Al-Quds University

Department of English

Course Title

Seminar in Language 441

Project Title

Characteristics of Good Language Learner

Submitted by

Razan Nather

Submitted to

Dr.Omar Abu-Humos

Academic Year

2013-2014

Second Semester

Table of Content:

1-Introduction:

2- Methodology:

2.1 purpose of the study

2.2 significance of the study

2.3 research question and hypothesis

2.4 research design

2.6 procedure

2.7 definitions and terms

2.8 limitations

3-Review of literature:

3.1 theoretical framework

3.2 previous research

4- Findings:

5- Discussion, conclusion and recommendations

6- Reference:

7- Appendices:

Chapter I

Introduction

What makes good language learners tick? What do they do that poor

learners do not do? Could we help the poor learners by teaching them some

of the good language learners’ traits or strategies? Learning a foreign

language is more than just a boost to your CV. It will make you smarter,

more decisive and even better at English. It also helps boosting your

memory; it will widen your knowledge about linguistics, people, and

tradition. It also improves your communicating skills, and gives you more

confidence in yourself.

Knowing a foreign language helps in discovering new worlds, and gets

an insider's view of another culture and a new view of your own. Studying a

new language, reading other people's stories, and connecting with people in

their own language can be a source of pleasure and surprise. Connect with

other cultures. Learning about other cultures will help you expand your

personal horizons and become a responsible citizen.

Getting the language right is a major issue in almost every corner of

society. The more we know about the language the more chance we shall

have of success, whether we are advertisers, politicians, teachers,

journalists, doctors, lawyers, or just ordinary people at home, trying to

understand and be understood.

This study will try to provide answers to these specific questions and

many other questions. And the aim of this study is to identify the most

important characteristics that the good language learner has in their

characters, and through the questionnaire, I’ll try to know the strategies that

are most used by good language learners.

Chapter II

2. Methodology

2.1 Statement of the problem

The problem that this study will identify and make clear is the characteristics

of good language learner, because knowing these characteristics and the

strategies behind them will make us good learners in all fields of learning,

because characteristics are linked automatically with the strategies of

learning, that will be explained very well in this study, and will also give the

chance for poor language learners to learn these strategies and apply them

on their education process.

2.2 Purpose of the study

This study is intended to identify the characteristics that good language

learners have in their personalities that make them tick and succeed in their

education process. And through this we will get to know which of the

learning strategies are more used by good language learners, and I’ll make

clear how strategies are linked together in the learning process, because

strategies are very important for us to be good language learners and later

independent learners.

2.3 Significance of the Study

This research is important for all kind of learners, because these strategies

that will be identified are all of general type. The significance of the study is

to breed good independent learners that are ready to learn in all

circumstances.

Over the last few decades, a gradual but considerable shift has taken

place, resulting in less emphasis on teaching and teachers, and greater

emphasis on learning and learners. This change has been reflected on

language education and applied linguistics, and many researchers have

applied researches that concerned the learner and the pedagogy of learning,

and many other researches have been conducted on the subject of

characteristics of good language learners, but they didn’t get to the point

where they need to discuss these characteristics and identify them in a way

to help poor language learners to be good language learners. In this research

I’ll provide you the best way to instill these characteristics in your characters

by explaining how teachers can ingrain these strategies into students

through teaching strategies.

2.4 Research Questions and Hypothesis

1. What are the characteristics of good language learners?

2. What are the learning strategies that are most used by the good language

learners.

3. How can teachers instill these characteristics or strategies into poor

language learners in order to become good language learners?

2.5 Research Design

In this research the method for data collecting that will be used is the

questionnaire. The advantages of using questionnaires in researches are that

they are practical, and large amount of information can be collected from a

large number of people in a short period of time, and in a relatively cost

effective way. And the results of the questionnaires can usually be quickly

and easily quantified by either a researcher or through the use of a software

package.

2.6 Population and Sample

For the questionnaire, the instrumentation of the study will be the fourth

year students of the English Department at Al-Quds University, and the

sample will be about 15 students.

