Abstract
The goal of the special issue is to provide robust examples of how we as a field can research the dynamic nature of learner individual differences (IDs). The papers in this volume provide both a sound theoretical discussion of several IDs in relationship to their (posited or empirically attested) role(s) in L2 learning, as well as specific methodological ideas on how to best reveal the dynamic nature of IDs.
Highlights
Each author ensures the accessibility of their expertise by first describing their individual differences (IDs) of focus, the role it plays in L2 learning, and moving on to the heart of the special issue: a discussion on how the ID in question can change, what influences this change, and, critically, concrete examples of research methodology that will allow us to explore the dynamicity of their ID
The special issue concludes with the first semester data of a multi-year study exploring multiple learner IDs (Jung, DiBartolomeo, Melero-García, Giacomino, Gurzynski-Weiss, Henderson, & Hidalgo)
Analyzing multiple factors at play, Dewaele and Dewaele demonstrate how foreign language enjoyment appears to be more dynamic and teacher-dependent than foreign language classroom anxiety, which is comparatively more stable and less teacher-dependent. In her “Dynamic Properties of Language Anxiety,” Tammy Gregersen, using published data from existing studies, first demonstrates how anxiety is a dynamic learner ID
Summary
As repeatedly mentioned in the field (Dewaele, 2013; Dörnyei, 2005, 2009, Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; Gurzynski-Weiss, 2020), including in a special issue within this very journal (de Bot & Bátyi, 2017), learner IDs are no longer seen as static and stable but as dynamic and changing over time and in response to other IDs (Dörnyei, 2009, 2010; Gurzynski-Weiss, 2020; Kormos & Csizér, 2014; Serafini, 2017), as well as context (de Bot & Fang, 2017; Lowie, van Djik, Chan, & Verspoor, 2017; Mercer, 2015; Serafini, 2020). I invited a renowned expert to explore the dynamicity of a commonly investigated learner ID within the field of second language acquisition (SLA).
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