I want to know much about it and it helps us to learn English better and also helps us finish our LA papers.
What kinds of characters does a good language learner have?
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What kinds of characters does a good language learner have?
What kinds of characters does a good language learner have?
I want to know much about it and it helps us to learn English better and also helps us finish our LA papers.
I want to know much about it and it helps us to learn English better and also helps us finish our LA papers.
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fluffyhamster
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I think you have to be bold, you can't be afraid to make up never-before-heard-of phrases and sound silly and be laughed at. You can't be afraid of sounding stupid. You have to be creative and have the deductive reasoning skills to figure out what you've never heard before. And you have to be very, very persistent.
It helps to not learn in a language vacuum, and have supportive people around you, too.
It helps to not learn in a language vacuum, and have supportive people around you, too.
That would be wonderful! 
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fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
I read somewhere (perhaps in relation to the US government's language training programmes for diplomats etc) that the best indicator of potential linguistic ability is what was termed (if I recall it correctly) "auditory/aural memory": those who can catch and hold phrases in their mind long enough to notice things, make provisional hypotheses etc, apparently tend to be the "best" (quickest?) language learners.
When time/length of course isn't a factor, then this ability obviously won't be as important.
When time/length of course isn't a factor, then this ability obviously won't be as important.
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Zimmermann
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- Location: Gold Coast, Australia
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A few years ago i was wondering about the same question because I had students in my classes who would not learn at all as well as students who made great progress. I started thinking about this because it baffled me. In fact, i wrote a whole book about it entitled “7 Factors that Make or Break language Learners”. It is a bit of a corny title now but it discusses 7 characteristics that I found play a major role in the learning process. You can get a copy at englishwithluke.com. It includes a lot of my own experience learning English and French fluently.
it is definitely a fascinating topic.
it is definitely a fascinating topic.
A good language learner must be willing to take risks (practice the language without fear of failure, embarresment) and must abandon 'ideas' and their 'norms' for a language. Pronoun placement is a good example. In English, we place direct object pronouns after the verb (I have it), but in Spanish, they may be placed before or after the verb (Yo lo tengo). Another example is when non-native speakers are trying to learn English. The concept of "do" and "does" is often confusing, becuase most language can transpose the subject and verb, as we do with to be verbs.
You are happy--> Are you happy? but
They like cats--> Do they like cats?
In Spanish, transposing the subject and verb works, regardless of the verb (I believe- I am not a fluent, native speaker!)
El tienes dinero.
Tienes dinero?
These are a couple of instances where learners of English would need to forget about grammar and syntax that they are used to and would need a 'tolerance to ambiguity-' a common term among language learning research.
All in all, language learning opens a learner up not only to new words and pronunciation, but also to new cultures and ways of thinking. Learners need to be open, brave, and willing to think differently. When you learn a language, you enter into a new world. I hope this helps
Amy
Do
You are happy--> Are you happy? but
They like cats--> Do they like cats?
In Spanish, transposing the subject and verb works, regardless of the verb (I believe- I am not a fluent, native speaker!)
El tienes dinero.
Tienes dinero?
These are a couple of instances where learners of English would need to forget about grammar and syntax that they are used to and would need a 'tolerance to ambiguity-' a common term among language learning research.
All in all, language learning opens a learner up not only to new words and pronunciation, but also to new cultures and ways of thinking. Learners need to be open, brave, and willing to think differently. When you learn a language, you enter into a new world. I hope this helps
Amy
Do
I always like to think that there are two approaches to learning: one, to learn the vocab and grammar and begin to put sentences together (bottom up), and two, to be able to see the big picture and grasp the meaning even when you don't know all the words in a sentence (top down). I think a good language learner uses both techniques, even at a lower level.
This is quite an interesting question. Do you think there are some people who have a natural aptitude for languages, or do you think that anyone can speak fluently given the right amount of time and the correct training?
my site: www.roadtogrammar.com
This is quite an interesting question. Do you think there are some people who have a natural aptitude for languages, or do you think that anyone can speak fluently given the right amount of time and the correct training?
my site: www.roadtogrammar.com
chapter on GLL
I have pasted a chapter of the material I was sent to study for my master's. Hope this help, but please shhhhhhhhhhh 
3.4 The good language learner
Several scholars have attempted to identify the characteristics of successful or 'good' language learners with the assumption that once identified, they could provide useful information to be incorporated into the language classroom. The research conducted by Naiman et al. (1978) is no doubt the most frequently mentioned in the literature with regard to this area.
Good Language Learners (GLLs) were described by these scholars as follows:
GLLs become actively involved in the language learning process, that is, they generally adopt a very active role in the classroom.
GLLs take advantage of all the opportunities they have to practise the language. They have good techniques to practise listening, speaking, reading and writing.
