The Importance of Age on Foreign Language Learning Strategies
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The most frequently mentioned considerations in the literature are as follows: the language aptitude of learners (their innate ability to acquire a language); motivation (whether the language serves only as an instrumental purpose for the learners or whether they want to be integrated into the given language community); personalities (whether they are extroverted or introverted, and whether they feel brave enough to take risk even if they may appear foolish in front of others); learners‟ positive or negative attitude towards speakers of the foreign language concerned; positive or negative feedback from the teacher; the time learners spend to learn the language; opportunities to learn and to use the foreign language in real contexts; age (whether “the older is faster, the younger is better” stereotype is accurate or not); and finally, learning strategies which are actions consciously selected by learners to promote the learning and the use of the foreign language (Larsen-Freeman and Long, 160-189). Of all these factors, which influence the rate and ultimate success of foreign language learning, I would like to focus on age and learning strategies because a number of linguists claim that these two factors interact.