What are the individual differences among second language learners?

Answer 1

Each language has its own grammar rules, sentence structure and word usage. It is very difficult for a person to adopt a second language, because s/he has been influenced by the first language from birth. Accent is also one of the major hindrances in learning a second language. The individual differences among learners which effect second language acquisition are: age , personality, attitude and motivation, IQ and aptitude. The main difference affecting ESL is cultural, since culture and humour are so central to North American English. The basis of all language is verbal and aural. Grammatical rules are products of what "sounds good" to the human ear and is easy to say. Therefore, it's been my experience that the sound of a second language is the core stumbling block in learning that language. For example, Germans are often good at learning English with only a mild accent because of similarities in the sounds of the two language (not surprising, since German is one of the roots of English). French and Chinese speakers, however, have generally found it harder to lose their accents because their sonic qualities are so much different from English. Grammar and sentence structure, of course, also play a part. English is a more modern language than most -- its use of a limited alphabet to form all its words, its relatively simple grammatical rules (eg. no genders for nouns, no declensions) -- and these qualities make English computer-friendly, for example. Since each alphabet has a fairly limited number of pronunciations, it's easy in English to encounter a word one does not know and still have an idea on how to pronounce it. Older languages are often based on symbols and not alphabets (eg. Korean, Egyptian, Chinese, Arabic), which means you can't learn just 26 symbols and know every word in the language. When one encounters a symbol s/he doesn't know, there is often no way to "guess" how it sounds, so the learning curve is much steeper. There are other quirks in different languages. For example, Mandarin Chinese has four tones; the same phonetic spelling for a word potentially has four different meanings depending on how it's pronounced -- eg. "ma1" means "mother", but "ma3" means "horse". Cantonese Chinese, on the other hand, has nine tones, making it even more complicated. Latin has a very fluid sentence structure where the function of a noun in the sentence isn't determined by its position, but by its declension. For example, in English, "Mother gave Father food" is different from "Father gave Mother food", but the words themselves give you no hint as to their functions as subject or indirect object of the verb "to give". Their function is determined by their position in the syntax. However, in Latin, you can say "Father gave Mother food", yet if "Father" is in the "dative" case, then "Father" is the one to whom food is given, and "Mother" would be in the "nominative" case and is the subject of the verb "to give". So Latin is a language with a complex grammatical system, but simple alphabet; you only have to learn a few symbols (alphabets), but you have to learn a lot of rules on how to use them. By contrast, Chinese dispenses with even plurals, verb conjugations, and many articles and prepositions. In Chinese, you can say "Father give food Mother", or "Father give food child". The context of the sentence will determine whether "child" actually refers to more than one child. And the words "Father" and "child" do not, in themselves, show you which is the subject of the sentence. Thus, Chinese is a language with a very simple grammatical system, but a huge "alphabet"; you need to learn very few grammatical rules, but in order to communicate, you have to know a lot of symbols, because they are unique and various.

Answer 2

Individual differences among second language learners can include factors such as age, motivation, learning styles, cognitive abilities, prior language learning experience, and cultural background. These differences can impact how quickly and effectively a learner acquires a new language. It's essential for educators to consider these variations when designing language instruction.