GLLs elaborate an awareness of language both as a formal, grammatical system, and as a means of communication.
GLLs gradually develop the new language into a system and learn to think in it.
GLLs accept and are able to deal with the affective demands of learning an L2.
GLLs are like good detectives. They are always looking for clues that will help them understand how the language works. Sometimes, they make guesses and ask people to correct them if they are wrong.
In addition to the previous list of strategies, Naiman et al. (1978) also identified other techniques used by the learners in specific situations, such as repeating aloud after the teacher, listening to the radio and TV, reading and following the rules as presented by grammar books or textbooks.
Ellis (1985) also presented a list of his own drawing on previous studies. Thus, to the above mentioned characteristics he added the following ones: GLLs are capable of adapting to different learning situations; they are capable of supplementing the learning derived from direct contact with native speakers with that obtained from their own study; they are normally an adolescent or an adult rather than a child; and lastly, they are endowed with a powerful reason for learning the language. Ellis concludes by saying that:
taken together, the list of good learning characteristics reflects the social, cognitive and affective factors that have been seen to be important in SLA.
(1985:123)
Other researchers such as Hosenfeld (1984) have concentrated on the behaviour of these good language learners with regard to particular skills. Thus she investigated the strategies used by students in order to understand English texts (See Appendix 1.1).
Good readers are characterised by keeping the passage in mind, identifying the grammatical category of words, skipping unimportant words, observing illustrations, reading the title and making inferences from it, referring to the side glossary if there is one, using the glossary as the last resort to the problem, recognising cognates (words with a similar spelling and meaning in L1 and L2), using their knowledge of the world, evaluating and monitoring their guesses and, lastly, having a good self-image of themselves as readers. In contrast, unsuccessful readers are described as having a poor self-concept of themselves as readers, restricting themselves to the word level, skipping words on few occasions and going to the dictionary almost mechanically.
The extrapolation of all these findings to the classroom is still a highly debated question and contrasting views are found. Moreover, if we focus on the qualities of a good language learner, it might also be interesting to investigate the features of good and bad language teachers (See Appendix 3.1). This would no doubt will give us some useful insights into our teaching.
3.4 The good language learner
Several scholars have attempted to identify the characteristics of successful or 'good' language learners with the assumption that once identified, they could provide useful information to be incorporated into the language classroom. The research conducted by Naiman et al. (1978) is no doubt the most frequently mentioned in the literature with regard to this area.
Good Language Learners (GLLs) were described by these scholars as follows:
GLLs become actively involved in the language learning process, that is, they generally adopt a very active role in the classroom.
GLLs take advantage of all the opportunities they have to practise the language. They have good techniques to practise listening, speaking, reading and writing.
GLLs elaborate an awareness of language both as a formal, grammatical system, and as a means of communication.
GLLs gradually develop the new language into a system and learn to think in it.
GLLs accept and are able to deal with the affective demands of learning an L2.
GLLs are like good detectives. They are always looking for clues that will help them understand how the language works. Sometimes, they make guesses and ask people to correct them if they are wrong.
In addition to the previous list of strategies, Naiman et al. (1978) also identified other techniques used by the learners in specific situations, such as repeating aloud after the teacher, listening to the radio and TV, reading and following the rules as presented by grammar books or textbooks.
Ellis (1985) also presented a list of his own drawing on previous studies. Thus, to the above mentioned characteristics he added the following ones: GLLs are capable of adapting to different learning situations; they are capable of supplementing the learning derived from direct contact with native speakers with that obtained from their own study; they are normally an adolescent or an adult rather than a child; and lastly, they are endowed with a powerful reason for learning the language. Ellis concludes by saying that:
taken together, the list of good learning characteristics reflects the social, cognitive and affective factors that have been seen to be important in SLA.
(1985:123)
Other researchers such as Hosenfeld (1984) have concentrated on the behaviour of these good language learners with regard to particular skills. Thus she investigated the strategies used by students in order to understand English texts (See Appendix 1.1).
Good readers are characterised by keeping the passage in mind, identifying the grammatical category of words, skipping unimportant words, observing illustrations, reading the title and making inferences from it, referring to the side glossary if there is one, using the glossary as the last resort to the problem, recognising cognates (words with a similar spelling and meaning in L1 and L2), using their knowledge of the world, evaluating and monitoring their guesses and, lastly, having a good self-image of themselves as readers. In contrast, unsuccessful readers are described as having a poor self-concept of themselves as readers, restricting themselves to the word level, skipping words on few occasions and going to the dictionary almost mechanically.
The extrapolation of all these findings to the classroom is still a highly debated question and contrasting views are found. Moreover, if we focus on the qualities of a good language learner, it might also be interesting to investigate the features of good and bad language teachers (See Appendix 3.1). This would no doubt will give us some useful insights into our teaching.