A Holistic View

The final chapter aims to address the ambitious task of taking a holistic view of all the complex individual variables in the book and how they interact dynamically with each other and with the socio-ecological context in which they are situated. In order to do this, a small-scale study was undertaken which canvassed the views of a group of practising and another group of pre-service teachers regarding the relative importance of the individual variables in this book. In order to explore the possible effect of context, the study was replicated with another group of pre-service teachers in a different city. According to the results, all groups thought motivation was the most important factor, and race/nationality/ethnicity/culture the least important. Implications for the learning and teaching of language are discussed as well as directions for further research. The chapter concludes by suggesting that, according to the study, all learner variables depend holistically on each other and they interact with each other and with the socio-ecological environment in dynamic patterns of great complexity.