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August 2022 - Year 24 - Issue 4

ISSN 1755-9715

Methods and Approaches in Teaching Foreign Language Learners Considering Their Individual Differences

Kamila Ikramova is 4th year bachelor student at the Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages. She works as an individual tutor and she is interested in learners’ psychology and learning innovation. Enjoys working with learners of different ages. Email: ikramova.kamil@mail.ru

 

Abstract 

The language acquisition may vary according to different factors such as learners’ abilities to perceive and produce information, the relation between a mother tongue and a target language, educational background and environment. In this case, a learner’s personality plays no less important role as well. While most educators take into consideration only general aspects, for instance, students’ age and level, most of them do not focus much on individual approach. For example, some people prefer individual language courses to group ones, others rely on self-study and the internet. This frequently causes problems within the educational process and learners’ disability to acquire the languages effectively. 

In order to identify what can encourage people to learn quickly, teachers should use “Needs Analysis”, make up “Student’s portrait” or imply various psychological techniques. Moreover, analyzing the classroom environment and certain preferences will give new innovative ideas how to conduct involving classes with the purpose to catch an audience’s attention. Furthermore, learners usually relate to different types of learning, determination of which might improve and ease the work significantly. Sometimes it can be that not students have weak points or barriers towards successful language acquisition, but a chosen programme does not match their learning styles and requirements. On the basis of this datum everyone will be able to gain the desirable results.

This research paper explains what personal differences students have and which methods are helpful for teachers to handle with the learning process.

 

Introduction

Nowadays, with the increasing popularity of learning the English language the necessity for a wide range of techniques used in teaching has grown up. Nevertheless, most of investigations and methods are usually supposed for a general audience and not to the specific group or moreover, a person. There is no method, which can suit all learners and satisfy their learning demands, as people come from various social groups and backgrounds. This has an influence on the style of learning and classroom environment because when one group of students bring their personal characteristics and behaviors others may tend to reflect them. 

While most teachers concentrate on the syllabus and goals they gradually forget about the individuality of their students. Besides that, a contact between a student and a teacher plays an essential role. Basing on the observation and a survey conducted among the learners we investigated how educators may identify and implement a certain approach, which can motivate their students to learn faster.

First of all, the language acquisition may vary according to different factors such as learners’ abilities to perceive and produce information, the relation between a mother tongue and a target language, educational background and environment. In this case, a learner’s personality plays no less important role as well. For example, some people prefer individual language courses to group ones, others rely on self-study and the internet. This frequently causes problems within the educational process and learners’ disability to acquire the languages effectively.

Since the last century the question of the unique and multifunctional approach was stated by several linguists and educators. At the end of the 90s Skehan became one of the first who distinguished a task based approach where he put an emphasis on the student’s personality and pedagogic approach to the individuals. He listed several inherit factors which were the samples for the further researches. Later other experts defined and extended the list of those aspects, which included: gender, motivation, autonomy, age, aptitude, intelligence, culture, ethnicity, beliefs, style and finally personality.

Factors contributing to the learner’s language development

Age

Most people will agree that the older we get the more difficult it is for us to perceive information and transform it into a productive skill. It is believed that a certain critical period for acquiring the languages exist and people must develop their skills within this timeframe, otherwise, they will lose a chance to be able  to speak any language. Moreover, as it is believed children learn faster, but many researches avoid admitting the fact that their grammar and vocabulary capacity is quite limited. Due to this fact, we may understand that mature students are able to learn much more effectively.

Gender

The studies of neurologists and linguists proved that females learn languages easier than males because of the position of the centre responsible for languages on the left part of the brain, which is used dominantly by women. Furthermore sex goes along with such aspects as motivation, specialization, goal-focus and family expectations.

Motivation

Motivation might be the most essential instrument towards successful learning. It pushes the students to overcome any difficulties they come across while absorbing information. But it is a volatile subject as it lasts for a specific period of time and fluctuates. So an experienced teacher should enable to motivate students when necessary to hold their interest.

According to Gardner and Lambert (1972) the following two types of motivation exist: Integrative: found in individuals who want are interested in the second language in order to integrate with and become a part of a target community/ culture; here the learner wants to resemble and behave like the target community. ii. Instrumental: found in individuals who want to get learn a second language with the objective of getting benefits from the second language skill. Objectives, such as business advancement, increase in professional status, educational goals etc. motivate an individual to learn a second language in this case. 

Autonomy

Discipline is what the majority of learners frequently lack. Autonomous learning takes into account the individual’s goal, learning style, needs and characteristics. Hence, not everyone is able to control their process of learning and assess their progress consciously, this factor may get self-absorbing.

Aptitude

Aptitude is considered as a special talent or predisposition towards the languages, which ease and precipitate the process of learning as an individual memorizes the information better in comparison with others. However, as this term has raised lots of stereotypes about language learning and has become an excuse for less motivated learners, it is being neglected at present. Besides this, aptitude should be characterized as a complex of discipline, motivation and intelligence.

Culture and Ethnicity

Cultural differences may influence the way people think and use the language. By observing the colloquial style we can discover general features of a particular nation. The behaviour is closely connected to this factor as it represents the lifestyle of society.

