Individual Learner Differences in SLA

by Arabski, Janusz; Wojtaszek, Adam

• ISBN13: 9781847694348
• ISBN10: 1847694349
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-02
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Summary

Individual Learner Differences in SLA addresses the apparently insoluble conflict between the unquestionably individual character of the process of second language acquisition / foreign language learning and the institutionalised, often inflexible character of formal instruction in which it takes place. How, then, is success in SLA so prevalent?

Author Biography

Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek both work at the University of Silesia, Poland. Their research interests include psycholinguistics, language acquisition and linguistic pragmatics. They are the editors of Neurolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives on SLA and The Acquisition of L2 Phonology, both recently published by Multilingual Matters. The editors and the contributing authors are active members of many scientific committees and organizations devoted to the investigation of language acquisition processes, and they regularly participate in many conferences and publish extensively. The author list comprises experienced scholars as well as young and promising researchers.Adam Wojtaszek is Associate Professor and the Deputy Director at the Institute of English, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. His major field of interest is linguistic pragmatics, psycholinguistics and language of persuasion. He has published two books on advertising language, Deciphering Radio Commercials – A Pragmatic Perspective (2002) and Theoretical Frameworks in the Study of Press Advertisements – Polish, British and Chinese Perspective (2011), as well as a number of articles on the topic. Within the area of psycholinguistics and second language acquisition studies, he has co-edited a number of volumes reporting on recent studies and developments, such as Neurolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives on SLA (2010), The Acquisition of L2 Phonology (2011a), Individual Learner Differences in SLA (2011b), Aspects of Culture in Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning (2011c), and recently Studying Second Language Acquisition from a Qualitative Perspective (2014). He is also the author of a chapter on morphosyntactic development in the volume edited by Danuta Gabrys-Barker, Readings in Second Language Acquisition (2012). He is also one of the organizers of the annual international SLA conference held in Szczyrk, Poland, a major event of international recognition, initiated in the mid 1980's by Janusz Arabski.

Table of Contents

Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek: Introduction

Part 1 BACKGROUND ASSUMPTIONS

CHAPTER I-Dieter Wolff: Individual Learner Differences and Instructed Language Learning: An Insoluble Conflict?

CHAPTER 2-Miroslaw Pawlak: Research into Language Learning Strategies: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead

Part 2 SUPPORTING LEARNER AUTONOMY

CHAPTER 3-Hasan Bedir: Teachers' Perceptions of Individual Differences in Turkish Primary School EFL Classes

CHAPTER 4-Maria Stec and Anna Studenska: Learning Autonomy Support By Foreign Language Teachers

CHAPTER 5- Anna Studenska: Personality and Parenting Styles as Predictors of Self-Regulation in Foreign Lanugage Learning

Part 3 LEARNERS' ABILITIES IN STRATEGY APPLICATION

CHAPTER 6-Anna Mystkowska Wiertelak: The Development of Implicit Knowledge Through Structured Input Activities: The Importance of Individual Perceptions Concerning Grammar Instruction

CHAPTER 7-Agnieszka Otwinowska-Kasztelanic: Awareness of Cognate Vocabulary and Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Polish Multilingual and Bilingual Advanced Learners Of English

Part 4 EXPERIENCED LEARNERS

CHAPTER 8-Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel: A Study of Gender-Related Levels of Processing Anxieties Over Three Years of Secondary Grammar School Instruction

CHAPTER 9-Joanna Bielska: Challenge or Threat? A Study of Perceived Self-efficacy of Polish EFL Teachers

CHAPTER 10-Andrzej Lyda, Krystyna Warchal and Alina Jackiewic: Managing Criticism and Praise by Trainee Interpreters: Looking For Gender Differences

CHAPTER 11-Zbigniew P. Mozejko: Student Needs Assessment in Teaching English at the Tertiary Level – An Individual Learner Differences Perspective

Part 5 INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER OF PHONOLOGICAL ATTAINMENT

CHAPTER 12-Andrzej Porzuczek: Regularity and Individual Variation in Native English and Polish Learner's Wh-Question Suprasegmentals

CHAPTER 13-Arkadiusz Rojczyk: Time-Limited Verbal Fluency Task with Polish-English Unbalanced Bilinguals

CHAPTER 14-Eleni Tsiartsioni: The Acquisition of English Vowel Length Differences before Word Final Stops by Greek Learners of English

Part 6 FOCUS ON LANGUAGE SKILLS: READING AND WRITING

CHAPTER 15-Sila Ay and Özgür Sen Bartan: Individual Differences in Foreign Language Reading Comprehension: Gender and Topic Interest

CHAPTER 16-Halina Chodkiewicz: Individual Differences in L2 Readers' Strategic Behaviour While Performing Reading to Learn Tasks: A Case Study

CHAPTER 17-Liliana Piasecka: Current Views on Foreign Language Reading Motivation

CHAPTER 18-Danuta Gabrys-Barker: From Oral Input to Written Output: On Individual Differences in External Storing of Information

CHAPTER 19-Jan Zalewski: Accounting for One Student's Failure and Another's Success on a Written Academic Assignment

CHAPTER 20-Iwona Kowal: Online Revisions in FL Writing. General Rules and Individual Differences