ANALYSIS: CHAPTER 3, PHYSICAL AND

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
INFLUENCING LANGUAGE LEARNING

AGE & PERSONALITY

By
Nancy Cervantes Tinoco

GROUP: MEI22AL

INTRODUCTION
 Learning a second language has become more important in our society since any
language is relevant for communication and interaction with others. As teachers and
learners, it is important to acknowledge the physical and psychological factors and the role
these factors play on the process of second language acquisition to be able to address
them and/or minimize the negative impact and maximize the second language acquisition.
In this paper, it is reviewed and analyzed the two factors that effect on the second
language learning process, those factors being the physical factor, age, and the
psychological factor, the personality; as well as how do they contribute to the success or
failure of a second language. Though it will only be mentioned these factors, it is of great
importance not to forger that these are not independent from other factors, such as
cognitive and affective factor.

AGE FACTOR

Some L2 learners make fast and seemingly effortless progress at their language
learning as if it were the mother tongue while others progress is slowly and with a certain
amount of difficulty. As Arzamendi et al’s (n.d) stated “research has demonstrated that
individual factors play an important role in the rate and in the success in learning” (pp. 37).

Unlike motivation or cognitive style, age is a variable that can be measure without
any instrument or test, which makes it practical for planning and design of a curriculum
within an educational system. Just like the affective factor influences on the learner’s
process, the learner’s own age also influences the process and achievement of a second
language and the level which he/she would reach. It is believed that children are better
and faster learners of languages than adults yet there is no general factor on this issue.
Several hypotheses have been made relating to the age factor in second language
acquisition, the critical period hypothesis, affective factor, and cognitive factor.

The critical period implies that children have a critical period for learning, this
means that beyond a particular age, success of a second language acquisition is not
possible due to physiological changes in the brain and as the learner gets older the learner
loses the flexibility needed to master the L2, creating literalization, yet it does not mean the
loss of linguistic abilities. Ellis, (Ellis, 1985, as cited in Universidad IEXPRO, n.d.), made a
valuable observation recognizing the effects of age on the route of SLA, which is the order
of acquisition, and resulted after several studies that regardless the learner’s age, it does
not affect the rate of the language learning. Moreover, Krashen shared this point of view,
he proposed that language learning is reduced to the amount of comprehensible input and
the emotional openness of the learner the language learning experience, unlike adults,
they may feel anxiety or stress in a foreign language situation, which takes us to the
affective explanations in relation with age and the second language learning.

The affective explanation explains different points of view from different scholars,
as it is previous psychological experiences, acculturation, confidence and social
conditions. Adult learners may have more trouble adapting to the foreign language and
culture because of previous experiences, also they are less likely to be open to search for
help or accept help. As for children, they have not gone under any psychological change
due to puberty, they are less attached to their culture which leads to a faster acculturation
and more over their confidence better, as they do not mind the help given. All the variables
mentioned before can lead to the primary (functional vocabulary, proficiency in
pronunciation and grammatical rules) or secondary level of the language (manage
complex grammatical structures and language styles). As Neufeld mentions (Neufeld,
1978, as cited in Universidad IEXPRO, n.d.), “all learners are able to acquire the primary
levels of foreign language. However, young children acquire secondary levels much better
than adults…”. Whereas young language acquires a secondary level of language learning
is because of the acceptance into a social group, adults can also reach a secondary level
but because of different reasons, such as professional, work or educational purposes.
These can be related to the cognitive factors such as their learning strategies, aptitude,
and intelligence.

The cognitive theories have been also related to the effect of age in second
language learning. The cognitive explanations state that adults use inductive reasoning
and have a greater ability to understand language as a formal system and tend to identify
differences between the L1 and L2, as for children, they are likely to to make use of the
Language Acquisition Device (LAD), children are not so well-predisposed to language
being more flexible to new language acquisition.

Though many studies have been done to understand the relationship of the age
factor and personality factor in the second language learning, none has been conclusive
as no factor is independent many variables come into play on the learning process along
with age such as the sensory acuity, the neurological factor, the affective motivational
factor, the input and finally the “storage” of the L2 information. Because of the cognitive
factors and age relation to language learning, it is also significant to be aware of the
impact of the curriculum design in the formal instruction in the learning of a second
language.

Many investigations have aimed at establishing the type of instruction that is most
effective, the result have been inconclusive, nevertheless there are factors that need to be
accounted for when deciding the introduction of the L2 instruction according to the
learner’s, stage of personal development, needs, demands of society, the availability of
human and material resources, etc., to develop a reasonable language curriculum.

