INDIVIDUALNE RAZLIKE U UČENjU ENGLESKOG JEZIKA KOD STUDENATA NEFILOLOŠKIH STUDIJA U SRBIJI

Abstract

Individual differences among learners are regarded as important factors influencing the process of foreign language learning; accordingly, this paper aims to examine which individual differences among university students doing non-language degrees in Serbia are significant for the process of learning the English language. It also aims to determine to what degree these dimensions are present in this particular group. For this purpose, we conducted a survey with 843 respondents, using factor analysis and descriptive statistics in the analysis of obtained data. The factor analysis results indicate that among respondents the following individual differences are significant for the process of learning English: instrumentality, motivation and experience of English language learning, fear of assimilation, language anxiety, attitudes towards anglophone cultures and societies, family influence, expected L2 self and ethnocentrism. The descriptive statistics results indicate that in our sample the following dimensions are prominent: instrumentality, motivation and experience of English language learning, attitudes towards anglophone cultures and societies, expected L2 self, fear of assimilation and ethnocentrism, while language anxiety and family influence are not pronounced. The pedagogical implications of the study primarily involve the adaptation of the teaching process in accordance with these insights into the prominence of the individual differences specified above.