Scholarly record

THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL NEED FOR STRUCTURE ON SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Svetlana Stancekova, A. Ficzere, S. Durkova

Abstract

The personal need for structure (PNS) began to appear in the literature in the 1990s. In its essence, PNS means the need to sort information that an individual receives from the surroundings. PNS is; therefore, closely related to categorization. The ability to structure and categorize helps individuals in their orientation and understanding of things, using categories; it also enables them to understand the contexts and patterns in processes. This is related to the tolerance of ambiguity, which can be understood as the ability to deal with the ambiguous situations and the contradictory behaviour of people. The PNS assumes that a person who is able to reduce vague situations can better resolve new or stressful situations. Our research area is the Second Language Acquisition. We research how the Personal Need for Structure influences the German language acquisition and the performance in this language. The research was conducted at primary and secondary schools in Bratislava, Slovakia, the age of respondents was between 12 and 19 years, they were divided into 3 groups based on their age. The data were collected using a PNS questionnaire and didactic tests. The results suggest that the performance in German language does not correlate with the personal need for structure. Most of the respondents demonstrated a high need for structure regardless of their performance. Therefore, it can be concluded that the structure can be helpful in the process of foreign language teaching

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2019V/2.1/S10.044

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