The questionnaire will be divided into four sections, and each section will

contain a number of questions about a certain strategy of the learning

strategies.

2.7 Procedure

In this research, the questionnaire will be divided into four sections, and

each section will reflect a different type of the major strategies of learning.

These four strategies are; Cognitive, Metacognitive, Affective and social

strategies. According to previous researches, these are the strategies of

learning a second language, and in our study, learning English as a second

language. At the end of the research we will see which of these strategies

are most used by good language learners and according to the sample of

this study, the fourth year students of the English Department at Al-Quds

University.

2.8 Limitations

Academic year: 2013-2014

Specific Sample: Fourth year students of the English Department at Al-Quds

University.

Chapter III

3. Review of Literature

3.1 Theoretical Background

Students should know what to learn and how to learn in order to be

good language learners and in the future to become independent learners

and be good and effective teachers to raise educated learners. And to be

good learners, they need to know the learning strategies in order to follow,

but they have to know that there is no specific learning strategy to be a good

language learner; there are many strategies that the student should follow to

be an effective learner.

Learning strategies are used by students to help them understand

information and solve problems. A learning strategy is a person's approach

to learning and using information. Students who do not know or use good

learning strategies often learn passively and ultimately fail in school.

Learning strategy instruction focuses on making the students more active

learners by teaching them how to learn and how to use what they have

learned to solve problems and be successful. This study will divide learning

strategies to four main strategies; cognitive strategies, metacognitive

strategies, affective strategies, and social strategies.

Cognitive strategies are the specific methods that people use to solve

problems, including all sorts of reasoning and planning. Others said that

cognitive strategy is a mental process or procedure for accomplishing a

particular cognitive goal. Cognitive strategies involve the identification,

retention, and retrieval of language elements, and it is all about using our

brains to improve our learning process.

Metacognitive strategies are taken from the concept metacognition; which

means cognition of cognition or knowing of knowing. In other words they are

the type of strategies that deal with the planning, monitoring, and the

evaluating of language learning activities. It is also known as the self-

reflecting of thinking about thinking. Metacognitive strategies are used to

supervise, control or self-direct language learning. They involve different

procedures as planning, prioritizing, setting goals, and self-management.

Affective strategies are those that serve to regulate emotions, attitudes,

and motivation. They are also known as the skills that have to do with the

growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self), including the manner

in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values,

appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. This all helps the

student to become more confident of him and of his English and all of his

skills that are related to his learning process. The main affective strategies

include cooperation and question for clarification (Brown, 2007).

Social strategies are those that deal with the social side of the learner, it

may include his physical and mental skills but more about the student’s

interaction with the environment around him and the society that they live

in, and it refers to actions learners take to interact with users of language,

even if they are native speakers or not.

Social skills allow the student to have good communication with people

around him, not only in English but also in their own native language.

3.2 Previous Studies:

1. Carol Griffiths has conducted a study in 2010 that was called

“Strategies of Successful Language Learner”, that showed the

relationship between learning strategies and the good language

learner. The instrumentation of her study was an interview given for

two different people; a 28 year old Kira from Japan, and 19 year old

Nina from Germany. Before the interview, the two participants were

asked to complete a semantic-scaled questionnaire in order to rate

some strategy items. Griffiths chose these two participants because

they were successful in their studies, in spite of their differences of

age, gender, nationality, and their goals. The result of this study was

that the researcher found a relationship between strategies conducted

by students and being a good language learner. Griffiths ended her

research with a simple sentence: “Those who succeed are motivated

and they take charge of their own learning by means of strategies

which suit their own individual characteristics, situations, and goals”.

2. Fateme Behabadi and Benham Behfrouz have conducted a study in

2012 about (The Relationship between Characteristics of Good

Language Learners and The Especial Employed Learning Strategies

during Educational Context). In their research, they have divided the

learning strategies into five types: (Metacognitive, Cognitive,

Socioaffective, Communication, and Social strategies). They also linked

the good language learner to being a motivated learner, and without

motivation, success will be hard to have. The method they used was a

test given for a group of 56 IELTS candidates for the study. The test

consisted of (25 listening comprehension, 35 reading comprehension,

and 2 types of writing). 34 participants were selected out of 56, and

those were the sample of the study. The researchers interviewed them

and then they were asked to answer the questions in the essay type

form; to ensure they haven’t missed any point in the interview. The

results of the study showed that the students rely on two domains in

order to be good language learners: the first domain in their

personality features, which showed that good language learners tend

to be tolerant, responsible of their own learning and mostly perceiving.

