ABSTRACT
The Sad Story of Student A which closed Chapter 7 suggests perhaps that there are factors other than those we have so far considered that can contribute to individual success or failure in language learning. Perhaps the key to her lack of success has something to do with the personality variables we shall now consider. When we have discussed these, we shall look in detail at the study Student A’s story comes from, Naiman et al. (1978). This was the largest of a number of studies undertaken in the 1970s, looking at what makes a good language learner. As we shall see, these studies partly attempt to identify the characteristics that go to make up good language learners. But they also consider an issue we shall finish the chapter with. This is the question, not of what good language learners are like, but of what they do. What processes, or strategies, do they use in the course of learning that make them so good at it?
