ADE LAILI AKHILIYYAH 20157470163

YULIA SAFITRI20157470016

YURIATIN DEWI A.20157470150

TINI SUMARTINI20157470147

TB. NUGRAHA ADI P.20157470004

PSYCHOLINGUISTICSThe Theory of Language Acquisition

(Ujang Suparman, M.A., Ph.D.)

CHAPTER 5PERSONALITY &

LANGUAGE LEARNING

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTIONThe cognitive domain of language learning is not merely

enough to create a successful language learning experience. It must coincide with the affective domain of language learning

Brown (1980) provides an example that culture conflict accounts for most language problems, or that the key to be successful in learning a foreign language is motivation.

Psychologists encounter difficulties in defining the abstract terms such as motivation, empathy, aggression, and extroversion. By carefully and systematically investigating the role of personality in L2 acquisition, a greater understanding of language learning process, developed language teaching, and learning methods can be achieved.

LOWSELF ESTEEM

BOREDUNMOTIVATED

HIGHSELF ESTEEM

EXCITED

MOTIVATED

THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

Affective refers to ‘emotion’ or ‘feeling’

The affective domain is the emotional part of human behaviour, and it may be placed side by side to the cognitive part

5. CHARACTERIZING

4. ORGANIZING

3. VALUING

2. RESPONDING

1. RECEIVING

5 Levels of Affectivity, Benjamin Bloom et al. (1964)

PERSONALITY FACTORS 1. Egocentric factors – one’s view of self

and its relevance to language learning2. Transactional factors – how one’s self

is transacted to others3. Motivational factors – one’s inner

drive or stimulus

EGOCENTRIC FACTORS

EGOCENTRIC FACTORS

Self Esteem

Inhibition

SELF ESTEEM“The self-concept or self-structure may be thought of as an organized configuration of perceptions of the self which are admissible to awareness. It is composed of such elements as the perceptions of one’s characteristics and abilities; the precepts and concepts of the self in relation to others and to the environment; the value qualities which are perceived as associated with experiences and objects; and goals and ideals which are perceived as having a positive or negative valence”. (Carl Rogers, 1951: 136-37)

SELF ESTEEM“The evaluation which the individual makes and customarily maintains with regard to himself ; it expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicates the extent to which an individual believes himself to be capable, significant, successful and worthy. In short, self-esteem is a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds towards himself. It is a subjective experience which the individual conveys to others by verbal reports and other overt expressive

behavior”. (Coopersmith, 1967 : 4-5)

3 TYPES OF SELF ESTEEM

General / Global Situational / Specific

Task

GENERAL / GLOBAL SELF ESTEEM

General or global SE is thought to be relatively stable in a mature adult, and resistant to change except by active and extended therapy.

SITUATIONAL / SPECIFIC SELF ESTEEMRefers to one’s appraisal of oneself in : certain life situations, such as in social

interaction, work, education, or home; certain more defined aspects, such as

intelligence, communicative ability, or athletic ability;

personality traits, such as sociability, empathy, or flexibility.

TASK SELF ESTEEM• Relates to particular tasks within specific situations

(e.g.. Within educational domain: refers to particular subject matter areas). In athletic context, skills in a particular sport or even a very small aspect of a sport (e.g.. net play in tennis).

• Specific self-esteem might refer to L2 acquisition in general, and task self-esteem might refer to one’s self evaluation of a particular aspect of the process: speaking, writing, or a special kind of classroom exercise.

RESEARCHES ON SELF ESTEEMLittle research has been carried out on the relationship between SE and SLA.Adelaide Heyde (1979) studied the effects of the three levels of SE on performance of an oral production task by American college students learning French as an FL. She found that all three levels of SE correlated positively with performance on the oral production measure, with the highest correlation occurring between task SE and performance in oral production. That is students with high SE actually perform better in the foreign language.

RESEARCHES ON SELF ESTEEMBrodkey and Shore ( 1976), and Gardner and Lambert (1972) :

The result of both studies showed that self-esteem appeared to be an important variable in L2 acquisition, especially in view of cross-cultural factors of L2 learning.

INHIBITION• The concept of inhibition is related to and subsumed

under the notion of self esteem.• All human beings build sets of defenses to protect the

ego. • The newborn baby has no concept of his own self;

gradually he learns to identify a self that is distinct from others.

• In childhood, the growing degrees of awareness, responding and valuing begin to create a system of affective traits which the person identifies with himself.

INHIBITION• In adolescence, the physical, emotional, and

cognitive changes of the pre-teenager and teenager bring on mounting defensive inhibitions to protect a fragile ego, to turn aside ideas, experiences, and feelings that threaten to take to pieces the organization of values and beliefs on which appraisals of SE have been founded.

• The process of building defenses continues on into adulthood

INHIBITION• Some people – those with higher SE and ego

strength – are more able to withstand threats to their existence and thus their defenses are lower.

