239861 Language Learning Motivation and Individual Learner Differences (S) (SoSe 2014)

This course will focus on individual differences among learners of a foreign language, including personality, language learning aptitude, learning style, self-esteem and beliefs. We will consider how these factors may affect achievement in language learning and how they may interact with motivation. We will also consider individual variation in motivation and effects on achievement. In this regard we will distinguish between intensity (strength) of motivation and quality (type) of motivation. We will adopt a dynamic approach to motivation and distinguish between initial motivation to learn a foreign language and the ways in which motivation may change in intensity and quality over months and years of learning a language. We will examine how individual learner differences may influence both the quality and intensity of motivation and we will also consider how the teacher and the classroom can affect motivation. In this respect we will devote some attention to the phenomenon of language learning anxiety as a powerful demotivator and negative influence on achievemnet. Attention will also be given to the links between learner autonomy, self-regulation of learning and self-motivation.

Bibliography

Course book: Zoltán Dörnyei. The Psychology of the Language Learner. Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2005.

This book is available as a free download. Please download it before the first session. You will need this book each week for preparatory reading and it must be brought to class each week.

Further reading is available on a reserved reading shelf in the library.