Abstract : The purpose of the paper is to find out the individual differences among language learners from the following aspects : motivation ;personality factors ;the role of age in SLA. The author concludes that language learners have a lot of individual differences which are of great importance to their proficiency of language. Teachers should apply different methods to motivate and teach students in order to make them well aquire language.
Ⅰ. Introduction
There are a lot of researchers about language learning , which emphasize the generalities among learners. Whatpsychologists are interested in is the early stage of mother tongue acquisition and the universal law of languageacquisition , not the individual differences of children language. Thus , that gives most people an impression thatlearners learn foreign language in the same way. In fact , in the course of foreign language learning , learners showgreat difference. They have different motivations , at titudes , personality factors , language aptitudes and ages. Allthese indicate that learner’ s achievements are different . It is impossible for them to use the same way to learn foreignlanguage. So it is very important to study the individual differences among language learners. In order to inquire intothe differences among learners , researchers single out the non2language factors , which are close , related toachievements and study the characteristics. I f some of the characteristics affect the achievements , we can make themfunction in teaching and change the passive factors into active ones. From this point of view , the study of individualdifferences has high practical value.
Ⅱ. Motivation
Motivation is the most often used term for explaining the success or failure of any complex task. It is easy insecond language learning to claim that a learner will be success ful with proper motivation. Motivation is an innerdrive , impulse , emotion , or desire that moves one to a particular action. More specifically , human beings have needsor drives that are more or less innate. Six desires or needs of human organism are commonly identified w hich undergirdthe construct of motivation : (1) the need for exploration , for seeing“the other side of the mountain ,” for probing theunknown ; (2) the need for manipulation , for operating2to use Skinner’ s term on the environment and causingchange ; ( 3) the need for activity , for movement and exercise , both physical and mental ; ( 4 ) the need forstimulation , the need to be stimulated by the environment , by other people , or by ideas , thoughts , and feeling ; (5)the need for knowledge , the need to process and resolve contradictions , to quest for solutions to problems and for self2consistent systems of knowledge ; (6) finally , the need for ego enchancement , for the self to be known and to beaccepted and approved of by others.[1 ] (P368 —379)There are a lot of examples which illustrate the six2 fold concept of motivation. For instance , children who aremotivated to learn to read. They are motivated because certain needs are important to them , perhaps all six of theneeds mentioned above , particularly exploration , stimulation , and knowledge. The adult who learns to ski and learnsto do so well no doubt is motivated by a need for exploration and st，英语论文题目，英语论文 |