• Those with weaker SE maintain walls on inhibition to protect what is self-perceived to be a weak or fragile ego, or a lack of self-confidence in a situation or task.

• The human ego encompasses language ego to refer to the very personal , egoistic nature on SLA.

STUDIES ON INHIBITION1. Guiora et al (1972 a) The notion of ego boundaries is relevant to

language learning. The performance on a pronunciation of test in Thai of subject given the alcohol was significantly better than performance of a control group. Guirora concluded that there was a direct relationship between inhibition ( a component of language ego) and pronunciation ability in L2.

STUDIES ON INHIBITION That inhibition, the defenses that we place between ourselves and

others can prevent us from communicating in a FL.

According to Brown (1980), since Guirora’s et al (1972 a) experiments were conducted a great number of big step have been taken in FL, teaching methodology to create methods that decrease these defenses. Language teaching methods in the last quarter of twentieth century have been characterized by the creation of context of meaningful classroom communication that the interpersonal ego barriers are lower to pave the way for free, unrestrained communication.

STUDIES ON INHIBITION2. Earl Stevick ( 1976) • on language learning as involving a number of forms of

alienation between the critical me and performing me , between my native culture and my target culture, between me and my teacher, and between me and fellow students.

• According to Stevick, this alienation arises from the defenses that we build around ourselves. What makes things worse is that the defenses do not facilitate learning, rather they inhibit learning. Consequently, their removal can promote language learning which involves self- exposure to a degree manifested in few other attempts.

TRANSACTIONAL FACTORS

TRANSACTIONAL FACTORS• Human being is a social animal and the major mechanism for

keeping the unity of society is language.• Transaction is the process of reaching out beyond the self to

others. • Various transactional variables come up on L2 learning, such

as: imitation, modeling, identification, empathy, extroversion, aggression, and styles of communication.

• Empathy, extroversion and aggression are going to be discussed due to their relevance to a global understanding of L2 acquisition.

EMPATHY• It is a process of “putting yourself into someone else’s

shoes,” of reaching beyond the self and understanding and feeling what another person is understanding or feeling.

• “Empathy is a process of comprehending in which a temporary fusion of self-object boundaries permits an immediate emotional apprehension of the affective experience of another,” (Guioria, 1972b: 142)

EMPATHY• It is the major factor in harmonious

coexistence of individuals in society.

• Language is one of the primary means of empathizing

EMPATHYTwo necessary aspects to the development and exercising of empathy:

1. An awareness and knowledge of one’s own feelings

2. Identification with another person

In other words, you cannot fully empathize – or know someone else – until you adequately know yourself.

EMPATHY• Empathy is required in communication.

• In order to communicate effectively you need to be able to understand the other person’s affective and cognitive states.

• Communication breaks down when false presuppositions or assumptions are made about the other person’s states

EMPATHYOral and written communication in relation to empathy:

Oral communication is easier for us to achieve empathic communication since there is immediate feedback from the hearer.

Written communication requires a special kind of empathy - a cognitive empathy, where the writer must communicate ideas by means of a very clear empathic intuition and judgment of the reader’s state of mind and structure of knowledge. The writer does not have the benefits of immediate feedback from the reader.

EXTROVERSION• It is a common belief among Western society that

introversion is an undesirable behavior.• The outgoing, good tempered, kind hearted, talkative

personality tend to be held up as axiomatically desirable and ideal.

• This valuing of extroversion carries over into the language classroom as well.

• Quiet, reserved personalities are treated as “problems” and language teachers seeks ways of encouraging extroversion

EXTROVERSION• Extroversion is commonly considered to be related to

empathy, but it may not be the case.

• According to Brown (1980), the extroverted person may actually behave in extroverted manner in order to protect his own ego with extroverted behavior being symptomatic of defensive barriers and high ego boundaries.

• The introverted, quieter, more reserved person may show high empathy (an intuitive understanding and apprehension of others) and may be more reserved in the outward and apparent expression of empathy.

EXTROVERSION• It is not clear whether extroversion or introversion helps

or hinders the process of L2 acquisition.

• The Toronto study found no significant effect for extroversion in characterizing the “good language learners” (Naiman, Frohlich, and Stern 1975).

• The extroversion may be a factor in the speaking of a foreign language (FL), but not in aural and reading comprehension, nor in writing

AGGRESSION• Aggression can be defined in a number of ways ranging from

“a sequence of behavior the goal of which ... is injury of the person toward whom it is directed” to more general definitions that include inference to responses that could injure if aimed at a vulnerable object.

• There is some debate about the relationship of frustration to aggression.

• For example, Freud’s early theory of aggression mentioned that aggression is a “primordial reaction” to frustration (Freud, 1920)

AGGRESSION• But aggression should not be defined only in a negative

context.

