Individual Differences and Instructed Language Learning

by Peter Robinson, Scott E. Marquette

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.

399 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

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Peter Robinson is a Professor of Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition in the Department of English at Aoyama Gakuin University. His research interests are in second language acquisition; applied psycholinguistics; cognitive psychology; cognitive linguistics; consciousness and awareness during SLA; attention and memory during SLA; second language task complexity; intelligence, aptitude and SLA; experimental research methods; SL syllabus design. He has published extensively in International Review of Applied Linguistics, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Language Learning, and Applied Linguistics. He is on the editorial boards of Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, International Review of Applied Linguistics, TESOL Quarterly, and Studies in Second Language Acquisiton.