Unsuccessful language learners: the content of the notion and the typology

The necessity to improve effectiveness and efficiency in education forces teachers and scholars to create and implement new forms of interventions. Unsuccessful language learners need special consideration from the teachers to diagnose the courses of low performance and apply effective means to improve their performance in foreign language learning. Various problems which language learners face in second language acquisition lead to considering unsuccessful learners as a separate phenomenon. The comparison of the terms «unsuccessful learners» и «low performance learners» has shown that the former term comprises subjective learning assessment, whereas the latter term includes the assessment of the performance correspondence to certain criteria. The approach to unsuccessful learners typology is introduced which is based on the relations between four factors. Behavioural factor reflects the use or lack of language learning strategies use. Cognitive factor is based on the language aptitude scores and depends on the development of cognitive functions. Emotional factor is characterised by the emotional intelligence level. Linguistic factor is revealed in the comparison of the native and target languages as well as in the peculiarities of the first language speech. The further development of this typology will allow researchers to develop diagnostic tools to define the courses of failures and low performance and to create recommendations and tools for language teachers.

unsuccessful language learners, second language acquisition, language aptitude, language teaching, students with specific learning differences, cognitive deficit, emotional intelligence