lescents, and adults. On tests administered when learners had been in the
country far less than a year, adolescents were by far the most successful learn
ers. They were ahead of everyone on nearly all of the tests. Furthermore, it
was the adults, not the children, whose seores were second best. In other
words, adolescents and adults learned faster than children in the first few
months of exposure to Dutch.
By the end of the year, the children were catching up, or had surpassed, the
adults on severa! measures. Nevertheless, the adolescents retained the
highest levels of performance overall. The fact that the young children were
catching up, together with evidence from other studies, suggests that they
would probably surpass the older learners if they continued to have adequate
opportunity to use the language. However, this study shows that adults and
adolescents can make considerable and rapid progress in their proficiency in
a second language in contexts where they use the language in social, personal,
professional, or academic interaction.
One view of critica! period research that has had an important impact on
the way we look at studies oflanguage acquisition has been expressed in the
work of Vivian Cook (2008). He makes a strong case far the inappropriate
ness of using the criterion of 'indistinguishable from a native speaker' as the
basis far success in second language acquisition. Indeed, Cook argues that a
second language speaker or bilingual person should not be compared to
monolingual native speakers because the real goal is 'multicompetence', that
is, knowledge of multiple languages that inform and enrich one another.
Research on the long-term outcomes of second language learning as well as
the rate of learning at different ages brings us to a question that is probably
of greatest interest to most readers of this book: What can we conclude about
the role of age when learning takes place primarily in an educational setting?

Age and second language instruction

Many people who have never heard of the critica! period hypothesis believe
that, in school programmes far second or foreign language teaching, 'younger
is better'. However, both experience and research show that starting early is
no guarantee of success and that older learners can attain high levels of profi
ciency in their second language. In considering the best age at which to begin
 Individual di/ferences in second language learning 97

second language instruction, it is essential to think carefully about the goals

of an instructional programme and the context in which it occurs before we
jump to conclusions about the necessiry-or even the desirabiliry-of the
earliest possible start (Lightbown 2008a).
As we have seen, there is strong evidence that differences in learning outcomes
are associated with age oflearning. We have also seen that, especially for older
learners, reaching high levels of second language proficiency involves apti
tude, motivation, and the appropriate social conditions for learning. Thus,
decisions about the age at which instruction should begin cannot be based
solely on research on the critical period hypothesis, which focuses only on
age and on the attainment of native-like proficiency.
I n educational settings, it is particularly important to assess the goals and
the resources available for second language development. In these settings,
research has shown that older children and adolescents progress more rapidly
than younger children particularly in the early stages oflearning. The knowl
edge and skills that older learners are able to acquire in a relatively short
period of time will satisfy the needs of many learners whose goal is to use the
language for everyday communication, to succeed on foreign language
examinations, or to read texts for an academic course rather than to speak
with native-like pronunciation.
When the objective of second language learning is native-like proficiency in
the target language, it may indeed be desirable for the learner to be com
pletely surrounded by the language as early as possible. However, as we saw
in Chapter l, early intensive exposure to the second language may entail the
loss or incomplete development of the child's first language. When the goal
is basic communicative abiliry for all students in an educational system, and
when it is assumed that the child's native language will continue to be an
important part of their lives, it may be more efficient to begin second or
foreign language teaching later.
In most second- and foreign-language classrooms, learners receive only a few
hours of instruction per week. Those who start later (for example, at age 1O,
11, or 12) often catch up with those who begin earlier. In Ciare Burstall's
(1975) landmark study, students who had made progress in early-start pro
grammes, sometimes found themselves placed in secondary school classes
with students who had had no previous instruction. Teachers who had both
the more advanced early-start students and the students who had had fewer
total hours of instruction tended to teach to a lower common denominator,
and differences between the two groups of students essentially disappeared.
This situation is not at all uncommon. Furthermore, in many educational
settings, starting instruction earlier may not actually entail many more total
hours of instruction. Por example, in Quebec, responding to pressure from
parents, the age at which instruction in English as a second language began
98 Individual dijferences in second languagelearning

was lowered in recent years from about age 9 or 1O to age 6, but the total
number of hours of instruction was not increased. Rather, the number of
minutes of instruction per week was spread over more years (Lightbown,
2012). Thus, after years of classes, learners who have had an early start may
feel frustrated by the lack of progress, and their motivation to continue may
be diminished. Clearly the age at which instruction begins is not the only
variable that determines success in the second language classroom.
For many years, it was difficult to compare early-start and later-start learners
because of all the variations in their educational contexts. Since the 1990s,
many more studies have allowed us to investigate this question more effec
tively. Sorne large-scale research projects have been particularly useful in
separating the effect of age and other factors in school-based foreign lan
guage learning. For example, in Spain, the Barcelona Age Factor (BAF)
project studied the effects of changing the age of beginning to teach English
to Catalan/Spanish bilingual students.
When the starting age for teaching English was lowered, Carmen Muñoz and
her colleagues took advantage of the opportunity to compare the learning
outcomes for students who had started learning at different ages. They were
able to look at students' progress after 100, 416, and 726 hours of instruc
tion. Tu.ose who had begun to learn later (aged 11, 14, or 18+) performed
better on nearly every measure than those who had begun earlier (aged 8).
Tu.is was particularly true of measures based on metalinguistic awareness or
analytic ability. On listening comprehension, younger starters showed sorne
advantages. Muñoz suggests that this may be based on younger learners' use
of a more implicit approach to learning while older learners' advantages may
reflect their ability to use more explicit approaches, based on their greater
cognitive maturity. She points out that, in foreign language instruction,
where time is usually limited, 'younger learners may not have enough time
and exposure to benefit fully from the alleged advantages of implicit learning'
(Muñoz 2006: 33).
One of the advantages of the BAF project is that the researchers were able to
follow the same learners' language development over severa! years. Tu.is
enabled them to examine whether the early learners would eventually surpass
the older learners as has been observed in the 'natural' setting. Tu.is did not
happen-although the younger learners caught up, the older learners main
tained their advantage over time.
Decisions about when to start second language instruction in schools should
be based on realistic goals and on realistic estimates of how long it takes to
achieve them. One or two hours a week will not produce advanced second
language speakers, no matter how young they were when they began. Older
learners may be able to make better use of the limited time they have for
second language instruction.
 Individual differences in second language learning 99