Age has not been proven to be a factor alone that affects the language learning,
yet it is part of the many factors involved in the process. Age is an important factor to
consider while on the process of language as formal instruction, including the needs, lacks
and objectives of the language learner. Though it is resultative that age does not matter, it
does make a difference when it comes to speaking skills or the use of the language, as
adults it may result harder to have the correct pronunciation yet on the grammar the adult
has more awareness of the rules of the language. Whereas for children, pronunciation is
acquired more naturally yet the use of the language is not thought as much as an adult,
and it is used more naturally.

PERSONALITY FACTORS
Personality variables and their relationships with second language learning have
been examined by many researchers, and as well as age, personality factors come into
play with the learning process. With personality comes many features of the learner as the
learner can have an extroverted or introverted personality, certain level of tolerance, suffer
anxiety and the risks that the learner is willing to take on the learning process.

The extroverted-introverted personality is an essential characteristic of that people

relate to the world. Extroverted people are more interested in what is happening on the
external world then their own thoughts and emotions, as for introverted people who are
more interested in their own thoughts and feelings than situations outside themselves;
because of these characteristics it has been believed that extroverted learners are more
successful or become learn more rapidly than introverted learners. An extroverted
language learning will make use of the language for communication though not always
accurately. Krashen believed that an extroverted personality contributes more to
“acquisition” of the language rather than learning, meaning a formal instruction inside a
classroom, which at the same time means good study methods for introverted learners. It
can be said that extroverted and introverted learners will be successful in their acquiring or
learning their second language even if this means that the process time will be different,
meaning that both types of learners are good language learners.

Other factor that effects on whether the learner is a good leaner or not is the level
of tolerance or how it has been hypothesized as Tolerance of Ambiguity. The tolerance of
ambiguity is characterized as the ability to embrace an unpredictable situation and the
tolerance to incomplete information, as this will also effect on the level of anxiety the
learner will experience, which also influences on the language learning.

Anxiety is a factor that most of the language learners experience during the
language learning process, and the anxiety effects the stages on the process, input, the
process itself and the output, yet the anxiety effects can only be observable on the output
stage. Anxiety can either be facilitating or debilitating, in other words, anxiety can be either
helpful or harmful. This means that debilitating anxiety is an obstacle to learners as the
learner cannot control him/herself, becoming less successful, on the contrary facilitating
anxiety helps the learner overcome a language situation, making the learner want to
improve or succeed on the language performance and be able to take risks and
experience less inhibition as the learner moves forward on the learning process. Moreover,
extroverted learner is also characterized as learner with Inhibition and more risks-taker,
which also helps on the success of language learning. But as with other factors,
personality cannot alone be independent of other factors on the language learning
process.

Personality is an important factor on the language learning and communicative

skills that the learner acquires along and with the help or not from other factors, thought
contrary to age, personality cannot be measure, meaning that as teachers, we need to
encourage our students’ certain attitudes towards language and the language process,
making them aware of the customs of the target language. Also making a classroom with
good learning environment to overcome the anxiety which can also arise through the
learner’s errors and mistakes; we must take advantage of these, for they are important
part of the students’ learning process and must be considered as positive features, which
are important contributions to the classroom.

Students contribute with their output the process to identify the characteristics of a
“good” language learners. Scholars have tried to define those characteristics or behaviors
which can be linked to an extroverted learner as the learner to be a good learner in some
features such as the taking advantage of every opportunity to use the language, not matter
if a mistake is made, the learner will have no inhibition and ask for help when they are
wrong. Also, a good learner is linked to introverted learners, as they make use of a formal
language, forming a system and to think in it.

CONCLUSION
On my personal experience, age and personality are both equally important. My
brother was younger and extroverted as for I was on my puberty stage and introverted. We
started learning a second language on an all-speaking environment, which gave us a lot of
opportunities to practice yet my language process was slower than my brother’s, he was
more capable of interacting with English-speakers without inhibition, his vocabulary and
speaking skills became more successful on a one-year time, as for me, I was more afraid
of making mistakes and the importance of belonging was strong yet scary. Inhibition
became an obstacle at the beginning, after a year I became less introverted. At the time I
became less introverted my language process started to develop more, trying to take
every opportunity to use the target language on a school environment rather than on an
outside environment, making me more aware of formal use of language yet my language
level never reached my brother’s level. He was successful in and outside the classroom,
using formal and informal language. Many factors come into play to be or not to be a “good
learner” or a “bad learner”, as success on language learning is subjective to each person
depending on the objective of the use of the language.
REFERENCES

Universidad IEXPRO (n.d.). Individual Factors in the Learner’s Development.

Arzamendi, J., Ball, P., Gassó, E., & Hockly, N. (n.d.). Methodological approaches.