University of Algiers 2 MASTER 1
Department of English LAL
Dr. Abir OUAFI GROUP: 01/02
Intake Factors: An Overview
Factors Affecting Learning: Learner Internal Factors
OBJECTIVES: This lesson aims at providing
An overview of the factors influencing language learning
Illustrations of internal intake factors that greatly influence learners in their process of
additional language learning.
An overview of intake processes has revealed that language learning and learning, in general,
involve a number of conditions such as readiness /intention, perception and attention, noticing
and practice. Learners and students during the process must focus on new input if it is to be of
any benefit to them and turn into desirable outcomes.
The subtlety as well as complexity of the mental activities that are responsible for
helping learners participate in a learning event and turn input into intake dictate the necessity
to uncover the list of factors, which, the literature on the theme reveals to be of a certain impact
on the effectiveness /outcomes of the learning event. For the learning event to gradually result
in knowledge and skill acquisition, research in the field suggest that success/effectiveness
depends on a number of internal and external constraints. Today’s lecture will be devoted to
the set of factors referred to as “internal factors” that are assumed to affect the learning event
and to the way(s) they affect it. An account of “external” factors is postponed to semester 2.
Scholars differ widely on the choice of “intake factors”. For instance, according to
Krashen (1981), the only two factors determining “intake” are comprehensible input and low
affective filter. Yet Sharwood Smith (1985), suggesting the limitation of this view, argued, “it
is particularly unreasonable to give L2 input the unique role in explanation of intake.” Swain
(1985), on the other hand, maintained that “comprehensible output” is crucial for converting
input into intake. In a comprehensible review of SLA literature, Spolsky (1989) highlighted
that there are no less than 74 factors (conditions) of varying importance that contribute to L2
development.
In regard to learning an additional language, kumaravadivelu (2006) has identified six
major factors as follows: Individual factors, negotiation factors, tactical factors, affective
factors, knowledge factors and environmental factors (Notice the acronym INTAKE).
INTAKE
I ndividual Factors (e.g. Age)
N egotiation Factors (interaction and interpretation)
T actical Factors (learning and communication strategies)
A ffective Factors (e.g. attitude, motivation…)
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University of Algiers 2 MASTER 1
Department of English LAL
Dr. Abir OUAFI GROUP: 01/02
K nowledge Factors (language and metalanguage knowledge)
E nvironmental Factors (social and educational context)
Internal intake factors are consensually acknowledged to pertain to the individual learner and
are of a psycho-affective kind. Kumaravadivelu (2006) enumerates all of individual (age,
cognitive factors: aptitude, intelligence), affective (anxiety, empathy, extroversion,
introversion, motivation and attitudes, self-esteem, inhibition and risk-taking) and tactical
factors (learning and communication strategies) as belonging to this category.
Accordingly, learning an additional language is a complex, dynamic and nonlinear process with
so many interacting factors and variables. Any viable theory is supposed to take into
consideration not only the input role, the innate/cognitive and environmental factors, but also
the affective ones. Indeed, a number of variables related to motivation, attitude and personality
should be well explained and accounted for in relation to learning the target language.
Of these variables, age, anxiety and personality factors in general (like self-esteem, risk and
inhibition) seem to be particularly relevant to foreign language learning (Horowitz et al,
1986).Attitude and motivation seem also to be of an utmost importance to achieve success in
learning an additional language.
A/ AGE The importance of age has been discussed in relation to the Critical Period Hypothesis
(CPH henceforth). The assumption is that taking up an additional language at an early age -late
childhood and before puberty- learners are likely to reach desirable outcomes. For instance,
due to brain plasticity, learning the sound system is likely to end up in native-like proficiency,
whereas if achieved at a later age performance in the second language will be marked by a
“foreign accent.” This, according to Kumaravadivelu (opcit) citing other scholars may be due
the “neuromuscular “basis of oral language production. Lexico-grammar performance does
not seem to be concerned by such a constraint. Scovel (2001) reported three different strands
of thought. The first maintains that there is a Critical Period but confined only to foreign
accents. The second highlights that there is a Critical Period not only for accents, but also for
grammar; nevertheless, very little evidence seem to support it. The third says that there is no
Critical Period, not even for pronunciation as some studies show that given adequate phonetic
training and proper conditions for learning, learners can actually acquire sufficient
phonological competence to pass for native speakers.
B/ Attitude and Motivation Known, respectively, as a) personal thoughts, opinions and
beliefs, evaluative response to events/others’ actions and speech, b) a strong desire that drives
people to meet an aim, to sustain a learning process and achieve proficiency.
Motivation has been approached in different ways according to the learning perspective.
Behaviouristic Perspective: Motivation is characterised by anticipation of reward,
desire to receive positive reinforcement, acts at the mercy of external forces.
Cognitive Perspective: Motivation is driven by basic human underlying needs or
drives (exploration,…), setting goals and expending efforts, internal forces in control.
Constructivist Perspective: motivation is determined by social context and individual
personal choices; each person is motivated differently, and will therefore act on his/her
environment in ways that are unique; security of group; internal and interactive forces
in control.
