Rethinking the Insights from Good Language Learner Studies: Moroccan Learners of EFL as a Case Study

Bendaoud Nadif,Driss Benattabou

doi:10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.3.7

Abstract

Over the recent decades, there has been a growing research interest in placing learners at the heart of any enterprise pertaining to foreign language learning and teaching. Alongside the growth of new perspectives and theories in cognitive psychology and foreign language learning and teaching, research has shifted its focus from the teacher and learning outcomes to the learners and the learning processes. Correspondingly, researchers emphasize the significance of making the learning and teaching paradigms more supportive and responsive to learners’ needs and interests to fully play more active and participatory roles. Drawing on researchers’ contributions in the area of good language learner studies, this paper sets out to examine the relationship between the characteristics of GLLs and language achievement. For this purpose, a sample of (N = 98) senior Moroccan high school students took an EFL achievement test and responded to the GLL questionnaire as designed and developed by Constantinides (2013). Using a Spearman correlational coefficient test and regression analysis, results show that GLLs’ scores significantly correlate (r = .81) and reliably predict the respondents’ achievement test scores. The paper ends with a conclusion and some pedagogical implications to promote EFL learning and teaching.

Highlights

1 Research in the area of good and successful language learners (Rubin, 1975; Naiman et al, 1978; Stern, 1983; Lightbown & Spada, 1993; Ellis, 1994) has been primarily concerned with the exploration and the identification of a host of qualities characterizing GLLs
Prior research focusing on the characteristics of GLLs seems to suggest that GLLs tend to display an array of traits and strategies that they employ to successfully learn the second/foreign language, and confirm that further studies on their characteristics may unavoidably foster the understanding of the subtle processes of language learning, and may help practitioners come into grips with the essence of how to assist less successful learners
This article revisits the question of the characteristics of the GLLs of English as a foreign language in secondary education in the Moroccan context

Summary

Introduction

This article revisits the question of the characteristics of the GLLs of English as a foreign language in secondary education in the Moroccan context. The research questions to be considered here are: 1) Are there any differences between students regarding their scores on the GLL index as designed and formulated by Marisa Constantinides (2013)?. 2) Do students who display high scores on this GLL index get good academic scores? If this correlation is well-established, this will undoubtedly confirm that it is these characteristics shaping the profile of GLLs which may have surely made the difference in achievement levels among successful and less successful language learners

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion