




































INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERITICS IN SECOND 

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 

Susiati Abas 

Faculty of Applied Linguistics Program, State University of Yogyakarta 

Email: susiati0768pasca2015@student.uny.ac.id 

 

ABSTRACT 

 

This paper explores the theoretical framework of the role individual characteristic 

in language acquisition. In other words, this paper specifies on promoting 

theoretical justifications of the role individual characteristics in second language 

acquisition. Language acquisition is very similar to the process children use in 

acquiring first and second languages. It requires meaningful interaction in the 

target language-natural communication  in which speaker are concerned not with 

the form on their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and 

understanding those characteristics are age, gender, intelligence, aptitude, 

motivation and attitude, personality, learning styles and environment. The 

development those factors could be conducted via formal and informal language 

environment. Wherein, informal environment can be quite beneficial for adult 

second language acquisition. Formal environment are also beneficial. 

 

KEY WORD: Individual Characteristics, Formal and Informal Environment, 

Language Acquisition 

 

Kajian  ini membahas mengenai kerangka teoritis peran karakteristik individu 

dalam pemerolehan bahasa. Dengan kata lain, kajian ini menekankan pada teori 

pembenaran mengenai peran karakteristik individu dalam pemerolehan bahasa 

kedua. Pemerolehan bahasa ini sangat mirip dengan proses pada saat anak 

menggunakan bahasa pertama dan bahasa kedua. Hal ini memerlukan interaksi 

yang bermakna dalam  bahasa target-alam komunikasi yang fokus pembicaraan 

tidak lagi pada bentuk-bentuk ujaran but lebih pada makna atau pesan yang 

disampaikan dan memahami karakteristik tersebut seperti usia, jenis kelamin, 

mailto:susiati0768pasca2015@student.uny.ac.id


intelijen, bakat, motivasi dan sikap, kepribadian, gaya belajar dan lingkungan. 

Perkembangan faktor-faktor tersebut bisa dilakukan melalui lingkungan bahasa 

formal dan informal. Dimana, lingkungan informal bisa sangat bermanfaat untuk 

pemerolehan bahasa kedua oleh orang dewasa. Lingkungan yang formal juga 

bermanfaat 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



A. INTRODUCTION 

Language is a tool for communication. Every human have ability to 

acquire the language. The first way acquires a language when the children develop 

their ability in first language. When get to acquire the language are usually not 

aware of the fact acquiring a language, but the result they are using language for 

communication. Language acquisition too give a result to get to acquire 

competence, is also subconscious. Generally, the children are not aware of the 

rules of the language have acquired. Even if, have feel correctness. Sometime 

grammatical sentence “sound” right or ‘feel” right, and errors feel wrong. it is not 

consciously know what rules was violated.  

Other ways of describing acquisition include implicit learning, informal 

learning, and natural learning. Acquisition came after the first language has been 

learnt. In non-technical language, acquisition is ‘picking up” a language. Some 

second language theory has assumed that children acquire, while adults can only 

learn. The acquisition learning hypothesis claim, however, that adult also acquire. 

That the ability to “pick up’ language does not disappear at puberty.  The term 

‘critical period’ is used to refer to the general phenomenon of declining 

competence over increasing age of exposure and is used to state that there is a 

period when language acquisition can take place naturally and effortlessly, but 

after a certain age the brain is no longer able to process language input in this way 

(Ellis, 1986, p. 107). The most frequently understood period referred to is 

reflected in Scovel’s definition: In brief, the critical period hypothesis is the 

notion that language is best learned during the early years of childhood, and that 

after about the first dozen years of life, everyone faces certain constraints in the 

ability to pick up a new language (1988, p. 2). 

In reference to the statement above, could be concluded that every human 

has an individual characteristics or personal characteristic that can contribute in 

the language acquisition. Those characteristics are age, gender, intelligence, 

aptitude, motivation and attitude, personality, learning styles and environment etc.  

With regard to it, this paper attempts to explore the theoretical framework of the 

role individual characteristic in language acquisition. In other words, this paper 



specifies on promoting theoretical justifications of the role individual 

characteristics in second language acquisition. 

  

B. INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS 

Individual differences among second language learner are a prominent 

feature of SLA, because a great deal of the variation in language outcomes is 

attributable to various learner characteristics.   

1. Age 

The effect of age on learning a second language, commonly known as the 

critical period hypothesis (HPH), is perhaps one of the most controversial research 

topics in the area of second language (L2) acquisition. The concept of CPH is 

conceptualized by the general public as “earlier is the better” in L2 attainment and 

is so entrenched that it appears to have become a folk psychology theory (Becky, 

2013).  

The age variable examined in L2 studies is usually the age of first 

exposure to the target L2. in studied examining immigrant populations, this is 

typically indexed by the participants’ age of arrival (AOA) in the host country. 

Previous country has suggested that AOA is apparently an important determinant 

of overall degree of foreign accent in the L2. (Flege, Munro, & MacKay, 1995a). 

as well as degree of accuracy in producing particular L2 consonants and vowels 

.(Flege, Munro, & MacKay, 1996). age effect have also been reported for learning 

of English morph syntax (Johnson & Newport, 1989). the observation of age 

effect on the L2 performance of adults-even those who are experienced in their L2 

has suggested to some researchers that ability to acquire an L2 effectively is 

limited by a critical period.  

In reference to the definitions above, could be summarized that the age 

effect on second language acquisition. Successful learners of a second language 

who started SLA after puberty and have been able to achieve native proficiency. 

2. Gender 

The concept of gender is brought into being when it is matter of 

performance by Butler (1990) in John’s article.. Gender is therefore not something 

you acquire once and for at all stage of life, but an ongoing accomplishment 



produced by your repeated actions (Cameron,2004). Language scholar has 

claimed that gender differences in communication mirror and reproduce broader 

political inequalities between the sexes (John, 1997:89).     

A more moderate definition is proposed by Oktay Aslan, the scholar 

(especially postmodernist) believes that gender is a completely different concept 

from sex and it is not a biological fact at all (2009). Although the words gender 

and sex both have the sense ‘the state of being male or female’, they are typically 

used in slightly different ways; sex tends to refer to biological differences, while 

gender refers to culture or social ones. In line with Oxford Dictionaries, Language 

matter, 2014). Consequently social context, culture and principle of each society 

shape gender identity of people accompanied with unique individual experience. 

Contrary with the current study, the term gender is used following this 

conceptualization of gender which is defined as culturally constructed male 

identity and female identity, not the biological differences between male and 

female.(Leyla, 2015). In language acquisition, parents may have followed 

stereotype that girls are more emotional than boys (Brody, 1985 in Ana Aznar, 

2014:153). Girls may be socialized early into a socioemotional orientation 

emphasizing emotional expressivity making them more socially mature than boys. 

Indeed, parents may have responded differently to children at this age because of 

the greater proclivity that 3 to 4 year old girls show compared to boys in 

understanding display rules that affect emotional reactions.   

Evidence of this proposed by Robin Lakoft an American Linguist, argued 

that woman’s speech lacks authority because, in order to become “feminine”, 

woman must learn to adopt an unassertive style of communication. That is, they 

must learn to denude their statement of declarative force (John, 1997:90).      

In general that men’s speech more frequently uses language reflecting a 

dominance hierarchy, such as use of quantitative terms and negative or 

judgmental adjectives. Women tend to use language that reflects a communal, 

non-confrontation environment, such that women’s speech contains characteristics 

such as the use of hedge and emotional references (Karen, 20015:418).      



Lackoff (1975) in Mohmoud’s article, shows differences between the speech of 

male and female. He claims that women use more grammatical elements than 

men, and their use the lexical category is to somehow different from that of men.  

Brown (1980) in Mohmoud’s article studied the use of particles between 

men and women, and came to this conclusion that women use more particles 

when they communicate with their same gender. He shows the type of gender 

effects on choosing the type of particles. 

Tennen (1995) in Mohmoud’s article, believes male students have more 

participation in class discourse than female students; male students prefer to ask 

more questions that their female counterpart; they have more relationship with 

their teachers. Tennen claims that the cause of this participation in class 

discourses is that the society expect them to play this role in real life, so the male 

students are practicing the role which they should undertake in future.   

Wardhaugh (2006) believes that the differences between male and female 

speeches are the result of the social differences between the male and female. He 

cites the tendency of both type of gender in choosing the topic of conversation is 

related to their gender interests. furthermo.re, he dismisses any vigorous remarks 

on comparison and contrast between men and women paying attention to context 

(Mohmoud, 2015:54). 

