A Literature Review of the Effect of Individual Differences on Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

Since the 1950s, the influence of individual differences in second language acquisition has received widespread attention, and each learner's individual differences affect the success of second language acquisition. However, the research on individual differences is very complex. In order to further investigate how individual differences affect the second language acquisition process, this paper starts from three aspects of individual differences influencing factors: (1) the study of general individual factors of second language learners, such as age, gender and cognitive style; (2) the study of second language learners' attitudes and motivation, such as learners' attitudes toward learning the target language, learners' research on second language learners' attitudes and motivations, such as learners' attitudes toward the target language, learners' attitudes toward the social and cultural background of the target language, integration motivation and instrumental motivation (3) research on second language learners' strategies, such as learners' cognitive strategies, learners' meta-cognitive strategies and learners' social strategies, in order to explore the effects of these individual factors in second language acquisition, so as to find countermeasures that can really help improve second language learners' learning efficiency and further improve and develop better The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of these individual factors on second language acquisition, so as to find out the measures that can really help improve the learning efficiency of second language learners, and further improve and develop a better method of teaching foreign languages according to their abilities.