• Aggression, even in the “injurious” sense, is a behavior necessary for survival; e.g., consistent refusal to the aggressive in self- defense, physically and emotionally, could result in physical or mental illness and/or death.

• Assertiveness is perhaps a more positive notion related to the construct of aggression.

AGGRESSION IN RELATION TO LANGUGE LEARNING

• La Forge (1971) noted that the over display of hostility seemed to facilitate communication and to lead toward less inhibited and freer, semi grammatical conversation.

• In short, when students got angry with each other, they communicated more freely.

• Brown (1980) believes that aggression could be a central factor determining motivation to learn a language, and FL teaching methods have to capitalize on positive and constructive aggressive behavior

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

1. Basic Needs and Drives

Motivation is usually considered as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to particular action.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORSAusebel (1968: 368-79) identifies six desires or needs of human organism which strengthen the construct of motivation:

a. The need of exploration, “for seeing the other side of the mountain,” for thoroughly investigating the unknown.

b. The need for manipulation; for oeperating the environment and causing change(3)the need for activity, for movement and exercise, not only physical but also mental.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORSc. The need for stimulation, the need to be stimulated by the environment by other people, or by ideas, thoughts and feelings;

d. The need for knowledge, the need to process and internalize the results of exploration, manipulation, activity, and stimulation to overcome contradiction, to ask for solutions to problems and for self-consistent system of knowledge; and

e. The need for ego enhancement, the need for the self to be known and to be accepted and approved by others.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

Motivation is an inner drive or stimulus, which can be global,

situational, or task oriented

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

Some learner factors were considered to influence motivation: intelligence, aptitude, perseverence, learning strategies, interference, and self-evaluation.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

Some learner factors were considered to influence motivation: intelligence, aptitude, perseverence, learning strategies, interference, and self-evaluation.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS2. Instrumental and Integrative Motivation

Motivation is classified into 2 categories based on 2 different kinds of attitudes:A. Instrumental motivation – refers to motivation to acquire language as a means for getting instrumental goals, such as furthering carreer, reading technical material, and translation.B. Integrative Motivation – is used when a learner wishes to integrate himself within the culture of L2 grou , to identify himself with and become a part of that society.

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE

LEARNING (CLL)

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

Charles Curran (1972), in his “ Counseling – learning “ model of education was motivated by Carl Rogers’view of education where learner in a classroom are regarded as a “group” rather than a class, that is, a group in need of certain therapy and counseling.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CLL1. The social dynamics of such a group are of primary importance. 2. In order for any learning to take place, the members need to interact in

interpersonal relationship where students and teacher join together to facilitate learning in a context of valuing and prizing each individual in the group.

3. In such situation, each individual lowers the defenses that prevent open interpersonal communication.

4. The anxiety caused by the educational context is learned by means of the supportive community.

5. The teacher’s presence is not perceived as a threat, nor is the teacher’s pupose to impose limits and boundaries but rather as a true counselor, to center his attention on the client (the student) and his needs.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CLL6. Deffensive learning is made unnecessary by the emphatic

relationship between teacher and students.7. Curran’s counseling – learning model of education

capitalizes on the primary of the needs of the learners who have gathered together in the educational community to be counseled.

8. Currans’ counseling – learning model of education has been extended to language learning contexts in the form of CLL.

9. The group of clients (learners) are seated in a circle with the counselor (teacher) on the outside of the circle.

10. The clients may be complete beginners in the FL

STEPS OF CLL1. When one of the clients wishes to say something to the

group or to an individual,he says it in his native language (say, Indonesian) and

2. The counselor translates the utterance back to the learner in the L2 (say, English).

3. The learner then repeats the English sentence as accurately as he can.

4. Another client responds in English.5. The utterance is translated by the counselor.

STEPS OF CLL

6. The client repeats it; and the conversation continues.7. Ideally, the conversation is taped for later listening.8. At the end of each session, the learners inductively try to

gather information about the new language.9. The counselor may take a more directive role and provide

some exploration of certain linguistics rules or items.

STAGES IN LANGUAGE COUNCELOR-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

Curran (1976; 53) :1. Total dependence on language counselor, idea said in English, then said

to group in FL, as counselor slowly and sensitively, gives each.2. Beginning courage to make some attempts to speak in the FL, as words

and phrases are picked up and retained.3. Growing independence with mistakes that are immediately corrected by

counselor.4. Needing counselor now only for idioms and more subtle expressions

and grammar.5. Independent and free communication in the FL. Counselor’s silent

presence reinforces correctness of grammar

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSIONThis chapter discusses personality and language learning

which include the affective domain, egosentric factors – comprising self-esteem and inhibition, transactional factors consisting of three sub-components, that is, empathy, extroversion, and aggression.

We also discuss motivation which subsumes basic needs and drives, and instrumental and integrative motivation.

All of these topics and sub-topics are highly important in discussing language learning and language acquisition.