3. Intelligence  

The term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally been used to refer to performance 

on certain kinds of tests. These tests are often associated with success in school 

and a link between intelligence and second language learning has sometimes been 

reported. Over the years, some research has shown that IQ scores were a good 

means of predicting success in second language learning. However, as suggested 

above, IQ test may be more strongly related to Meta linguistic knowledge than to 

communicative ability. Indeed, many students whose general academic 

performance is weak experience considerable success in second language learning 

if they are given the right opportunity.  

 

 



In recent years, many educators have been influenced by Howard 

Gardnes’s (1991). Proposal that individuals have ‘multiple intelligence’ and that 

traditional IQ tests have assessed only a limited range of abilities. Among the 

multiple intelligences Gardner includes abilities in the areas of music, 

interpersonal relations, and athletics, as well as the verbal intelligence that is most 

often associated with success in school.  

4. Aptitude 

Specific abilities thought to predict success in language learning have been 

studied under the titles of language learning ‘aptitude’. One of the pioneers in this 

area, John Carroll (1991), has characterized aptitude in term of the ability to learn 

quickly. Thus, we may hypothesize that a learner with high aptitude may learn 

with greater ease and speed but that other learners may also be successful if they 

persevere.   

Over several decades, the most widely used aptitude test have been the 

Modern Language Aptitude (MLAT) (Carroll and Sapon 1959) and the Pimsleur 

Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB) (Pimsler 1996). Recently, Paul Meare 

(2005a) and his colleagues has developed test that are taken on computer.  Peter 

Skehan (1989) argues that successful language learners may not be strong in all of 

the components of aptitude. For example, some individuals may have strong 

memories but only average abilities in language analysis. Learners’ strengths and 

weakness in these different components may account for their ability to succeed in 

different types of instructional programs.  

5. Motivation and Attitudes 

Robert Gardner and his colleagues have carried out a program of research 

an the relationship between a learner’s attitudes toward the second or foreign 

language learning language and its community, and success in second language 

learning. (Masgorat and Gardner 2003). As suggested above, it is difficult to 

know whether positive attitudes produce successful learning engenders positive 

attitudes, or whether both are affected by others factors. Although the research 

cannot prove that positive attitudes and motivation cause success in learning, there 

is ample evidence that positive motivation is associated with a willingness to keep 

learning.  



 

Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon. It has 

been defined in terms of two factors: on the one hand, learners’ communicative 

needs, and on the other, their attitudes towards the second language community. 

Instrumental motivational (language learning for more immediate or practical 

goals) and integrative motivation (language learning for personal growth and 

cultural enrichment).   

Next definition from Zoltan Dornyei (2001a) developed a process-oriented 

model of motivation that consist of three phase. the first phase; ‘choice 

motivation” refers to getting started and to setting goals, the second; “executive 

motivation”, is about carrying out the necessary task to maintain motivation, and 

the third phase; “motivation retrospection”, refers to students’ appraisal of and 

reaction to their performance.  

Social factors at a more general level can affect motivation, attitudes, and 

language learning success. one such factor is social dynamic or power relationship 

between the language. Children as well as adults are sensitive to social dynamic 

and power relationship. L2 classroom evidence attests to the fact that motivation 

is a key factor in successfully learning a language (Brown, 2001).   

In line with Bardovi-Harlig Dornyei’s (1998) seminal study showed the 

advantage of the ESL over the EFL environment in attaining pragmatic ability, 

particularly in terms of the motivation that positive experiences in the TL 

community gave to the ESL learners.   

6. Learning Styles 

The term ‘learning style’ has been used to describes an individual’ natural. 

Habitual and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and retaining new 

information and skill (Reid, 1995). For others, referred to as ‘kinesthetic’ learner, 

physical action such as miming and role-play learning style. Seem to help learning 

process. These are referred to as perceptually-based learning style. Considerable 

research has also focused on distinction between different cognitive learning 

styles. Individuals have been described as Field Independent or Field Dependent. 

For example of years, it was widely that there was strong relationship between 

field independence and success in second language learning.  



 

Instead, we should encourage learners to use all means available to them. 

At a minimum, research on learning style should make us skeptical of claims that 

a single teaching method or textbook will suit the need of all learners. The 

challenge is to find instructional approaches that meet the needs of learners with a 

variety of aptitude and learning style profiles. Such exceptional learners suggest 

that an aptitude for language learning is at least partly independent of cognitive, 

social, and personality characteristic that are often associated with successful 

learning.    

