Second Language Acquisition Final Exam

Affect

encompasses issues of temperament, emotions and how humans feel towards information, people, objects, actions and thoughts.

Aptitude and Age

Generally, it is believed that aptitude is only applicable to older, non-children, as children themself are believed to have an innate understanding of language acquisition

Big Five test and L2 learning

ermmm there is a lot to say. Introverts are typically more attracted to language studies, but L2 learning highly relates to the aspect of openness to experience.

Cognitive abilities tested in the original MLAT

grammatical sensitivity, phonetic coding ability and memory capacity

Conation

addresses how humans use will and freedom to make choices that result in new behaviours

Intrinstic Motivation

Motivated to perform an activity for activity’s sake and personal reward

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation by means of outside source, such as reward or punishment from others

field independence

the ability to isolate details from surrounding context

MBTI

there was a strikingly large proportion of intuiting and thinking personalities, namely, people who tend to rely on memory and associations, visualize relations, look for the big picture and read between the lines (intuiting) but who also are strong at being analytical and logical (thinking). Why would ‘intuitive thinkers’ be particularly attracted to studying foreign languages? Moody suggested that these are people who like working with language words and symbols (intuitive) as well as applying grammatical analysis and rules (thinking). Interestingly, Ehrman (1990) also found that intuitive thinkers were the most common personality combination type among 79 students and teachers of nonEuropean languages in the US Foreign Service Institute. Ehrman’s finding lends important support to Moody’s, because her study involved high-aptitude learners studying so-called hard languages

Phonemic Awareness

the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words

phonological decoding

the foundational reading skill of translating written letters (graphemes) into their spoken sounds (phonemes) and blending them to read words.

Promotion-focused vs prevention-focused

Promotion-focused individuals aim to win, seeking advancement, gains, and opportunities, while prevention-focused individuals play not to lose, prioritizing safety, responsibility, and avoiding losses

Self-determination Theory

a framework for understanding human motivation, focusing on the intrinsic drive to grow and the social conditions that foster it. It posits that supporting three basic psychological needs—autonomy (choice), competence (mastery), and relatedness (connection)—enhances motivation, performance, and well-bein

self-threatening experience

intense psychological barriers, often termed foreign language anxiety (FLA), arising when learners feel their self-concept, intelligence, or personality is threatened by their inability to communicate effectively