CHAPTER REPORT: GOOD LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND WHAT

THEY DO
EFL METHODOLOGY (IG731)
Submitted to fulfill reading report requirement of EFL Methodology subject

Bestari Kirana Putri

IA/ 1907023

Lecturers:
Prof. Dr. Nenden Sri Lengkanawati (0699)
Dr. Fazri Nur Yusuf, M.Pd. (2242)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
UNIVERSITAS PENDIDIKAN INDONESIA
2019
 Good Language Learners and What They Do
1. Introduction
The topic of good language learners emerge in 1975 when Rubin asked about the
strategy of successful learners so the teacher can know more about the students
and teach the strategy to help the poor language learners learn (Griffiths, 2008).
Since then, a number of inquiries have been looking for what good language
learners is, what are the characters of good language learners, and what is their
learning strategy. Numerous of experts started to voice out their perspective of
good language learners based on their own result of inquiries.
The success in language learning is the main notion of a good language learners.
Pedagogist such as Neil Naiman, Joan Rubin and Irene Thompson listed what are
the characteristics of good language learners that make them so good at language
learning. Instead of looking at the characters only, in this writing, I would like to
discuss about good language learner and what they do based on two variables
which makes good language learner.

2.1 The Variables of Good Language learners.

There are two variables of good language learners, the variables are Learner
variables and learning variables.
2.1.1 Learner Variables.
Learner variables is attributes that makes a good language learners’ features. They
are the internal factors of language learners that contributes in their language
learning. There are several personal variables that I would like to mention and
summarize here.
A. Extroversion and Introversion
This is the one of the characters type owned by learners. The extroverts are
people oriented individual, gregarious, they are well prepared with risks, and often
act on impulse (Skehan as cited in Johnson, Keith, 2001). Sociability and
impulsivity is their character. It is totally different when it comes to introverts.
They tend to be more introspective, reserved an distant, they calculate everything
before they react, and they often plan everything they are going to do.

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When it comes to which one is the better language learners, a lot of people opine
that the extroverts make a better language learning because they have the
advantage of being a people person. Extroverts learners could learn more from the
conversation they engaged in. They exposing themselves to input and produced
more output. Just because the extrovert learners have the advantages, that doesn’t
mean the introverts are less in receiving input and producing output. They just
don’t talk much, but they are competent in a lot of language learning areas.
B. Tolerance of Ambiguity
This is the infamous character of good language learners. Good language learners
have the tolerance of ambiguity, which means they are able to handle being in an
uncertain situation just fine. They take uncertain situation in a positive manner.
Naiman (1970), suggested the learners who are tolerant of ambiguity are better
learners compared to the ones who aren’t. The tolerance of ambiguity can be
scaled by Budner’s Intolerance of Ambiguity Scale.
In the research Naiman did, he found that there is a connection between good
language learner and the tolerance of ambiguity. The connection was between the
extent of how much L1 to be used in the class. The research found that some
learners were following the lesson well even though they are using their L1 less,
while some learners were confused and frustrated when they did the ‘immersed’
classroom. From that, we could see which one is having the tolerance of
ambiguity and which one is intolerant.
C. Empathy/Ego Permeability and Sensitivity to Rejection
Good language learners have a good sense of conditioning theirs and others
mental state (Naiman as cited in Johnson, 2001). In another word, they could
manage their ego well when it comes to language learning. This concept is
debatable because how can ego be measured because it’s an abstract concept. We
could only feel it, but not seeing it. To make it simple, pedagogist took another
example from alcohol intake to compare them. The idea is that the more alcohol
they consume, the more tolerant they are towards the effect of alcohol. The same
with ego, if learners are used to tone down their ego and come more with
empathy, the more they could learn from the lesson, which means more input.
A similar concept to ego permeability is sensitivity to rejection. Rejection here

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can be formed in a teacher explicit or implicit correction in language learning.
Some students take explicit correction well, they are not afraid of being laughed-
off when they are making a mistake. The opposite case, there are some learners
who are afraid to try when it come to language learning because they don’t want
to be seen as a joke or to be laughed-off by their peers just because they are
making a mistake. They tend to avoid being corrected by teacher. When this
happened, they see it as a rejection and they could get hurt by it. From this, good
language learner must be able to handle rejection well because it is also a way of
learning.
D. Age and Good Language Learners.
There is critical period which suggested that learners can acquire or learn
language better at certain stage of life (Birdsong, 1999). This is the view of
language development which proposed by biologist. Most of the biological
explanation were controversial when it comes to age and language learning
because there was too much differences about this view.