7. Personality 

A number of personality characteristics have been proposed as likely to 

affect second language learning, but it is not been easy to demonstrate their effects 

in empirical studies. As with other research investigating the effect of individual 

characteristic on second language learning, deferent studies measuring a similar 

personality trait produce different results. For example, it is often argued that an 

extroverted person is well suited to language learning.    

Another aspect of personality that has been studied is inhabitation. it has 

been suggested that inhabitation discourage risk-taking, which is necessary for 

progress in language learning. This is often considered to be particular problem 

for adolescents, who are more self-conscious than younger learners. While result 

such as these is interesting, they have note to do with performance than with 

learning. We may also note, in passing, that when larger doses of alcohol were 

administered, pronunciation rapidly deteriorated.  

Learner anxiety-feelings of worry, nervousness, and stress that many 

students experience when learning a second language has been extensively 

investigated. for a long time, researcher thought of anxiety as a permanent feature 

of a learner’s personality. In fact, the majority of language anxiety scales, like the 

foreign language Classroom Anxiety Schale (Horwitz, and Cope 1986) measure 

anxiety in this way.   

More recent research investigating learning anxiety is more likely to be 

dynamic and dependent on particular situations and circumstances. This permits 

distinction to be made between for example, a student who feels anxious when 



giving an oral presentation in front of the whole class but not when interacting 

with peers in group-work.  

Experience anxiety before a test or an oral presentation can provide the 

right combination of motivation and focus to success on it. Because anxiety is 

often considered to be a negative term, some researcher has chosen to use other 

terms they consider to be more neutral. According to some researcher, learners 

who willingly communicate in a wide range of conversational interactions are 

able to do so because ‘their prior language learning has led to development of 

self-confidence, which is based on the lack of anxiety combine with a sufficient 

level of communicative competence, arising from a series of reasonably pleasant 

(second language) experiences’ (Maclntyre, clement, Dörney, and noels, 

1998:548).  

8. Environment  

Two sorts of linguistics environments are constructed: artificial. or formal 

environments, found for the most part in the classroom, and natural or informal 

environment. Formal instructions (e.g. deductive presentation of rules) are not 

common to all teaching methods and, while their presence may sometimes be 

catalytic, are not necessary for learning to take place. Krashen and Seliger also 

noted that these features (rule isolation and feedback) do not seem to be present in 

informal environments.  

Several studies, which will be considered in some detail below, suggest 

that adults can not only increase their second language proficiency in informal 

environments, but may do as well as or better than learners who have spent a 

comparable amount of time in formal situations.   

Contribution of formal and informal environment, it is not simply the case 

that informal environments provide the necessary input for acquisition while the 

classroom aids increasing learned competence. The reinterpretation of the 

Krashen at all, series as well as the Friedlander at all. data described above 

suggests, first of all that informal environment must be intensive and involve the 

learner directly in order to be affective. Second, it seems plausible that classroom 

can accomplish both learning and acquisition simultaneously. in other words, the 



classroom may serve an “intake” informal environment as well as a formal 

linguistic environment. 

In particular, do levels of pragmatic ability differ between L2 and FL 

learner? to date, most studies have shown greater pragmatic awareness among L2 

student than FL student (e.g,. Bardovi-Harlig & Dornyei, 1998; Schuer, 2006; 

Tagashira, yamato, & Isoda, @011), thus indicating that the TL environment has a 

positive influence on the appropriate use of sociopragmatic. L2 learners invariably 

receive more pragmatic input in their daily lives if they are motivated to interact 

with the TL community and have positive social interactions.   

In additional, question about language use in context naturally arise in a 

safe L2 classroom environment when student bring in their outside experiences, 

for example, and ask why something happened to them in a particular way when 

communicating with an NS, or if a TL community and have positive social 

interaction.   in the TL environment with exposure to authentic input would better 

help pragmatic ability develop in L2 learners than in their FL peers(e.g., Niezgoda 

& Rover, 2011; Taguchi, 2008).  (Lauren, 2015). Others evidence proposed by 

Susan Levine from her new study that growth in syntax as well as growth in 

vocabulary are influenced greatly by environmental factors and the critical input 

may consist of such activities that are more likely to occur at school than at home 

(Levine, 2007:1).   

