Plenary Speakers
 

Zoltan Dornyei, University of Nottingham
Are individual differences really individual?

Many areas of applied linguistic research have recently begun to look at target phenomena in a situated, contextualised manner as they interact with the environment, resulting in a complex interplay of synchronic and diachronic variation. Individual difference (ID) research has not been immune to this changing perspective, with a number of situated and dynamic concepts having been introduced over the past decade, such as the aptitude-treatment approach in language aptitude research or the process-oriented conceptualization of language learning motivation. These changes, I will argue, have undermined the traditional theoretical basis of ‘individual differences’ as distinct and stable learner attributes. To start with, even the term itself is a misnomer in the sense that ID research hardly ever concerns the individual proper but rather involves quantitative (i.e. group-based) research paradigms that focus on the variables that are at the heart of learner-based variation. I will further argue that the selection of relevant variables is theoretically ambiguous. To make things worse, when we examine traditional ID factors, we find in several cases that there is considerable overlap in their components, which raises the question of how individual the various ID factors actually are. Why, for example, is motivation typically seen as an ‘affective’ variable when almost all influential motivation theories in psychology are cognitive in nature? And if this is indeed the case, how is motivation different from ‘language aptitude’, which is usually viewed as a broad umbrella term covering a variety of cognitive factors determining L2 learning achievement? In an attempt to answer these (and other) questions, this talk will outline a new integrative system of language learner variation that is situated within a temporal and social context.

Zoltan Dornyei received his PhD in psycholinguistics from Eotvos University, Budapest, in 1988 where he then worked for 10 years as a teacher trainer and applied linguist. In 1998 he moved to the UK, and he is currently Professor of Psycholinguistics in the School of English Studies, University of Nottingham. He has published over 60 academic papers on various aspects of second language acquisition, and is the author of several books, including Teaching and Researching Motivation (2001), The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition (2005), Motivational Dynamics, Language Attitudes and Language Globalisation (2006), and Research Methods in Applied Linguistics: Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methodologies (2007). He has received the Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize of the Modern Language Association of America and the TESOL Distinguished Research Award. Currently he is working on a comprehensive monograph on the psychology of second language acquisition.

Email: zoltan.dornyei@nottingham.ac.uk

WebURL: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/lookup/lookup_az.php?id=NjA0Mjcz&page;_var=personal