What makes a good language learner?

Learning languages seems to come more easily to some children than to others. Even in terms of acquiring their native language, the rate at which their use of language develops can vary dramatically between two children of the same age. This also holds true for children learning a second language.

Forty-five years ago, Joan Rubin wrote a paper entitled ‘What the “Good Language Learner” Can Teach Us’ (Rubin, 1975). She suggested that it would be useful to identify the strategies that successful language learners use so that teachers could help all their students to become more effective language learners. Language learning aptitude, motivation and having opportunities to use the language were seen as three key ingredients, although Rubin stressed the need for ‘thorough research.’

Unfortunately, conducting research into the personal characteristics which might account for individual differences between language learners has proved to be challenging (Lightbown and Spada, 2013). Despite this, most language teachers are in general agreement that motivation, intelligence, personality and learning preferences all play a part. Some of the characteristics are clearly beyond teachers’ control. However, teachers can have a great deal of influence on students’ motivation and learning preferences.