Ученый XXI века • 2022 • № 1 (82)

COGNITIVE FACTORS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

M.I. Turg`unboyeva1, N.S. Igamberdiyeva2, Sh.A. Abduolimova3

doi: 10.15350/24103586.2022.1.10

Abstract

This article is about cognitive factors in language learning – a modern way of

learning, which consists in the interaction of all participants in the educational process:
teachers and students. Today, this method of gaining knowledge, but also in terms of
the formation of personal skills and the development of the character of students. This
study aimed to identify the factors that affect first language acquisition for its native
speakers. It aimed to investigate the effect of cognitive factors on second or foreign
language learning, in order to achieve success.

Key words: cognition, first language, second or foreign language, acquisition,

intelligence quotient, cognitive/ academic language proficiency, learning styles.

Introduction
There are individual differences not only between speakers of two languages or
more, but also between those who speak the same language. Perhaps the main factors
causing such differences are natural, environmental, or cognitive. The factors
responsible for acquiring a first language are different from those of learning a second
or a foreign language. For example, a person`s natural ability and the surrounding
environment are responsible for acquiring their first language, whereas there are
cognitive factors responsible for learning a second or foreign language.
There are many cognitive factors that affect language learning. Among the
cognitive factors, there is memory, attention and awareness, forgetting, context or
environment. In which the learning process takes place. Memory plays a part in
bringing about a higher and lower level of language mastery. Is the individual is better
at understanding the role of memory as well as role of attention and awareness, and the
role of forgetting, he / she will be able to achieve a higher of language proficiency.
In addition to cognitive factors affecting language learning aforementioned,
there some metacognitive ones that refer to the strategies that the learner is to fully
aware of during the learning process. They are planning for learning, self –monitoring,
self-evaluation, and setting priorities.
Cognitive factors affecting first language acquisition
There are many terms for first language, such as native language, mother tongue,
but these terms are compatible with one another in a common feature that first
language is the language or languages’’… which are acquired during early childhood –
normally beginning before the age of about three years – and that they are learned as
part of growing up among people who speak them.’’ (Troika, 2006, p.4)
Cognitive factors influencing second / foreign language learning.
Second or foreign language, however, refers to the language or languages that an
individual learns at some point after the completion of the first language acquisition. If
the ability has ability or high level of proficiency in a second or foreign language, besides
his first language, he / she is called ‘bilingual’.
Second language learners are different. They learn with different speed and
different results. The general factors that influence second language learning include:
intelligence and aptitude, cognitive learning styles.
Intelligence and aptitude
The studies on intelligence – (Intelligence quotient) IQ tests scores – show a
strong relationship between intelligence and acquisition of a foreign language as far as

1
Turg`unboyeva Mahliyo Ikrom qizi – Student of JSPI.
2
Igamberdiyeva Nilufar Soibnazar qizi – Assistant teacher of JSPI.
3
Abduolimova Shahnoza Alisher qizi – Student of JSPI.

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academic skills are concerned. Learners with high IQ achieve better results on language
tests. It is proved that intelligence can predict the rate and success of second language
acquisition in the formal language classroom (Genesee 1976). “The ability to perform
well in standard intelligence tests correlates highly with school related second language
learning” (Spolsky 1989: 103).
Cognitive learning styles
Cognitive learning styles was described as “the characteristic cognitive,
attentive, and psychological behaviors that serve relatively stable indicators of how
learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment’’ (Keefe1979,
cited by Ellis 1994: 499). Students` learning styles can be influenced by many factors
among which are their genetic background, their culture and previous learning
experience. It is said that if teachers match their teaching methods to the students`
learning styles, the students will be more successful and more interested in the
language.
Conclusions
Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that there are factors, such
as the individual`s natural ability and the social experience or surrounding
environment affecting first language acquisition for its native speakers. It can also be
included that some cognitive factors, such as memory including its forms and types,
attention and awareness, and forgetting affecting second or foreign language learning
for its non – native spa a language, no matter eskers.
First language acquisition takes place at early age (before the age of 3 up to
puberty). So the circumstances of acquiring one`s first language are different from
second language. What makes first language acquisition different is that children are
born with an innate ability to speak a language, no matter what this language at an early
age is almost universal. Just as the natural ability plays a part in language acquisition,
the role of social experience or those who surround the child is also significant. For
example, if a child, at an early age, does not find him/ herself surrounded by people,
he/she definitely will not be able to acquire that language. This is because language
maintains its existence wherever and whenever the dynamic relationships between
people exist.
Second or foreign language learning takes place when the individual has/ not
acquired his / her first language. Therefore, the circumstances surrounding the learning
process involves other factors, specifically, cognitive factors. Now, learning unlike first
language acquisition, becomes a conscious process. That is to say, the learner is
supposed to exert some sort of cognitive effort in order to learn language. Some of the
cognitive factors are: memory including its forms and types, attention whether visual,
auditory, or selective, forgetting with its different forms: retrieval errors, lost data,
overwritten information.
Learning which is based on context is effective. That is to say, the role of social
context is very important when it comes to learn second language.
Additionally, cognitive approach that views the learner as thinking - being and
an active processor of information can be applied to improve the learners` intelligence.
In other words, the type of activities will make the learner to think more critically
towards certain educational topics. Meanwhile, teachers can benefit from this trend
(cognitivism) in English language teaching.

References

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© M.I. Turg`unboyeva, N.S. Igamberdiyeva, Sh.A. Abduolimova, 2022.

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