How a learner’s intelligence and motivation helps to learn a second language through learning style.

Tanjina Afrin Epu : 12303013

Sadia Margoob: 12303001

Sharmin Sultana: 11203007

BRAC University

Mahmoodul Haque

English 327

Second language Acquisition

DedicationWe want to dedicate our research paper to our parents, friends and well-wishers who support us at our well and woe to come up with this paper. We need them in all spare of our life.

Declaration This is to certify that this research paper is original, and all sources are cited following APA method.

(SadiaMargoob)

(Tanjina Afrin Epu)

(Sharmin Sultana)

AcknowledgementFirst of all we would like to express our gratitude towards ourAlmighty to enable us the strength and patience to complete theresearch paper within a restriction of time. We would also liketo thankour friends, supporters who have joyfully answeredourdemands and the survey that help us a great deal and provideto work with relevant information. Some of them have given theirbest afford to boost up our courage and energy level toaccomplish the research paper successfully. We are also obligedthat all of you have granted our inquires seriously, gave timefrom your busy schedule and help us out with appropriatematerials which supported a lot to prove our stand.

Table of content

1. Abstract…………………………………………………………12. Introduction…………………………………………………….23. Background……………………………………………………..44. Motivation………………………………………………………65. Learning Style…………………………………………………..96. Intelligence……………………………………………………..117. Data collection………………………………………………….128. Data Analysis…………………………………………………..139. Counter Argument……………………………………………..1510. Findings………………………………………………………..1611. Conclusion……………………………………………………...1712. Reference……………………………………………………….18

Appendix

Sample of Questionnaire ………………………………19The Survey inquiries …………………………………..21

1

Abstract

We learn our second language later in academic area comparing toour mother tongue. It is quite normal that after acquiring alittle bit of proficiency in first language we tend to learn theforeign language with the interference of the inter language.Mainly the limitation of the interlanguage helps the learners tofocus on certain features of the foreign language. With thesupport of some tools we try to accomplish our goal. Ourintelligence, motivation, environment, personality and the lastnot the least our learning process are regarded as essentialinstruments of learning second language. We cannot deny theimmense significant of all of them. But this piece of researchpaper deals with three different utensils of language learningwith a perfect survey. In this exploration paper we are going tofocus on the acceptance of intelligence, motivation and learningprocess with the help of concrete survey.

Key words: Intelligence, motivation, learning style, secondlanguage, learner.

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Introduction

This piece of research paper is written to find out the most

influencing factor in case of second language learning.

Intelligence, motivation and learning style are the key

ingredients of our research topic and all three of them have

individual significant role and effect on learning second

language undoubtedly.

Some learners have high intelligence power and they grab

easily the regulations of second language which is English. Due

to the power of their IQ level they become a very good speaker

and feel willingness to communicate in English in front of the

public.But there are some learners who are not fast in terms of

intelligence power and they often fell difficult to learn it.

Therefore motivation can be an important tool to boost up their

confidence level and make them comfortable to apply the second

language freely in front of the universe.

The third key point is learning style. It differs from

individual to individual. It expresses the way learners have come

to know about the second language. The main objective of the

paper is to sort out the main manipulating factor through the

survey and the answers they we have collected from our

interviewee. There are lots of factors that work as individual

differences such as personality, aptitude, motivation,

intelligence, learning style and attitude. Among all them we are

focusing on only three factors which we have mentioned earlier.

We have tried to collect our queries through our interviewee

and the survey to gather the potential data which is the core

ingredient to complete the study. We have done the survey on

nearly 20 people especially among our friend circle within the

BRAC UNIVERSITY premises. But as we are standing at the end of

the semester many of them are busy with their final

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preparation. We were not able to do the survey on a large group

of peopledue to some unavoidable circumstances it was not

possible for us to make conversations with the learners of second

language that are in process of learning it in different language

institutions.

