Full Description
Second language learners differ in how successfully they adapt to, and profit from, instruction. This book aims to show that adaptation to L2 instruction, and subsequent L2 learning, is a result of the interaction between learner characteristics and learning contexts. Describing and explaining these interactions is fundamentally important to theories of instructed SLA, and for effective L2 pedagogy. This collection is the first to explore this important issue in contemporary task-based, immersion, and communicative pedagogic settings. In the first section, leading experts in individual differences research describe recent advances in theories of intelligence, L2 aptitude, motivation, anxiety and emotion, and the relationship of native language abilities to L2 learning. In the second section, these theoretical insights are applied to empirical studies of individual differences-treatment interactions in classroom learning, experimental studies of the effects of focus on form and incidental learning, and studies of naturalistic versus instructed SLA.
Contents
1. Preface; 2. 1. Introduction: Researching individual differences and instructed learning (by Robinson, Peter); 3. Section I: Theoretical Issues; 4. 2. The theory of successful intelligence and its implications for language-aptitude testing (by Sternberg, Robert J.); 5. 3. Motivation, anxiety and emotion in second language acquisition (by MacIntyre, Peter D.); 6. 4. Theorising and updating aptitude (by Skehan, Peter); 7. 5. Foreign language acquisition and language-based learning disabilities (by Grigorenko, Elena L.); 8. 6. Learning conditions, aptitude complexes, and SLA: A framework for research and pedagogy (by Robinson, Peter); 9. Section II: Empirical Studies; 10. 7. The motivational basis of language learning tasks (by Dornyei, Zoltan); 11. 8. The role of learners' language analytic ability in the communicative classroom (by Ranta, Leila); 12. 9. Individual differences in working memory, noticing of interactional feedback and L2 development (by Mackey, Alison); 13. 10. Effects of individual differences in intelligence, aptitude and working memory on adult incidental SLA: A replication and extension of Reber, Walkenfield and Hernstadt (1991) (by Robinson, Peter); 14. 11. Aptitude-exposure interaction effects on Wh-movement violation detection by pre-and-post-critical period Japanese bilinguals (by Ross, Steven); 15. 12. Age, aptitude and second language learning on a bilingual exchange (by Harley, Birgit); 16. References; 17. Index
