AFFECT & OTHER SOURCES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES (Ch. 9) Understanding SLA Lourdes Ortega (2009) Published by Routledge © 2009 Mark Sawyer

9.1 Personality & L2 learning 3 influential models Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism (PEN) (H. Eysenck) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Myers & Briggs) Five Factor Model (FFM or Big Five) (Costa & McCrae)

DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF PERSONALITY Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Extraversion  Introversion Focus of attention/energy Sensing  INtuition Basis for perceiving/making sense Thinking  Feeling Basis for making decisions Judging  Perceiving Approach to structuring life

DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF PERSONALITY The 'Big Five' Model Openness to experience (48) Conscientiousness (31) Extraversion–Introversion (25) Agreeableness (39) Neuroticism–Emotional Stability (39) 5 “Supertraits” composed of (6) narrower primary traits

Research Findings MBTI: Intuitive Thinkers freely choose to study (European) languages (Moody) FFM: Openness to experience related to L2 communicative competence (Verhoeven & Vermeer)

9.2 Extraversion & speaking styles Extraverts > Introverts (Dewaele & Furnham) Working memory Resistance to stress & anxiety Fluency

Research findings Psychoticism best predicted L3 anxiety (Dewaele) E/I trade off between fluency & complexity/richness (Dewaele & Furnham) Monitor use style  fluency, 1 of 7 measures of self-correction (Kormos)

LEARNER ORIENTATION TO COMMUNICATION & ACCURACY (9.3) Fluency vs. accuracy or complexity (e.g. lexical richness)? What about precision? Personality  goals  actions  outcomes (e.g. L2 achievement)

Foreign language anxiety (9.4) Central researchers Elaine Horwitz: classroom FL, FLCAS Peter MacIntyre: communicative SL, IPOAS ANX  L2 proficiency ( ) Additional subtle effects Slower processing & learning Underestimation of ability Avoidance of risk

Foreign language anxiety 2 Origins Low self-concept, self-esteem (worth) Counterproductive beliefs Perfectionism => anxiety? Yes, but.. Facilitative: more effort Debilitative: distracting negative thoughts

Willingness to communicate & L2 contact (9.5) Based on but independent of L1 (U)WTC Inclination to freely initiate communication Communicative confidence => WTC CC = – Anxiety + Self-perceived communicative competence

Willingness to communicate & L2 contact 2 Relative importance as WTC antecedents High contact: Anxiety Low contact: Communicative competence belief WTC/Use link is still weak If low contact, + attitudes help e.g. International posture Logically, WTC must change over time

9.6 Cognitive styles, field independence, & field sensitivity Preferred info processing modes Analytic vs Holistic is most robust Field independence (FI) vs dependence (FD) most popular in L2 studies Problem to distinguish from ability 2 dimensions: FI, FS (sensitivity)?

Learning style profiles (9.7) Convergers/divergers/etc (Willing) Sensory learning style preferences (Reid) Synopsis/Ectasis (Ehrman & Leaver)

Learning strategies (9.8) Conscious mental/behavioral procedures to gain control of learning Strategy use ~ achievement link not well established Problems Contextualization Theorization

The future promise of an all encompassing framework : Self-regulation theory ( 9.9) Creative & conscious efforts to take control over action, cognition, & feelings toward achieving complex goals Focuses on both strategies & volition In Ed Psy, replacing strategy research

Self Regulatory Capacity in Vocabulary Learning Scale (SRCvoc) (Tseng, Dörnyei, & Schmitt) Commitment control Metacognitive control Satiation control Emotion control Environment control