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Background

The name of our interviewee is Shahriar Chowdhury Rony one of

our good friends. His previous background was Bangla (Mohammadpur

preparatory higher secondary school) and (Dhaka College). His

personality is extrovert and he loves to make friend circle. At

present he is studying in BRAC UNIVERSITY in CSE (Computer and

Science and Engineering) and this is his 9th semester.

As we mentioned earlier that it is almost the end of the

semester that is why he did not give us a huge time. But we are

grateful to him that within his busy schedule of time he answered

our questionnaire carefully and participated in the interview. We

have given him a list of 20 questions and he attended all of

them. According to him intelligence is the major factor to come

up with the second language. When we have asked him the

question“Intelligence can measure one’s ability of language learning”----- do you

agree with the statement?” He replies like “Yes, I agree with the statement. Because an

intelligent personnel can learn anything quickly. The ability of learning somehow

depends on intelligence.”He has highlighted that if a learner lacks of

enough intelligence power, which is required to absorb the second

language, through which he/she is preferred to communicate with

the whole world,then how the learner will acquire that. It will

hard and sometimes impossible for him/her. Therefore it tells us

that IQ is the strong predictor of learning something.

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He prefers his learning style a lot. It was reading and

listening.“Reading and listening at the same time is very useful to acquire any

knowledge. My learning style helped me enough to “get better”.Rony has read

quite a number of novels. He said “English novels are greatsources of

vocabulary”. It was beneficial a lot according to his words. He

loves to read books but he relies on the English movies.

Because it is enjoyable and more practical way of learning a

new language. He also mentioned that informal and example

based learning is more feasible comparing with rule based and

strict classroom setting. But he has also drawn the issue of

the present situation that now-a-days the process had been

altered of learning. It is more depended on multi media.

Learners (Visual Learners) are shown videos and are truly

fruitful for them to understand the context based on the

situation. Easily they understand the language. So he supports

this process a lot as well.

Our interviewee does not ignore the fact of motivation. His

considers that motivation is such a dynamic inspirational

reason of learning a new language which has no connection with

our mother tongue. “When someone is truly inspired then he/she can do it

from the heart and finds interest in that work, which makes it easy for them.”

However motivation helps people to apply English language in

front of the public.

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Motivation

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want

them to do because they want to do it.(Dwight D. Eisenhower). The

lexical meaning of this word “Provide someone with a motive for

doing something.” It is like a driving tool for the learners.

Gardner and Lambert stated “Motivation” as the overall goal or

orientation. If a person has low level of IQ then it does not

mean that he/she are not eligible to understand the second

language. If he/she gets motivation from their near and dear

ones, their mentors, friends and most importantly from the

environment then it will work as an active tool for the new

learners. It will automatically encourage their confidence and

boost up their energy level. The learners will never feel low and

build up the belief that one day they can whatever the others can

do.“The most successful learners will be those who have a talent and a high level of

motivation for learning.” (Ellis, 1999. p. 118)

We need to remind that motivation is not preexisting, it is

created among the learners. But the it must be positive

motivation. Because Nina Spada has declared “Positive motivation is

associated with a willingness to keep learning.” Motivation has been

demarcated with the help of two processes.

Learners Communicative Needs

Attitude towards the Second Language

Community

If a learner wants to apply English in terms of social

situations and to come up with the proficiency level or to

develop his/her fluency level then the learner must understand

the communicative value. There are two types of motivation. Such

as:

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Instrumental Motivation = When language is learned for

practical goals.

Integrative Motivation = Learning from personal growth and

cultural enrichment.

From the book “How language are learned” we have known that these

two types of motivation is useful and they are closely associated

with successful learning language. At present researchers are

focusing on dynamics nature of motivation.

There are close connection between “Motivation” and “Attitude”.

Since there are confliction between this two terms Brown has

clearly stated three types of motivation. They are:

Global motivation - General orientation towards the

goal of learning

Situational Motivation - Varies from situation to situation.

Task Motivation - Specific motivation to perform

selective task.