There are five factors that contributes to age-related differences in language

development, namely matural factors or as what experts call it the biological
factors, cognitive factors which differentiate the advantages of adult learners in
language learning and how young learners acquire language. Pedagogist believed
that adult learner benefit so much from the factors because they can negotiate the
use of communication to obtain input, situational factors talks about the condition
in the classroom could be vary. The method use could be different, the learning
situation could be different depends on the students’ needs, background, and
suitable language learning style. Individual factors, this is the internal factors that
affects the language learning process namely gender, culture, personality, learning
style, attitude, beliefs, motivation, aptitude, autonomy, and prior learning
experience as well as personal factors such as family, job, and health. This factors
intertwine with each other and formed a language learning features. Socio-afective
factors, in this factors the pedagogist talked about how adult learner is more
culture bound rather than young learners do (Ellis as cited in Griffiths, 2008).
Young learners handle peer pressure well because they tend to seek acceptance
from their peers, while adult learners are usually feeling enough by maintaining a

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distinctive accent. In this factors too young learners are not as well aware as adult
learners about their language limitation. They tend to actively use what they have
to communicate while adult learners usually just do what they can to avoid the
limitation they have. In another words, sometime, adult learners give up too easily
because of this limitation.

E. Learning Style and Good Language Learners

Individuals learn in different ways. Some learners prefer visual learning style, and
some prefer auditory learning, while the others prefer auditory and tactile
learning. The success of learning comes when the learners are able to identify
which learning style works for them. There are indications that good language
learners tend to be more field independent in their learning style. This means that
good language learners are able to manage contextual variables better than poor
learners.

This means that the teacher has to be able to provide learning activities and tasks
that cater to all the students different learning style to maximize the learning
opportunities for learners. The fist thing the teacher can do is identifying the
learners learning style so that the teacher can provide effective learning program
and to encourage self-awareness in learners so that they could enhance their own
language learning. The study by Munõz, 2014 showed early awareness of
conditions which helps the learners learn English. The learners prefers traditional
classroom condition and they chose to learn more about oral production than
vocabulary learning. This was what the students voiced out from the study.

2.1.2 Learning Variables

Learning variables are factors which makes a good language learners based on
their learning activities, and the context in which they learn.
A. Teaching/ Learning Method
Over the years, there are many different methods in teaching and learning English
language emerged. From grammar translation method (GTM) which relied on
teaching and learning grammar and translation as the focus of the activity, to the
widely less adopted method of situational language teaching, natural method and

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so on. Although the teaching and learning methodologies vary and changes within
time, there are no specific method stated used by successful language learners.

The study by Junjun & Rahmat (2018) showed how teachers should provide
teaching activities which cater the learners need and could made a successful
English speaking learning activity. The study explained how to promote learners’
speaking spontaneity with role play activity designed by the lecturer. The data
from the study was gained through from open-ended and close-ended
questionnaires, students’ personal narratives on SFG, and photovoices, and
analyzed quantitatively using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
The participants of the study was 160 lower-intermediate learners of English who
experienced a six-month English speaking course divided into four classes: A, B,
C, and D in the English Education Department.

The finding from this study displayed that the students could be able to enjoy the
speaking class because of the activity designed by the lecturer. All students
enjoyed speaking spontaneously because at that time, everyone was focusing more
on the speaking practice in real-life like situation. All students were actively
talking, even the students who have difficulties with speaking skill. During the
activity, the students didn’t even realize that they can cope and participate with
the activities and teaching-learning method provided by the teacher. From this
study, we can see that everyone could be a successful language learners, it is the
teacher that has to provide learning opportunity for the students in order to
achieve what the students needs.

B. Strategy Instruction
The person who lifted up strategy instruction was Rubin in 1975 when he wanted
to know the strategies used by successful learners so that it can be taught to
struggling language learner so they can learn better and be more successful
learners. Pedagogist used to believe that good language learners use strategy in
learning while bad language learner are not. Turned out, all learners use strategies
in language learning, it is a matter of effectiveness of the strategies which
differentiate which one works and which one is not.