 

C. SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION  

A second language learner is different from a very young child acquiring a 

first language. Children often exhibit non-adult-like interpretation of a given 

linguistic expression. in such case, there are two possibilities: 1). children have 

not yet acquired the linguistic knowledge that is required to implement the full, 

adult-like representation of the given expression; 2). children do possess the 

linguistic knowledge required for the full representation of the given expression, 

but are not yet able to successfully utilize it, incorporating all the necessary 

information into the actual processing/computation of the meaning. (Utako, 

2015:288)   

 



A more definition I proposed by Harley second language acquisition 

happen when a child and adult has already become competence at a language and 

then attempt to learn another. There are a number of reasons why a person makes 

find this difficult. First, we can saw that some aspects of language learning 

particularly, involving syntax, are more difficult outside the critical period. 

Second, older children and adult often have less time and motivation to learn 

second language. Third, there will of course be similarities and differences 

between the first (L1) (Harley, 2001:146). 

In line with definition above, Steinberg argue when the child learns a first 

language, we may said that the child learn the language under natural conditions. 

Such a learning situation generally differs greatly from artificial once, with the 

most common one used in second language learning being the school classroom. 

Not all second language can be learned under natural condition, for example, 

children who are taking to live in foreign country may learn a second language 

without formal instruction by associating with speaker of the foreign language 

playmate, and household personal. Thus, a second language can be learned under 

either natural or planned condition (1982:166).  

A comprehensive definition from Krashen who stated that language 

acquisition is very similar to the process children use in acquiring first and second 

languages. It requires meaningful interactions in the target language-natural 

communication in which speaker are concerned not with the form on their 

utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding (1981:1). 

The assume that children are better than adults only in certain areas of 

SLA: at acquiring accent and basic interpersonal communication skills. The 

strong version of this hypothesis states that an authentic accent is not available 

unless SLA begins before the critical age (the ‘Joseph Conrad phenomenon’). The 

practical question raised against this strong version is whether there are 

exceptions that contradict the case. Scovel (1988, p. 176) in Lang’s article, admits 

that the existence of even a few exceptional adults who can pass as native 

speakers of a language which they have acquired after their adolescence 

challenges the strong version of the critical period hypothesis.  



Two projects aimed to challenge the strong version of the critical period 

hypothesis by identifying successful learners of a second language who started 

SLA after puberty and have been able to achieve native proficiency (Nikolov, 

1994, 1995, 2000a; Bongaerts et al., 1997) in Lang’s article. The earlier one was 

conducted in Hungary and it consisted of two studies. In the first study, out of 20 

adult speakers of Hungarian with various first languages, who started learning the 

target language after puberty, two were generally, and four were often mistaken 

for native speakers in a listening task by three groups of Hungarian judges. In the 

second study involving 13 Hungarian speakers of English one was generally, and 

four others were mistaken for a native speaker by half of the native judges. 

The other project also involved two studies; they both examined highly 

successful Dutch learners of English. Similarly to the previous project, native 

judges were used. In the first study 22, and in the second 33 adults were involved. 

In both studies native judges were typically unable to tell native speakers of 

English from Dutch speakers of English. The findings of these two projects and 

another study investigating two successful learners of Egyptian Arabic (Ioup et 

al., 1994) have rovided further evidence against the strong version of the critical 

period hypothesis.  

As far as the original hypothesis is concerned, according to which young 

learners are better in certain areas of SLA, Singleton (1989) in Lang’s article, 

reexamines the studies that indicated greater success for younger learners on 

phonetic/phonological performance and points out that even in studies which 

seem to indicate that younger learners acquire native accent the evidence is for a 

trend rather than for a rule. As for the acquisition of basic interpersonal 

communication skills, he concludes that a large number of studies are not very 

obviously supportive of the notion that younger learners acquire BICS more 

readily than older learners. In reference to the claim according to which young 

children are generally better at acquiring BICS than CALP, Singleton’s 

conclusion contrasts younger learners with adults and not child acquisition of the 

two types of skills.  To sum up the findings concerning the third position, the 

evidence does not consistently support the hypothesis that younger learners are 



inevitably more efficient than older learners in the phonetic/phonological domain. 

(Lang,  2002: 17 – 63). 

 

D. CONCLUSION 

In reference to the discussion, it is evident that individual characteristics 

are great factors in second language acquisition. This implies that the 

development   of individual characteristics could improve the second language 

acquisition. The development those factors could be conducted via formal and 

informal language environment. Wherein, informal environment can be quite 

beneficial for adult second language acquisition. Formal environment are also 

beneficial.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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