Zoltan Dornyei (2001) has mention three types of motivational

phrase. They are:

1st phrase – Choice Motivation. It is related with getting

started and setting goals.

2nd phrase – Executive Motivation. It says that carrying the

necessary tasks.

3rd phrase – Motivation Retrospection. It deals with

students evaluation and reaction on their performance.

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Motivation in Classroom

A teacher can make the class interesting for the learners

especially for those who feel nervous to use English while

necessary. The teacher can give positive motivation by making the

environment and the topic enjoyable which will be relevant to

their age. Moreover, it the duty of the instructor to make the

atmosphere comfortable and make them feel free. A teacher can

teach attention-grabbing topic so that it helps the students to

overcome with all their anxiety, nervousness, shyness and fear.

As the classroom is the formal setting the beginners therefore

always use English in the classroom. Some of them apply it

informal condition as well. But many of them are not. They feel

ashamed of making mistakes. Researchers have shown that mistakes

are the crucial part of learning language. So the teacher

should introduce such type of teaching process that will

encourage them to execute English at formal and informal

setting. Because the motivation of the teacher works like magic.

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Learning Style:

Learning is style individual’s way of acquiring language.

Every individual employs different learning styles to obtain new

information and skills of the target language.No learning style

is better than the other. Every individual has the capacity to

learn within each of the learning styles, but individuals have a

preferred learning style. Reid emphasized the term learning style

as an individual’s natural and preferred way processing

information of the target language (Brown and Spada 59).

Types of learning styles related to L2 learning:

1. Perceptual learning styles:

Visual, aural/auditory, and kinesthetic

2. Cognitive learning styles:

Field-independent: see things more analytically

Field-dependent: see things more holistically

Visual students like to read and obtain a great deal of visual

stimulation. For these students, lectures, explanations,

conversations, and oral directions without any visual back up can

be confusing for them. However, auditory students do not find any

difficulties without any visual input. They can learn the

language well from lectures, conversation or from oral

directions. Kinesthetic and Tactile students prefer working with

tangible objects, flash cards, collages, etc.

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Some students may have a combination of two or sometimes three or

even all of the learning styles.

Field-Independent & Field dependent:

Field-independent is related to classroom language learning

that involves analysis, attention to detail, and mastering of

exercise, drills, and other focused activities. Field dependent

is related to the communicative aspects of language learning that

require social outreach, empathy, perception of other people, and

communicative skills. Ellis asserts that field dependence will

prove most facilitative in naturalistic SLA, but field

independence will lead to greater success in classroom learning

(114). Every person, student or teacher, has a learning style;

therefore, there is no particular teaching or learning method

that can suit the needs of all learners. However, students should

be encouraged to “stretch” their learning styles so that they

will be more empowered in a variety of leaning situations.

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Intelligence

Basically intelligence means the ability of doing something

with the power of your brain. It refers to “Capacity rather than the

contents of the mind” (Ellis 110). It leads people to learn. Through

learners' performance their intelligence is judged.However,

intelligence cannot determine all the skills of language

acquisition. In terms of intelligences Gardner focuses on human

potential lies in the fact that people have a unique blend of

capabilities and skills. In some extent intelligence plays an

important role in language acquisition (2). In addition,

intelligence may be a powerful predictor of success in classroom

SLA, particularly when this consists of formal teaching methods,

but much less so in naturalistic SLA, when L2 knowledge is

developed through learning how to communicate in the target

language (Ellis 111). Intelligence, especially measured by verbal

IQ tests, may be a strong factor when it comes to learning that

involves language analysis and rule learning. On the other hand,

intelligence may play a less important role in language learning

that focuses more on communication and interaction. Intelligence

is a complex process to measure a person’s ability. Traditional

IQ test only focuses on two types of intelligence; verbal or

linguistic intelligence and logical intelligence (Howard 1).

Howard’s theory of multiple intelligence claimed that

intelligence varies person to person. Musical, spatial, logical

intelligence, etc. are different areas of intelligence.

