Factors Affecting

Second Language
Acquisition

By Ahmad Aslam Dhofir

Introduction
It is quite observable that some learners learn a new language more
quickly than others, because they are successful by virtue of their
strong determination, hard work and persistence.
Yet, some other learners are not very successful in learning a new
language, and it is obvious that there are some crucial factors
influencing success, which are mostly beyond the control of the
learner.
These factors can roughly be categorised as 'individual (internal)
factors, external factors, and lastly as 'affective factors'.
 Individual Factors
01 Age 04 Motivation

02 Personality 05 Cognition

03 Experience
01 Age
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks
(idiomatic exspressions)

The age of the learner influences the 2LA

Children having strong literacy skills in their own language, seem to be
in a better position to acquire a new language in a more effective way.
Very motivated, older learners can do it, but usually they should try hard
to become a native-like speaker.
02 Personality
“i know one thing, that i know nothing”
(Socrates)

Introverted or anxious learners usually perform slower progress, especially

in the development of oral skills.
They are less likely to take opportunities to speak. More outgoing students
will not worry about the inevitability of making mistakes. They do not care
about taking risks; thus they get more chances to do much more practice in
the TL.
03 Experience
Learners who have already developed general knowledge and
experience are in a stronger position to develop a new language
than those who haven't. For instance, a learner who has been to
two/three foreign countries and exposed to different cultures
build a stronger ground for learning an extra language than
those learners who have not had such an experience.
04 Motivation
Intrinsic motivation shows itself when you want to do something, an internal
desire to perform a particular task. People do certain activities because they
give them pleasure, develop a certain skill or they are morally the right thing
to do.
Extrinsic motivation is when somebody something tries to make you do
something else or Instransically motivated students are bound to do much
better in classroom activities since they are willing and eager to learn. Yet,
extrinsically motivated ones may have to be 'bribed' to perform the same
tasks.
05 Cognition

Generally speaking, apparently students with greater

cognitive abilities make a faster progress.
Some Chamskyan linguists suppose that there is a
specific, innate language learning ability which is
believed to be stronger in some students than in others.
 Exsternal Factors
01 Curriculum 03 Culture&Status

02 Instruction 04 Acces to Native

Speakers
01 Curriculum
Particularly for the ESL students, it is essential
that the totality of thier educational experiences
should be suitable to their needs. If learners are
entirely submersed into a mainstream program
without + having any additional assistance, then
language learning is less likely to occur.
02 Instruction
Very clearly, if language learners are exposed to appropriate and effective
learning experiences in their classrooms, they will make faster progress.
Thus, the job of the language teachers should be to provide suitable and
effective input though their instuctions.
• Interventionist View :
• Intervention. An academic intervention is strategy use to teach a new
skill, build fluency in a skill, or encourage a child to apply an exiting
skill to new situations or settings. An intervention can be thought of as
“a set of actions that, when taken, have demostrated ability to change a
fixe education trajetory”. (Methe & Riley Tillman, 2008; p.37)
• As an example of an academic intervention, the teacher may select
question generation (Dave & McBride, 1986.;Rosenshine, Maister &
Chapman, 1996), as a strategy in which the student is taught to locate
or generate main idea sentences for each paragraph in a passage and
record those ‘gist’ sentences for later review.
• L2 instruction can have an effect on how learners acquire a L2 (Ellis 1991, Long
1983, 1988;
• Rutherford & Sharwood-Smith 1985)
• "L2 instruction is effective in its own right" (Norris & Ortega 2000:480)
• "while instruction may not always be necessary to achieve competence in the L2, it
undoubtedly helps (Ellis 2005: /25).
• In some contexts, for some learners, for some L2 teatures, or for some aspects of L2
proficiency, instruction may even be necessary(DeKeyser 2000; Doughty 2003;
White 2003)
03 Culture & Status
There is some evidence that students under the condition in which their mother culture has a lower status
than the target language's culture that they are learning will make a slower progress.

Social factors can affect motivation, attitudes and language learning

success.

Children, just like adults, are quite sensitive to social dynamics and power relationships.

Imigrant learners are quickly labelled successful/unsuccessful, talkative/quiet etc...

04
Acces to Native
Speakers
Since native speakers of the TL can act as linguistic models and since they
can provide effective feedback for the TL learners, it is very advantegous
to have the opportunity to interact with the native speakers, not only in the
classroom setting, but also outside of it.
It is obvious that those 2L learners having no extensive access to native
speakers of the TL are supposed to make slower progress, especially in the
aural/oral aspects of language acqusition.
 Affective Factors
01 Self Esteem
03 Risk taking

02 Inhibition 04 Anxiety

05 Empathy
 01 Self esteem
Self-esteem refers to a personal evaluation and judgment of
worthiness that is expressed in the individual's attitude
towards him or herself or his or her capabilities.
Low motivation, low self-esteem, and debilitating anxiety can
lead to a raise in the affective filter and form a 'mental block'
that hinders comprehensible input from being employed for
acquisition. (Krashen cited by Schütz, 2007)
 02 Inhibition
Inhibition in person emerges when he/she attempts to
defend or protect his/her self-image If the learner considers
the mistakes he/she makes in the second language as a
threat to his/her emotional well-being and self perception,
then acquisition will not take place or will occur much
more slowly.
03 Riks taking
One of the characteristics that has been found to exist
in "good" language learners is the willingness to
guess. If the learner is less inhibited, he/she is more
willing to take a chance on producing a "correct"
utterance in the second language.
 04 Anxiety
Anxiety is associated with the feelings of uneasiness, self-doubt,
worry or fear that a person feels under certain circumstances. A
threatening environment does not promote language acquisition.
Factors such as an emphasis on competition between students or
forcing students to produce in the second language before they
are ready can cause anxiety.
05 Empathy
Empathy refers to an individual's ability to put him/herself in the
other's shoes. When a learner is acquiring a second language, he
or she is also acquiring, in a sense, a new personality, and a new
culture. It is essential in the language acq. process to open
yourself to new cultural experiences and adopt these
experiences as your own.
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Thank
you!