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University of Algiers 2 MASTER 1
Department of English LAL
Dr. Abir OUAFI GROUP: 01/02
When learners acquire a language as a means for attaining academic/career-related goals (e.g.
translation), this type of motivation is instrumental. When learners wished to integrate
themselves into the culture of the target language group and become involved in social
interchange in that group, these learners are socially and culturally oriented and their
motivation is integrative. Both types of motivation are related to success in L2 learning, and
most situations involve a mixture of each orientation (e.g. international students learning
English in the US for academic purposes may be relatively balanced in their desire to learn
English for academic purposes and to become somewhat integrated with the culture and people
of the United States).
Attitude and motivation reveal to be closely related; whether intrinsic (learning for self-
perceived needs and goals) or extrinsic (pursuing a goal only to receive an external reward
from someone else), motivation leads learners to attend to their studies and invest required time
and effort. When it results in achievement (which, in general, it does) it is likely to lead to a
positive attitude towards language studies.
C/ ANXIETY Citing Horwitz & Horwitz (1986), Kumaravadivelu defines anxiety as:
An emotional state of apprehension, tension, nervousness, and worry mediated by the
arousal of the automatic nervous system. In the context of L2 learning, anxiety is
characterized by feelings of self-consciousness, fear of negative evaluation from peers
and teachers, and fear of failure …
One of its effect is that when excessively high, it deteriorates attention and cognitive resources
that are required during intake processing at all of input-intake and output stages of the
process. Citing Tobias (1986), Kumaravadivelu warns that:
At input, it may cause attention deficits, thus impacting on the initial representation of
items in memory; intake processing may be affected because time is divided between
the processing of emotion-related and task-related cognition; and, it may also interfere
with storage and retrieval of previously learned information, thereby affecting output.
According to Kees de Bot et. al. (2005), among the negative relationships between language
anxiety and achievement are ineffective listening comprehension skills, failure to increase the
lexical repertoire, difficulty to produce words and low achievement scores in general all of
which may associate with feelings of apprehension. Such a negative experience, according to
the above-mentioned authors, may hinder or slow down input processing.
Having said this, according to Brown (2000), there are three components of foreign
language anxiety: i communication apprehension, arising from learners’ inability to adequately
express mature thoughts and ideas; ii. fear of negative social evaluation, arising from a learner’s
need to make a positive social impression on others; and iii. test apprehension over academic
evaluation. It can be debilitative (harmful) or facilitative (helpful): Some concern –some
apprehension and a certain amount of tension –over a task to be accomplished can have a
positive effect and facilitate learning.
D/Personality Factors anxiety is only one facet of personality factors as there are other
personality characteristics such as self-esteem, inhibition and risk-taking that may influence
learning an additional language. These features are interrelated as they influence each other.
3
University of Algiers 2 MASTER 1
Department of English LAL
Dr. Abir OUAFI GROUP: 01/02
By way of example, those with weaker self-esteem (a personal judgment of worthiness that is
expressed in the attitudes that individuals hold towards themselves.) (Coopersmith, 1967)
maintain walls of inhibition (the sets of defences) to protect what is self-perceived to be a weak
or fragile ego, or a lack of self-confidence in a situation or task. It discourages risk-taking by
which it is meant the ability to gamble a bit, to be willing to try out hunches about the language
and take the risk of being wrong.
Some of the negative consequences that foster fear of risk-taking: a reproach from the teacher,
a smirk from a classmate, feeling of embarrassment, bad grade in the course; and outside the
classroom: they fear the frustration coming from a listener’s blank look, showing that they have
failed to communicate and thereby get close to other beings... (Beebe, 1983) A person with
high global self-esteem is not daunted by the possible consequences of being laughed at.
Antidote to such fears: establishing an adequate affective framework to feel comfortable and
creating a climate of acceptance stimulating self-confidence and reducing feeling of
embarrassment (Dufeu, 1994).
Accordingly, students with a low level of anxiety, high motivation, self-confidence and good-
self-image are better equipped for classroom performance and language learning. On the other
hand, high anxiety, low self-esteem, low motivation can combine to raise the affective filter
reducing, hence, academic achievement.
At length, it is worth mentioning that some students learn an additional language more quickly
and easily than others because of the complex interplay between the facilitating factors (not
causal factors) that can be broadly categorized as internal and external, and that determine the
speed and facility with which the new language is learned. The focus of this paper was mainly
on some internal factors that the individual language learner brings with him or her to the
particular learning situation. Motivation, attitude, age and anxiety, among others, are
considered as crucial factors that greatly influence someone in the process of his or her
additional language learning.
Useful readings
Grenfell, M. & Vee Harris. ( 2012). “Making a difference in language learning: The role
of Sociocultural factors and of learner strategy and Instruction.” Curriculum Journal.
Kees de Bot et al . ( 2005) . Second Language Acquisition : An Advanced Resource
Book. Routledge.
Kumaravadivelu,B. ( 2006 ) . Understanding Language Teaching. (chapt.2)
Rubin, J . (1975). what the ‘good language learner’ can teach us. TESOL Quarterly 9, .
no 1: 41–51.
