Study On Correlation Between Individual Differences And Foreign Language Learning Achievements

Researches on characteristics of higher achievers in foreign language learning, namely, individual differences (ID), play an important part in the development of foreign language teaching. The current study lays emphasis on correlation between foreign language achievements and the two ID factors as language aptitude and motivation. Here language aptitude is indexed by L1 proficiency, which is a rather potential but stable factor;while motivation serves as a supplementary factor which is external and flexible.Based on the distinct foreign language learning settings in China, the writer conducted a quantitative research on the effects of L1 proficiency and motivation on foreign language achievements. The research hypotheses are as follows:1. Learner's L1 proficiency will be positively correlated with his/her foreign language learning achievements;the degree of correlation between learner's L1 proficiency and foreign language learning achievements will remain unchanged throughout the process of foreign language development.2. Learner's motivation will be positively correlated with his/her foreign language learning achievements;learner's motivational orientation will make a difference to foreign language learning achievements.A total of 120 non-English major sophomores and juniors from three universities,acting as the subjects of the research, participated in the study. The data were collectedthrough the questionnaire, interviews and observations. The questionnaire includeddemographic information of subjects and the Motivation Test (adapted from Gardner'sAMTB, 1988). SPSS 10.0 was adopted to process and analyze the collected data(altogether 102 valid questionnaires). The research follows the following procedures:1. The subjects were divided into three groups as higher, average and lower groupaccording to their scores on CET 4. Comparison of means indicated that higherachievers scored highest in terms of L1 proficiency and motivation. Therefore,higher achievers displayed an advantage in the aspect of language aptitude andmore intense motivation.2. Independent sample test was employed to test whether the differences among the three groups were significant. The results indicated that both LI proficiency (language aptitude) and motivation can distinguish successful language learners from unsuccessful ones.3. The results of correlational analysis indicated that both LI proficiency (language aptitude) and motivation were significantly correlated with foreign language achievements. In addition, through comparison of the correlation coefficients, the correlation between LI proficiency and foreign language acquisition decreased with the progress of foreign language proficiency but increased with the progress of LI proficiency.4. The results of multiple regression showed that prior English proficiency (achieved upon the entrance of college) and LI progress possessed the strongest predicting power of the foreign language achievements, and next came to "desire in learning language" and motivation.5. Further study on higher achievers was conducted through paired t-test. The results showed that whether students taking INSO (instrumental orientation) or INTO (integrative orientation) did not display significant differences in terms of foreign language achievements. Therefore the types of motivation could not decide foreign language achievements. Through interviews with the higher achievers, the results of the qualitative research also supported the point mentioned above.The two hypotheses have been confirmed by the results of the collected data analysis. Based on the study, it is suggested that students' LI proficiency should be continuously improved therefore to strengthen the positive effects of LI on foreign language learning achievements;LI test should be arranged in tests aiming to select talents at different levels to get full knowledge of the testees' linguistic competence as a whole;in practical foreign language teaching, LI proficiency and motivation, as two ID factors different in nature, should be reasonably combined: on the one hand,motivating learners' interest towards language learning;on the other hand, making learners' LI proficiency keep progressing.