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The research on strategy in language learning concerns the identification of
strategy used by the language learners. The strategies used by language learners
may be unobservable and observable. For example the way students paid attention
in specific listening parts is unobservable and they way the students are taking
notes while they are listening is observable. The identification of learning
strategies is important because this can leads the teacher to provide the suitable
learning activities based on the result of strategy identification. The teacher could
simply give learners a task, then discussed it and get the learners to voice the
strategy they used to finish the task.
Teaching and learning strategies also comes in numerous models of language
learning strategy instruction. There are Styles and Strategies-Based Instruction
Model (Cohen, 1998), Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach Model
(Chamot, et al., 1999; Chamot, 2005), and Grenfell and Harris (1999). Those
mentioned agreed on the importance of developing learners’ metacognitive
understanding of the value learning strategies. The needs could be provided by
teacher’s demonstration and modelling. Those three also put stressing on
providing numerous practice opportunities with strategies so that the student could
use them autonomously.

C. Tasks
There are numerous research interest about task-based language teaching and
learning (Ellis, 2003; Nunan, 2004). Task-based language teaching and learning is
focusing on certain language skill to achieve their goals. Ur (1996) reported that
the benefit of task-based language learning activity is that the students tend to get
more motivated because they see activity that is meaningful and authentic for
them. Before the teacher use the task-based activity, the teacher has to follow five
procedures proposed by Rubin (2001, 2005): planning, monitoring, evaluating,
identifying problem and solution, and implementing solution. Planning is the
process of task-analysis.
Study by Rubin & McCoy (2008) showed that learners are able to do task analysis
with intensive instruction to gain control of their learning process, and the result
of being able to do task analysis displayed in the higher exam result. For expert

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learners, they used task analysis to track down and plan their study. Task
analyzing also train learners to distinguish their learning goal and learning
purpose. When they are able to do that, learners will be able to select their
learning strategies and learning style for a task and have better language learning
planning skill.

2.2 Good Language learners Studies

Good language learners study emerged during the mid of 1970s. The idea of
defining good language learners is so abstract that the experts didn’t know how to
picture it, so they decided to gather a group of people who were self-proclaimed a
good learners. This idea was aimed to figure out what the good language learners
have in common, and how can we find out what good language learners are like.
From that, the largest study about good language learners’ study was by Naiman
et al. (1978) where he proposed tolerance of ambiguity as the main characteristics
of good language learner. He also noted tolerance language learners have
“positive task orientation, ego involvement, high aspirations, goal oriented, and
perseverance.” (Naiman, et al., as cited in Harmer, nd, p. 57 ). Another infamous
study by Stern (1975) and Rubin (1975) are more theoretical and not in a direct
research manner. Their research is more towards the belief of good language
learners are like. Rubin’s study in 1970 is what Naiman et al. adapted in making
his tolerance of ambiguity notion. Naiman et al. also adapted seven hypotheses
about good language learner, the hypotheses are:
1. Good language learners have willingness and accurate in guessing
2. Good language learners have strong urge to communicate or they learn from
communication.
3. Good language learner is not afraid to use their still-developing L2 and they are
not afraid of making mistakes.
4. Good language learners constantly looking for patterns in the language they
learn.
5. Good language learners practice.
6. Good language learners monitor their own and others speech. They are able to
evaluate their usage of L2, whether it is understandable or not.

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7. Good language learners attend to meaning. They are looking for the meaning of
the language they use, not just the form of the language only.
Naiman et al. study was done in Canada. The aims of his study was to identify the
strategies used by good learners, were there any correlation between successful
learning and variables we have been looking at, particularly the personality and
cognitive style ones? The last was to learn about something about what teachers
do in classrooms. The finding about the strategies were unfortunately hidden
because in class activity, language behaviour were unseen, mostly happened
inside the head of the learners. When it comes to know about strategies, it is best
to do it with interview, not observation. Reading and listening is the activities of
hidden language behavior.
The findings of personality traits and cognitive styles were divided into 3 points,
they are:
 Tolerance of ambiguity correlated at lower levels, and important in the
decision of continuing the language or not.
 Field independence correlate at higher level
 A general measure of attitude does correlate with success, particularly at early
stages. It is perhaps necessary but not sufficient.
Naiman et al. also reported the findings about what the teachers do. He divided
them again in three points:
1. The study revealed a predominance of question/ answer techniques in class,
with little free discussion or cultural background work.
2. Sometimes that large number of learners would be ignored because of the size
of the class. However, the treatment in handling the students evenly even-handed,
it means that the good learners and bad learners treated equally.
3. Teachers usually good at spotting good learners and bad learners and teachers’
subjective judgement can be trusted.
Since the research done by Naiman et al., there were a lot of other researchers
who tried to do their own research about good language learners. Still, there are
going to be differences about the topic of good language learners, but there are
also commonalities about good language learners and the strategy. Thanks to
studies about good language learners, we are able to distinguish which is which in

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order to provide the best learning activities for the learners.

