1. Foreign Language Aptitude (Ch. 7)
Understanding SLA
Lourdes Ortega (2009)
Twww.hodderplus.com/linguistics Published by Hodder Education © 2009 Mark Sawyer

2. 7.2 Cognition, conation, & affect in psychology & SLA
cognition: thinking
affect: feeling
conation: trying (wanting)
Research strategy
Seek correlation, between ID & outcome
shared variance: more meaningful?
Beware of “significant correlations”

3. 7.2 Learning & not learning French: Kaplan vs. Watson
Alice Kaplan very successful: devoted to French from childhood
Richard Watson surprisingly unsuccessful at spoken French
How to explain the vast differences in outcomes in such learners?

4. 7.3 Language aptitude, all mighty?
No!
Despite positive research findings, many unanswered questions remain
True nature
Relationship to other ID factors
conative
affective
contextual

5. 7.4 Aptitude as prediction of formal L2 learning rate
Measured often by MLAT
5 parts, measuring 4(3) components
High predictive validity
Questionable construct validity
Mismatch between test parts & theorized components
Measures rote rather than dynamic memory
Rate of formal learning less important than…
Ultimate Attainment
Various learning conditions (ATI)

6. 7.5 Is L2 aptitude different from intelligence & L1 ability
3 domains overlap but differ:
L1 ability L2 aptitude L2 achievement
L1 ability >L2 achievement
Academic skills, grammatical sensitivity underlie intelligence, L1, L2

7. 7.6 Lack of L2 aptitude, or general language-related difficulties?
L1 difficulties  L2 difficulties
Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis (LCDH) (Sparks, Ganschow, et al.)
Phonological-orthographic relationships
Phonological awareness: sounds alone
phonemic awareness (segmentation)
phonological decoding (integration)

8. Dufva’s Finnish research
Phonological memory
 phonological awareness (age 6)
 word recognition,
listening comprehension (age 7-8)
 reading comprehension (age 8-9)
(with word recognition, phonological memory)
 L2 (English) proficiency (age 9)

9. Back to poor Watson Spelling, reversal problems evoke LCDH
Finnish schoolchildren
L2 findings on phonetic coding ability
 disfluent speaking (Wesche)
 mimicking sounds, remembering words

10. 7.7 Memory capacity as a privileged component of L2 aptitude
Exceptional learners
Multiple languages (e.g. Obler’s CJ)
Older learners (Call/Scott’s missionaries)
Static memory span (STM)
 EFL vocabulary of Finnish children(Service)
 Lookup behavior of univ. GFLers (Chun & Payne)
Active working memory span (WM)
 Grammar, Reading (Harrington & Sawyer, cf. Juffs)

11. 7.8 Contributions of memory to aptitude, complexified
STM
 vocabulary early stages
(Masoura & Gathercole)
 later stages (O’Brien+)
 formal but not semantic rules (Williams)
 long-term but not short-term gain
(Mackey+)

12. 7.9 Aptitude & age Aptitude doesn’t matter before puberty
Fundamental Difference Hypothesis:
Implicit vs. explicit learning (Bley-Vroman)
Hungarian immigrant research (DeKeyser)
Parts of aptitude different ages
First memory, later analysis (Harley & Hart)
Age & learning context conspire (Ross et al.)

13. 7.10 Does aptitude matter under explicit & implicit learning conditions
Explicit but not implicit (Krashen, etc.)
Both explicit & implicit (Robinson, etc.)
More implicit than explicit (Sawyer?)
Mixed empirical evidence
Experimental (Williams, de Graaf,
Nation & McLaughlin, Robinson)
Classroom (Erlam, Sheen)

14. 7.11 Most recent developments: Multidimensional aptitude
“The Peters”’ Proposals
Peter Robinson
Basic abilities combine
Interact with context & affect
Peter Skehan
Stages of input processing
Input, central processing, output

15. Robinson: Aptitude Complexes
Example:
Learning from feedback (recasts) requires…
certain aptitude complexes (combinations)
noticing the gap ability (NTG)
memory for contingent speech (MCS)
composed of certain basic abilities (aptitudes)
pattern recognition, processing speed  NTG
phonological working memory  MCS
Abilities  Complexes  Tasks  Life

16. Skehan: Stages of Input Processing
9 stages  4 macro stages
Noticing
Working memory, phonological coding, etc.
Patterning
Grammatical sensitivity, Induction
Controlling
Automatization, retrieval processes
Lexicalizing
Memory, chunking, plus above (Stage 3)

17. Playing it to one’s strengths: The future of L2 aptitude? (7.12)
ATI: Aptitude-Treatment Interactions
Famous example from Canada (Wesche)
Ss (mis-)matched to treatment by MLAT profile
Matched students achieved more
The Peters’ proposals promise more…
specific diagnosis of strong/mixed/weak abilities
possibilities for research, pedagogy