ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 focuses on individual differences seen in Asian L2 learners. Section 7.1 showcases a variety of studies discussing aspects of learners’ individual differences (e.g., L1 background, L2 proficiency, gender, L2 learning motivation, and L2 learning history). Sections 7.2–7.3 present the case studies based on the ICNALE. Section 7.2 compares the utterances of female and male participants (both learners and native speakers) during the interviews to see what difference can be observed between them in terms of the total number of tokens as well as the usage of high-frequency words and lexicogrammatical features. Section 7.3 analyses Asian EFL learners’ speeches and essays and discusses the relationship between 16 kinds of learner variables, which are related to L2 learning motivation (integrative, instrumental, and both) and L2 learning history (L2 learning at different school levels and inside/outside classrooms, focus on each of the four skills, and additional L2 learning experiences), and three kinds of text variables (number of tokens, lexical diversity, and lexical sophistication).
