ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to address the following issue articulated by Dewaele: “why the learning process is such a struggle, leading to limited proficiency for some learners, while others in the same situation seem to breeze through and attain high levels of proficiency in the second language (L2).” The role of psychological variables in second language acquisition (SLA) can be contrasted with more linguistically-oriented traditions which have tended to downplay the influence of aptitude and other individual differences. This is not to say that there are explicit statements in theoretical linguistics to the effect that there are no aptitude differences in L2 learning. Competence, as a major concern of modern linguistics, emphasizes what speakers know, rather than what they actually do on some particular occasion. An initially attractive measure is speed of learning. In most studies in which measurements have been taken of the speed of learning some aspect of an L2 by learners of different ages, no advantages were found for young children.
