Another thing that can help one acquire a second language is student's motivation. A person who is motivated to learn a language will succeed more than somebody who, for example, has to study it against his or her will at school. Cook (1996: 97) mentions two types of motivation: integrative and instrumental. The former one occurs when a learner studies a language to explore a certain foreign culture. The more the student tries to discover it (for instance, by reading books in its language or travelling to the country), the more he or she will succeed in acquiring the language; whereas instrumental motivation means that we only learn a foreign language in order to use it in a situation in which native speakers do not ever happen to be, e.g. to find a certain job or to get into a university that requires a language proficiency. Neither motivation is more or less effective – they both help a learner in a big degree. Some students can have both types of motivation at the same time, for instance, I studied the English language because I wanted to visit the United Kingdom but also because I had to pass a language proficiency test in order to get into a British university. If students do not have any motivation, it will be difficult to teach them to speak a foreign language at a good level and teachers will have to somehow motivate them to learn it.
Another feature which affects acquiring a second language is student's aptitude, that is, the skill to learn the second language. Some people have a better aptitude and some have worse. Students with a higher ability to learn a foreign language will acquire it more easily and effectively than those with a worse aptitude in the same learning environment. Considering aptitude, there are three types of learners:
- analytic learners – they are sensitive to grammar but do not have a very good memory. They are usually older students.
- memory-based learners – they are not really grammar-sensitive but rely on their memory. These students are usually younger.
- even learners – they are a mix of analytic and memory-based learners.
Students will probably succeed in acquiring a second language if they are either analytic or memory-based learners or if they are a mix of both of them (Cook 1996: 102).
What also affects acquiring a second language is the chosen learning strategy. Cook (1996: 104) reports good language learner tips described by Naiman et al. (1978). These are:
- developing a learning strategy that suits us;
- being involved in the learning process, for example, being active in the classroom, watching television programmes or reading newspapers in L2;
- considering the second language as both communication and academic knowledge, not as either of them;
- trying to constantly improve our knowledge of the second language. It includes, for example, guessing things we do not know and checking if we use the language correctly;
- considering our first and second language as two separate systems;
- '[taking] into account the demands that L2 learning imposes' (Cook 1996: 105).
Cook (1996: 105) also describes learning strategies found in O'Malley and Chamot (1990):
- metacognitive strategies: they include monitoring our speech, planning the learning process, etc.;
- cognitive strategies: taking notes, elaborating, resourcing;
- social strategies: communicating with other students, asking teacher for help.
We cannot say which of the mentioned strategies are better and which are worse. They all depend on individuals. Some strategies will be more effective for one group of students and some for other groups. They should know best what type of learning is best for them and, therefore, choose that particular strategy they think will be most effective for them.
There are also other features of learner's personality that can affect the process of second language acquisition. It is thought that extrovert (i.e. more confident and outgoing) people are better at learning a second language than introverts (i.e. people more shy and quiet). However, it is not always true. Extroverts and introverts prefer different kinds of learning methods. The former will rather choose a method that emphasize communicative and audiolingual teaching, while the latter individual learning and language knowledge (Cook 1996: 115). It has also been researched whether female or male students do better at acquiring a second language. As Cook (1996: 115) reports, '[t]he UK Assessment of Performance Unit ... found English girls better at French than English boys in all skills except speaking'. Studying a foreign language is also usually more popular among female than male students. In my English classes there were always 2 or 3 boys and about 10 girls. Also, at Lancaster University there are currently 376 female and 128 male undergraduate students studying in the Department of Linguistics and English Language (source: personal communication). It proves that far more girls than boys are interested in language studies.
As I stated at the beginning of my essay, second language acquisition is not an easy process and students wanting to speak a foreign language have to work hard in order to attain a high level of proficiency. I mentioned several features that affect the process of second language acquisition. One of the most important ones is definitely age. Young students are much better than adults at long-term learning and only starting to learn a second language at a young age will enable us to attain a native-like proficiency. What also has a very positive influence on second language learning is motivation. There are two kinds of motivation: instrumental and integrative. Both are equally effective. Some people are also naturally better than others at acquiring second language. Using the same amount of work and learning in the same environment they will gain a better language proficiency. Such skill is called aptitude. Different people prefer different styles of learning. While learning a second language we need to choose a strategy which suits us best. There are three different types of strategies: cognitive, metacognitive and social. Being a good language learner will help us in acquiring a second language, too. Every student differs in personality and it also has a certain influence on the second language acquisition process. It is believed that extroverts are better at learning a foreign language than introverts (though it is not always true). As linguists have researched, girls happen to be much more interested in language learning than boys (as a result, there are far more female than male students at universities).
In my essay I described different features than can help and hinder one in acquiring a second language. I tried to mention as many various things as possible and describe them in a detailed account. I hope that I did it in quite an interesting way and that I proved that even though second language acquisition is a difficult process and some people may seriously struggle in it, we can find ways to make it much easier.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cook, V. (1996). Second language learning and language teaching (2nd edn.). London: Arnold.
Cook, V. (2001). Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition: One Person with Two Languages. In Aronoff, M. & Rees-Miller, J. (2001) Handbook of Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 488-511.
Naiman, N., Frohlich, M., Stern, H.H., and Todesco, A. (1978). The Good Language Learner. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
O'Malley, J.M., and Chamot, A.U. (1990). Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pinker, S. (1995). The language instinct: the new science of language and mind. London: Penguin
White, L. (2003). Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