2.3 Good Language Learners Study

 GLL Studies by Naiman et al., 1978
This is a large-scale study in Canada. There are 3 aim from this study:
a) To identify the the strategies used by good learners
b) Were there any correlation between successful learning and variables we have
been looking at, particularly the personality and cognitive style ones?
c) To learn about something about what teachers do in classrooms.
There are three results from Naiman et al., study:
a) The finding about the strategies were unfortunately hidden
b) The findings of personality traits and cognitive styles were divided into 3
points, they are:
1. Tolerance of ambiguity correlated at lower levels, and important in the
decision of continuing the language or not.
2. Field independence correlate at higher level
3. A general measure of attitude does correlate with success, particularly at
early stages. It is perhaps necessary but not sufficient.
c) Naiman et al. also reported the findings about what the teachers do. He
divided them again in three points:
1. The study revealed a predominance of question/ answer techniques in
class, with little free discussion or cultural background work.
2. Sometimes that large number of learners would be ignored because of the
size of the class. However, the treatment in handling the students evenly
even-handed, it means that the good learners and bad learners treated
equally.
3. Teachers usually good at spotting good learners and bad learners and
teachers’ subjective judgement can be trusted.

 Feedback preferences of EFL learners with respect to their learning styles.

This study was done by Tasdemir & Arslan in 2018. This study investigates the
preferences of EFL learners for oral corrective feedback in relation to their

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learning styles in order to determine whether there exists a relationship between
the two.The findings showed that learning styles do not account for students’
feedback preferences and provide an explanation in terms of learners’ varied
preferences. Therefore, it has been concluded that the concept of learning styles is
irrelevant for understanding learner feedback preference.
 EFL learners’ L2 achievement and its relationship with cognitive intelligence,
emotional intelligence, learning styles, and language learning strategies.
The study accomplished by Taheri et al in 2019
The aim of the study are first, to explore the relationship between EFL learners’
cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, and language learning achievement,
secondly, to find out the relationship between EFL learners’ language learning
styles and strategies and their L2 achievement, and the last was to uncover the
relationship between EFL learners’ emotional and cognitive intelligence and their
use of learning styles and strategies.
The findings demonstrated that foreign language achievement was significantly
correlated with IQ, three subdomains of EQ (interpersonal relationship, optimism,
and problem-solving), and three learning strategies (cognitive, compensation, and
social).

2.4 Critical View

Talking about good language learners, I thought there will be criteria about
making every language learners into a good language learners. At first, I thought
that this topic is trying to tell me how could we make a good learners. After
reading the chapter, I realized that it is not about making every students in the
classroom a good language learner. It is more about what are the good language
features and what they do with the features they have. A new kind of belief started
to seep into me little by little, I started to believe that every students are good in
their own ways, in their own characters. The first character that mentioned in the
chapter was tolerance of ambiguity. Some students are able to follow the lesson
just fine even without a clue from the teacher, and there are also students who are
giving up easily when they faced uncertainty. In my opinion, intolerant students
can be help to be tolerant towards uncertainty. As a teacher, we can’t just spoon-

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feed our students just because some of our students can’t tolerate ambiguity. We
have to provide activity that is not spoon-feed and help increasing our students’
tolerance bit by bit. The simplest form we can do is ask them to live in the
moment, have fun with the class activity.
The next is introversion and extroversion. When it comes to classroom situation,
the extroverts tend to dominate the class and the learning activity because this is
their moment to be as active as they can. Teachers also tend to notice the extrovert
students more because it is easy for them. What we have to understand is that
introverts also do communicate and interact with each other, just in a different
manner from the extroverts. The teacher has to balance the class so it can be
enjoyable for both extroverts and introverts. We also have to observe more about
the introvert students we have in the class. Just because they are silent that doesn’t
mean they are not active or doing anything, their cognitive are active and they
tend to keep it to themselves rather than voiced out their thoughts. As a teacher,
we have to be able to find out the best approach for both students.
Other personal variables are age, ego permeability, and learning styles. For me
personally, it is quite difficult to view good language learners based on their age
only. There is a saying “age is just a number” and I do believe in that. The
students’ age is not the determiner whether they are good language learner or not
just because they are at certain number of age. There are many other factors which
form good language learners. As for ego permeability, it depends on the students
maturity to pushed back their ego a little bit in order to fully learn a language.
Good learners must be aware that there are possibilities of being laughed at or
being corrected when they are making a mistake, but they can opt for not taking it
personally and take the good lesson from it instead. Good learners won’t let their
ego get in the way of making them a better learner each and everyday. Good
learner also know their own learning style and how to make the best of it. They
will also know not to force their learning style to their peers, and collaborate their
learning strategy to the class activity well.
Learning variables are factors that help good language learner became better and
better in learning. Good language learner know how to make the best of their
learning method, taking the teacher’s teaching method, dealing with instructions,

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and doing tasks. Good language learners take instruction well, sometimes they
confirm the instruction in order to do the tasks well. In this part, teacher is the key
to make learners into good language learners. The teacher must be able to attend
students’ need, also observe good language learners strategies in taking
instruction and doing tasks, so that the teacher can modify them for all the
students in the classroom to provide the learning opportunity for the learners.