Age is only one of the characteristics that determine the way in which an
individual approaches second language learning and the eventual success of
that learning. The opportunities for learning (both inside and outside the
dassroom), the motivation to learn, and individual differences in aptitude
for language learning are also important factors that affect both rate oflearn
ing and eventual success in learning. lt is important to remind ourselves that
sorne older learners do achieve the highest level of success and that many
more are able t o use their languages in a variety of personal, social, and work
place activities.

AC T I V I T Y Reflect on individual differences and

language learning success
Look back at the notes you made in Table 3.1 about you r language learn ing
experience and that of you r colleagues and friends.
Which cases confirm you r expectations about the variables that are
associated with success -o r the lack of i t - i n second language learning?
2 Which ones seem to challenge those expectations?
3 To what extent do you think that the contexts in which the learning took
place are responsible for the outcomes?
4 To what extent do you think the differences in outcome are due to
differences inherent in the individuals?
5 Do you think that the individuals might have experienced different
outcomes in different situations?

Summary
In this chapter, we have learned that the results of research on individual
differences are not always easy to interpret. This is partly due t o the dif
ficulty of defining and measuring individual characteristics and to the fact
that the characteristics are not independent of one another. In addition, rela
tionships between individual characteristics and learning environments are
complex, and different learners will react differently t o the same learning
conditions. Indeed, the same learner will react differently t o the same condi
tions at different times. Researchers are beginning to explore the nature of
these complex interactions, but it remains difficult t o predict how a particu
lar individual's characteristics will influence his or her success as a language
learner. Nonetheless, in a dassroom, the goal of the sensitive teacher is to
creare a learning environment with a wide variety of instructional activities
so that learners with different abilities and learning preferences can be suc
cessful in learning a second language.
100 Individual dijferences in second language learning

Questions for reflection

1Think of an example of a member of a majority group learning the language of
a mi nority group and one of a member of a minority group learning a
majority group's language. How might the power relationships between
groups of speakers affect the attitudes of language learners? How might the
status of the languages affect opportu nities for learning?
2 As a second/foreign language teacher or learner, what are you r views about
teachi ng grammar? Do you have any specific preferences for how it should
be taught or when? Do you know what you r students' preferences might be
for grammar teachi ng. lf not, do you thin k it would be usefu l t o findout?
3 lf you were teaching English as a foreign language in a country with limited
opportunities for secondary and post-secondary education in English, what
recommendations would you make regardi ng the age at which English
instruction would begi n? What research would you draw on in supporting
you r recommendations?

Suggestions for further reading

Dornyei, Z. 2005. The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual
Dijferences in Second Language Acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum and Associates.
Dornyei reviews decades of research on how individual differences affect
second language learning. The book covers personality variables, aptitude,
motivation, learning styles, learning strategies, and other individual char
acteristics such as anxiety and willingness to communicate that may vary
according to the learning environment. Both thorough and accessible, this
review concludes by emphasizing the evidence that individual differences
are strongly affected by the situation in which learning takes place rather
than being 'context-independent and absolute.'
Muñoz, C. (ed.). 2006. Age and the Rate of Foreign Language Learning.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
The Barcelona Age Factor study is the basis of this edited volume. Ten
chapters report on various aspects of studems' learning of English, com
paring the outcomes for students whose foreign language instruction
began at different ages. In addition to the specific research reports on, for
example, the students' oral fluency, vocabulary, and rate oflearning, there
is an overview chapter in which Carmen Muñoz, the project director and
editor of the volume, discusses the project in terms of broader issues of age
and language learning at school.
 Individual differences insecond language learning 1O1

Robinson, P.(ed). 2002. Individual Differences and Instructed Language

Learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
The contributors to this edited collection focus on interactions between
individual learner characteristics and learning contexts. The chapters in
the first section focus on theoretical work related to aptitude, motiva
tion, anxiety, and emotion. Each chapter in the second section describes
research investigating how individual learner variables interact with a par
ticular learning context to affect L2 learning. This includes classroom and
laboratory studies examining learner variables in relation to different types
of instruction and studies of natural versus instructed L2 learning.