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Data Collection:

The goal of this research paper is to observe how

intelligence and motivation can be supportive key factors in

terms of learning a new language specially second language

through learning style. And to support this idea, we have

conducted a survey and took an interview. Due to time limitation,

we have interviewed one person and to carry on the survey around

30 people. For the interview, the interviewee has to answer 20

questions. The interview was recorded via cell phone as this

technology is available than others. And for survey, among all

the participants, there were 15 male and 15 female respondents

and everyone was willing to respond as they find this topic out

of the ordinary along with the interviewee. The respondents have

selected based on their language proficiency and all of them had

advanced level proficiency. The survey was online based. We have

attached our survey forms via several social media. Afterward the

responses were collected and located in a pie chart where it

shows among all the respondents, 56% agreed motivation, the major

factor in terms of learning language. And from the rest of 44%

people, 26% think intelligence is the key to learn language

easily. Rest of the 18% people put emphasized on learning style

of an individual.

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Data Analysis:

Even though there are different key features in terms of language

learning for a certain learners, every learner has some specific

factors that help them to acquire a language easily. The aim of

this paper is to focus on those factors which are consider as

most appropriate to the new learners for learning language and

for that this paper consider motivation, intelligence and

language learning style as major factor for learning language.

After collecting all the responses from the survey, questionnaire

and the interview we can summarize by saying all the participants

believe in separate learning feature that help to learn

effortlessly and most of them believe in motivation while

learning a new language. Among all participants, 56% people

agreed motivation. It can be an easy and an effective force for

an individual while learning language. People gain proficiency in

the second language for different purpose such as educational

purpose, personal purpose and the responses show that no matter

what is the purpose of learning language, an motivated person can

acquire a language to some degree easily than others. The

questionnaire also shows motivation can be an important tool for

improving one’s language skill such as enriching vocabulary,

grammar, sentence structure etc. Some also believe in motivation

which can be helpful for one’s language learning style and can

also guide to change the style where it is necessary. Along with

this, it is clear based on the answers motivation can inspire a

person to communicate with others. It is a good tool to practice

the language. Moreover, motivation is also appreciated by the

interviewee as he also believes that with the help of motivation

he has improved his language skill. According to him, people can

be motivated from different essence just like he has found his by

reading various English novels and watching English movies. From

the rest of the 44% participants, 26% people agreed with the term

intelligence as it plays an

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important role for learners. According to them, intelligent

people are faster and better learners than others. For that,

intelligence is the ultimate factor that helps a person to

acquire language properly. They also believe IQ is the strong

predictor when it comes to learn language. Moreover, they think

that with the help of intelligence language learners can learn

all the rules, structure and can analysis any language. Besides

the responses from survey, our interviewee also believes in

intelligence for language learning. He also emphasizes on

intelligent learners can achieve success in language learning.

Our interviewee has faith in intelligence which can be a major

aspect for a learner to reach the goal of learning new language.

Quoting the interviewee, “the ability of learning language is

depends on intelligence” shows IQ has foremost outcome when

learning language, rule learning of desired language.

Along with this, rest of 18% people agreed learning style.

Because a learner can achieve his proficiency level

effortlesslyif he has proper learning style as well as proper

learning environment around him. The respondents also focus on

some aspects such as receiving the feedback at the beginning,

example based learning style. The classroom environment can be an

encouragement and motivation for learning language.

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Counterargument:

As we mentioned before, our interviewee strongly emphasized

on intelligence. According to him without intelligence one cannot

acquire language. However, we do not agree with his opinion.

One’s language ability cannot be determined by traditional IQ

test. Perhaps, in some extent, intelligence might help learner to

get through with some rules, but in case of oral proficiency

intelligence has no role to play. Indeed, many students can learn

language, even if their academic performance is weak (Brown &

Spada 57). The famous linguist Noam Chomsky first put forward

that language is an innate capacity of the human brain, and that

it is an autonomous faculty - meaning that it is a system of its

own, rather than one of the manifestations of intelligence.

