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Facilitating And Inhibiting Factors For Learning A Language

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Facilitating and inhibiting factors in learning a language in second language contexts Despite a marked difference in terms of their level of proficiency in English, Rodi and Liam managed to develop the same level of proficiency (high level of proficiency) in using Indonesian language. From their reports, summarised in Table 1 above, it is quite obvious to see that social contexts where the language is learned constitutes a very important factor that helped both learners develop their proficiency. That is to say, the abundance of input available in the social settings helped them conceptualise the target language systems more easily and thus enable them to cope with producing output more effectively thereafter. Of course, the abundance of input available in the social setting is useless unless the learners make use of it, and such quality is what differentiates good from poor language learners (Rubin, 1975). Being immersed in a speech community seems to also raise motivation in learning the language of the community itself. Such motivation is primarily related to survival. In other words, the two learners faced immediate needs where they had to be able to communicate with the new community where they lived in so that they were able to maintain social relationship with them and, more importantly, to fulfil their daily needs. As such, the learners perceived that learning Indonesian was meaningful and compelling. Such perception therefore might impose a great demand on the

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