Psychological aspects of a foreign language teaching and learning

Abstract

An adult learner of a foreign language (a university student) has to overcome various psychological inhibitions in order to master a foreign language and be able to communicate effectively in it. A lot depends on a student’s attitude towards learning, their motivation, the aim of learning a foreign language, previous learningexperience, previous methods applied by previous teachers. All of these factors play an important role in the way a language learner will approach their language learning as well as in the degree of autonomy of a given individual. Modern technologies together with the internet and the access to mobile applications may help a language learner in developing their autonomy in L2 or L3 language acquisition. However, the way these modern technologies are used and the way the student’s autonomy is developed, also depends on the language teacher.