Beliefs or Stereotypes
Many beginners are mistaken considering that they have to possess a set of specific talents and basic knowledge of a foreign language when they start learning. This stereotypical opinion blocks their natural abilities and causes fear to speak. This is mostly related to the psychological barriers, which brings to inconfidence and imaginary failure. Learning style
The variety of styles and strategies has been developed since 1970 and its range gives us the description and understanding of how distinct our learners can be. According to Yasmina (1987), Skehen (1989) and Ellis (1989), owing to various analytic ability of field independent learners, they will be more successful in developing linguistic competence, while field dependent learners would be able to achieve a better communicative competence. Consequently field independent learners prefer more formal grammar based teaching, whereas field dependent learners prefer more informal communicative approach.

Personality

Foreign language learners often rely unconsciously on their personality while mastering the skills, which they are, first of all, comfortable with. 
According to Sh. Zafar (2012), there are a number of personality characteristics that may affect L2 learning, such as: 

  • Extroversion vs. introversion 
  • Self esteem 
  • Inhibition 
  • Risk-taking 
  • Anxiety.

Nevertheless, personal features can never be an obstacle for the L2 acquisition, but they may form certain affinities in learning, strengths and weaknesses. For instance, introverts and extroverts are equally good at L2, whereas, the first group has better writing skills and the second one can interact actively.

Research findings

With the purpose of investigating the issue in details and providing with the data of the used techniques, we took several situations into account as a case study. We observed 5 students with various ages, genders, personalities, learning styles, aptitudes, level, grades and motivations, who were learning both in groups and individually. The experiment was conducted within one month.

 

Methods 

The subjects of the experiment were first interviewed and tested. Then with the help of additional materials, needs analysis and student’s portrait we determined the strengths, weaknesses and main problems of the students, so that to turn them into effective tools of attraction to the language learning. For each student we prepared materials based on their interests, which were conducted in a game and learning modes. But firstly, it was crucial to create a friendly atmosphere in the class. Furthermore, we mixed the materials given in the program of study and the additional ones to keep up their interest. Besides all this, we used technologies to present new topics and to make the lessons engaging.

 

Results

In comparison with the primary testing the final examination showed that students started to memorize information faster and easier. Their vocabulary range has increased from 6,5 to 14.5. Thanks to graduate communicative approach the introverts overcame hesitation and fear to speak out in public as they were eager to discuss the topics of their interest so much. This point accounted for 14,3 extra scores along with listening which was facilitated by the use of technology as well as grammar comprising just 7 points out of 20.
At the end of experiment they were interviewed again in order to find out how effective the work was from their perspectives. 

  • All 5 students noticed positive changes after a week of the experiment.
  • After 2 weeks from the beginning of study 3 students started a self- study to get more knowledge.
  •  The results of attendance and of the home tasks rose from satisfactory to constantly good and from good to excellent marks.

The students pointed out that the regular support and dedication of the teacher motivated them to learn seriously. They also liked friendly attitude and focus towards them as individual units. According to the satisfactory results, it will be fair to highlight that this approach is definitely, difficult to conduct to the classes with a large number of students. Anyway, there could be a certain systematic work with everyone turn by turn or there might be a work done to the students divided  into the groups with common specific features. The preparation to these unique class requires efforts and expertise and in order to follow the results a constant analysis or peer observation must be held.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, considering individual difference may not only help our students to deepen into the learning process and speed their L2 acquisition up , but also enrich the sphere of teaching. As a result, the most effective method is psychological approach and connection between teachers and students. Since the learners need to feel free and not afraid of being judged or hurt, they get motivation through the communication within the society as it provokes learning and sharing. Apart from age and level, educators should pay attention at the goals and students’ expectations. They should be patient and flexible. Of course, the process must be implemented gradually as any other methods. Moreover, there is always a reason why one fails and another does something perfectly. A thorough observation and various analyses are handy to identify and reduce the problem. Finally, everyone enjoys attention and careful assessment with support, so it may become a principle motivation to learn from mistakes.

 

References

Skehan, P. (1989). Individual Differences in Second Language Learning. Edward Arnold, London.

Carol Griffiths & Adem Soruc- Individual Differences in Language Learning and Teaching: a Complex/Dynamic/Socio-Ecological/Holistic View/ May 2021

Shahila Zafar- Individual Learner Differences and Second Language Acquisition: A Review- Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 639-646, July 2012- School of Social Sciences and Languages, VIT University, Vellore-632014, TN, India

Cornbach, L. J. “How can instruction be adapted to individual differences?” In R.M. Gange. (Ed.), Learning and individual differences. Charles E. Publishing Company, Ohio, 1967. 2- Dulay, H.,

Burt, M. & Krashen, S. (1982). Language two. Oxford University Press.Ellis, R. (1986). Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford University Press, London. 

Strevens, P. (1985). Language Learning and Language Teaching. LSA, TESOL Institute, Forum Lectures. 

M. M. Abbasabadi - Individual Differences in Language Teaching- Quarterly Journal of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences\Vo1.2\No.5\2002 .

Yasmina, N. (1987). The Relationship of Field Dependence-Independence, Extroversion-Introversion and Attitude-Motivation to Foreign Language Proficiency. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of Essex.

 

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