Another strong piece of evidence for the view that language is

not a projection of intelligence, is provided by individuals with

Specific Language Impairment on the one hand, and people

suffering from Williams Syndrome on the other hand (Quietman). In

the first case, patients have a normal intelligence, but they

perform far below average on language tasks. He asserts that

“Williams syndrome” is a genetic disorder in which the patient

has a very low IQ, but a normal or near-normal language

performance. This proves that in terms of language learning

intelligence cannot be only predictior.

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Finding:

Our interviewee mostly focuses on the term intelligence. But as

we can clearly visualize the factor, that being mentally malady a

person can transfer visions through applying language

successfully. It is true that a mentally ill learner will

definitely make blunders at the time of writing something. He/She

is required to commit mistakes. But in case of oral production of

language intelligence does not have an apex role to play. So

there is no clear cut clarification that the intelligence is

merely a predictor to come up with a language.

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Conclusion:

To conclude we can come up with the notion among all the major

factors of learning language motivation has significant

contribution in learners life. Even though each learner has a

preference of their own, most of them have agreed on the term

motivation.

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Refernces:

Howard Gardner. (2010). Multiple intelligences.

http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/guide/learning/

howard_gardner_theory_multiple_intelligences.pdf

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/

Is_language_ablility_related_to_intelligence

Ellis, Rod.(1985). Understanding the Second language Acquisition.

Oxford University press.

Lightbrown, Patsy.M and Spada, Nina (2006). How languages are

Learned. Oxford University press.

Questionnaire

“How a learner’s intelligence and motivation helps to learn a

language through his/her learning style”

1. What is your learning style?

2. What is the source of your motivation? How does it work in

you?

3. What kind of learner you are? (visual, aural or others?)

4. Do you have language expertness?

5. How do you think learners’ attitude influence their learning?

6. How far your learning style is successful enough?

7. “Intelligence can measure one’s ability of language

learning”----- do you agree with the statement? If yes/no,

why?

8. “Extrovert people are quick learner than introvert” ----what

do you think?

9. Many young adults find it exceedingly difficult to come up

with a foreign language? Why do you think so?

10. Why IQ test is a strong predictor when it comes to learning?

Do you believe I.Q test has any role in language acquisition?

11. Which method you follow- a. rule based b. example based.

12. What is your preference- a. classroom teaching b.

informal setting. Why?

13. “ Without motivation is it difficult to acquire second

language”? why?

14. Do you realize any sort of improvement after getting

motivation from someone in your learning style? Or Did you

come across any situation that motivates you to improve your

learning style of a language?

15. Why people feel uncomfortable to apply foreign language in

front of the public? . Do you feel shy talking in front of

people? Why or why not?

16. Do you believe only intelligent people can aced multiple

language learning?

17. How do you make sure that your learning style is more

fruitful than others?

18. “Personal way of learning” or “motivation from classroom or

any other situation” … which do you prefer most?

19. At the end what do you support-

A. Your motivation B. Intelligence C. Your better

learning style.

20. How often do you use your second language? Do you like to

use your second language with your own will every time you

speak?

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Survey Question

1. Which one is important in case of learning 2nd language? Motivation Intelligence

2. Are you satisfied with your learning style?

Fully To some extent

3. Do you support intelligence in case of learning language?

Fully To some extent

4. Does class room environment play a huge role?

A lot To certain points

5. Which method is useful according to you?

Example based Rules based

6. Does there any major change in your learning style that you have gained in your advanced level?

Remarkable changes Not that much

7. Which feedback is more useful?

At the beginning At the end

8. People who have intelligence are considered as better learners, do you agree?

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Not really To certain level

9. A single teaching method and a textbook will suit the need of the learns?

Never Not sure

10. IQ test may be a strong predictor when it comes to learning that involves language analysis and rule learning?

Yes No