A Comparison of Locus of control and General English Achievement in Students of Medicine and Theology

Abstract

Delving into the maze of L2 acquisition necessitates examining factors lrellated to individual differences (IDs) in learners (Ellis, 2008) which are different from one person to another (Dörnyei, 2005) and deal with anything which marks a person as a distinct human being (De Road, 2000). Studies conducted in this field have highlighted IDs to be reliable predictors of L2 success (Dörnyei, 2005). Early studies of IDs had an either-or approach; they tended to classify learners as good and weak, intelligent and dull, and motivated and unmotivated (Horwitz, 2000). Recently, more research projects have focused on explaining why some learners are more successful than others. Robinson (2002) and Dörnyei (2005) both put language aptitude, motivation, personality, and anxiety on their list as the main factors in the realm of individual differences. Oxford and Ehrman (1993) maintained that teachers should spot IDs among their students and take them into account in order to work out the most effective instructions. Research in this field has mainly focused on particular learners' characteristics and their measurement rather than showing some illuminating guidelines to help learners in the process of learning, how to assist them to take charge of their own learning, and how to mediate their learning (Williams & Burden, 1997).