Characteristics.

Characteristics.

1. Age:

   • Piaget stages:
     • Each stage lays the foundation for the next. Everyone goes through the same stages in same order. Each stage is qualitatively different. The child is an active learner.
     • Sensorimotor(0-2).
       • A child comes into the world knowing almost nothing, but they have the potential that comes in the form of: brain make up; reflexes; innate tendencies to adapt to environment; explore and gains an understanding about themselves and the environment; they have a lack of object permanence.
     • Preoperations(2-7).
       • Mental representations. Egocentric.  The child has ridged thinking, which involves: centration; state; appearance; lack of reversibility; lack of conservation.
     • Concrete operations(7-11).
       • Intelligence is both symbolic and logical. The child acquires "operations"(a set of general rules and strategies). The most critical part is realising "reversibility". The task are: seriation; classification; conservation. Operations and conservation don't develop at the same time. Thinking isn't abstract.
     • Formal operations(11-16).
       • Child is capable of formulating hypotheses and testing them against reality. Thinking is abstract. They're also capable of deductive reasoning.

2. Cognitive factors.

   • All learners use different strategies when learning, some are directs and others indirect.
   • To receive information.
   • To organize information.
   • To elaborate information.

3. Personality factors.

   • Self-esteem.
   • Self-efficacy.

4. Affective factors.

   • Motivation.
     • Includes:  -intrinsic motivation(better and long-term learning). -extrinsic motivation(short term learning).
   • Anxiety.
     • Children start to manifest it when language learning becomes more formally instructed and demands communicative interactions without preparations. It's prevented when teachers provide a safe atmosphere and deal with errors in a constructive way.

5. Multiple intelligences.

   • Every single person is intelligent in a different way, and at least gifted for three intelligences. Dealing with individual characteristics in the classroom means showing respect for every single students . Learning a language isn't only a cognitive process, also an emocional experience.

6. The good language learner.

   • Have strong desire to communicate.
   • Not inhibited.
   • Think about correct grammar and sentence structure when they speak.
   • Seek out practice.
   • Accurate guessers and think critically.
   • Not afraid of making guesses.
   • Think about the meaning of the sentences.
   • Monitor their own speech and the speech of others.