2.5 Conclusion
Now that we know the characters of good language learner, doesn’t make it mean
that we have to impose every students to have the characters that mentioned
previously. All language learners are good in their own way, they just have
different way of handling the teaching-learning process. If we focusing too much
on the good language learners only, it could be the same as generalizing our
students in certain way while we know the fact that all the students are unique.
Since the study of good language learning are developed, as a teacher, we can take
it as our guideline in our teaching-learning language activities. We can use it how
to provide the best learning opportunity so that the students can learn well, and all
can be a good language learner in their own way.

References
Banaruee, H., Khoshsima, H., & Askari, A. (2017). Corrective Feedback and
Personality Type: a case study of Iranian L2 learners. Global Journal of
Educational Studies, 3(2), 14-21.
Chamot, A. U. (2008). 21 Strategy instruction and good language
learners. Lessons from good language learners, 266.
Chu, W. H., Lin, D. Y., Chen, T. Y., Tsai, P. S., & Wang, C. H. (2015). The
relationships between ambiguity tolerance, learning strategies, and learning
Chinese as a second language. System, 49, 1-16.
Ehrman, M. (2008). Personality and good language learners. Lessons from good
language learners, 61-72.
Griffiths, C. (Ed.). (2008). Lessons from good language learners. Cambridge
University Press.
Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Harlow: Pearson
Longman.
Johnson, K. (2008). An introduction to foreign language teaching and learning.
England: Pearson Education Limited.
Karlen, Y. (2016). Differences in students' metacognitive strategy knowledge,
motivation, and strategy use: A typology of self-regulated learners. The

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 Journal of Educational Research, 109(3), 253-265.
Muñoz, C. (2014). Exploring young learners’ foreign language learning
awareness. Language awareness, 23(1-2), 24-40.
Naiman, N. (1978). The Good Language Learner. Research in Education Series
No. 7.
Naiman, N. (Ed.). (1996). The good language learner (Vol. 4). Multilingual
Matters.
Nel, C. (2008). Learning style and good language learners. na.
Ramdani, J. M., & Rahmat, R. Promoting speaking spontaneity in large classes:
An action research study in an Indonesian EFLuniversity setting. Indonesian
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8(2), 388-401.
Rubin, J. (1975). What the" good language learner" can teach us. TESOL
quarterly, 41-51.
Rubin, J., & McCoy, P. 23 Tasks and good language learners. Lessons from Good
Language Learners, 294.
Taheri, H., Bagheri, M. S., & Bavali, M. (2019). EFL learners’ L2 achievement
and its relationship with cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence,
learning styles, and language learning strategies. Cogent Education, 6(1),
1655882
Tasdemir, M. S., & Yalcin Arslan, F. (2018). Feedback preferences of EFL
learners with respect to their learning styles. Cogent Education, 5(1),
1481560.

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 CHAPTER REPORT PRESENTATION

Presenter’s Name : Bestari Kirana Putri

Student’s ID : 1907023
Topic : Good Language Learners and What They Do
Date : Monday, October 14th, 2019

Rater’s
Aspects Criteria and Description Comments
Score
Content The inclusion of other resources as
(Max. 9) well as research findings or
illustration (9)
without enrichment (7)
Media Readability of the media
(Max. 5) Not too wordy
Effectiveness of using it
Language: Limited mistakes/errors (4)
Grammar Several mistakes (3)
(Max. 4) Many mistakes (2)
Too many mistakes (1)
Pronunciation Several mistakes in pronouncing
(Max. 4) words.

Encoding The concept was easily understood

(Max. 6) by the floor. The presenter show
his/her knowledge about the topic
discussed.
Decoding The presenter can cope with the
(Max. 6) questions from the floor.
Presentation During the presentation, the
Technique presenter make use of the media as
(Max. 6) her/his guidelines without reading
the transparencies.

Total Score 40:10 = 4.0 (A)

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