The main topic of this academic blog is related to the most important factors that affect the way in which people learn foreign languages. These aspects can be divided into 2 main groups: the ones related to contextual sources of variation and the ones related to individual differences that influence learning. The former group includes, for instance, the different phenomena that occur in our society (large culture), in our classrooms (small culture) and in our foreign or second language learning environments. All of these settings influence, in one way or another, the process we go through when we learn a new language.
For instance, during this complex progression, all of our cultural baggage plays a part and it definitely determines the way we learn. In addition, the classroom is another setting that affects this process, since the relationships that are built between the students and the teacher influence our motivation and autonomy. If the teacher is autocratic perhaps the students will feel intimidated and their anxiety will increase. However, if the teacher is democratic and he/she is concerned about his/her students' participation, the learners' motivation and confidence will grow and the learning process will be facilitated.
On the other hand, there are several individual differences that we as future teachers have to take into account when teaching English as a foreign language, because they deeply influence the way our students learn. These variables can be stylistic, cognitive, affective or demographical, but the most important one, according to my opinion, is motivation, which is an affective factor along with anxiety and self-confidence. Thus, we can find several types of motivation, but the most common classification is between instrumental and integrative motivation, which we will discuss later. Some other crucial factors are the student’s learning styles and strategies, which will be also deeply explained later. And last but not least, there are some demographical aspects to pay attention to, such as age, social background, and gender.
All of these factors, whether they are contextual or individual, will be explained and analyzed in a very thorough way so as to show future teachers of English their great importance, and make them realize that these variables can turn our profession a bit more difficult and demanding than we might think it is.