The second domain was the strategies they used to be good language

learners, and here are some of the strategies:

1. Speaking English with friends.

2. Using monolingual dictionaries.

3. Listening to tapes, news, and stories in English.

4. Being very interested in talking to native speakers whenever

possible.

5. Watching films in English.

CHAPTER VI

What are the characteristics of good language learners?

After I distributed the questionnaire, that involved Yes/No questions about

the learning strategies that are used by good language learners among the

fourth year students of the English department at AL Quds University, I found

very interesting results.

Table 1- reported frequency of cognitive strategy used by

students

Name of

the

strategy

Yes /No Question YES NO

Cognitive Are you in charge of your language learning

process?

79.92

%

19.98

%

Cognitive Do you set goals of what to accomplish every

day?

39.96

%

59.94

%

Cognitive Do you focus for long periods of time during

class?

53.28

%

46.62

%

Cognitive Do you focus on more than one thing during

class?

79/92

%

19.98

%

Cognitive Do you like group discussions and work? 93.24

%

6.66%

As demonstrated in Table 1, the sub skills that have the highest

percentage in the use by the students are, taking charge of the

language learning process, focusing on more than one thing at the

same time, and liking group discussions. These sub skills are very

important to be successful and good language learners. But being o

good language needs preparing yourself every day for everything

that would face you and especially what would face you in the

language learning process, you have to be ready for any

circumstance, but the students of the English department

apparently do not set goals for their language learning process, and

this will reflect badly on their language learning and educational

process.

Table 2- reported frequency of metacognitive

strategy used by students

Name of the

strategy Yes/ No Question YES NO

Metacognitiv

e

Do you quiz yourself in order to see if

you have understood particular thing

in your courses?

59.94

%

39.96

%

Metacognitiv

e

Do you evaluate yourself from time

to time, in order to see if you have

achieved your goal that you have

been seeking?

46.62

%

53.28

%

Metacognitiv

e

While you are reading or studying, do

you question yourself?

59.94

%

39.96

%

Metacognitiv

e

Do you underline the key words when

you read?

79.92

%

19.98

%

Metacognitiv

e

Do you list some ideas related to

what you read?

86.58

%

13.32

%

Metacognitiv

e

If you didn’t understand a certain

thing while studying alone, do you go

and search it on your own?

86.58

%

13.32

%

According to Table 2, the most skills used by students as

metacognitive skills and strategies are, underlining the key words

when they read, listing ideas related to what they have been

reading, and searching alone for the meaning of ambiguous and

unclear words in a text. Students also quiz themselves and ask

themselves questions in order to see if they have understood what

they have been reading. The least skill used by the students is

evaluating themselves in order to see if they have achieved the

goals they have set in their learning process.

Table 3- reported frequency the use of Affective

strategies by students

Name of

the

strategy

Yes/No Question YES NO

Affective Are you afraid from asking the teacher

any question about anything you

didn’t understand during class?

6.66

%

93.24

%

Affective Can you remember things that were

told without taking notes?

79.92

%

19.98

%

Affective Do you think making mistakes is a

negative thing for the learning

process?

0% 100%

Affective Do you read English books? (Novels,

short stories, history books, cultural

books).

73.26

%

26.64

%

Affective Do you like writing courses? 73.26

%

26.64

%

Affective Do you like to go through outclass

discussions?

73.26

%

26.64

%

Affective Do you try to understand every word

in a text?

33.3

%

66.6

%

Affective Do you like to give presentations in

classes?

66.6

%

33.3

%

Affective Do you repeat words to yourself out

loud?

66.6

%

33.3

%

Affective Do you take notes during classes? 79.92

%

19.98

%