Aptitude in Sla
The study of individual differences in second language acquisition has achieved considerable efforts over the last years. Those researches had focused on four areas of individual differences: learning style, motivation, anxiety and learning strategies. Nevertheless, the aptitude factor had less attention. Second language aptitude was the subject of no much research during the 1950s and has been the subject of a discontinuous research during the last 30 years. Precisely what is meant by “aptitude”? Writers have used it with different emphases, some stressing inherited capacity, others present ability, or ease of acquisition. Therefore, to avoid any possible ambiguities, beginning with the definition is the best solution. “Aptitude” is defined in Oxfords English Dictionary as “3.a. Natural capacity, endowment, or ability; talent for any pursuit. c. Natural capacity to learn or understand; intelligence, quick-wittedness, readiness. Pref, The state of knowledge and aptitude or capacity; The general idea he had acquired with great aptitude. 4. Comb., as aptitude test orig. U.S., a test designed to determine a person 's capacity in any given skill or field of knowledge. An aptitude test for policemen. Feb. 93/3 the aptitude test simply consists in making telegraph signals, and then testing the memory of the men. The use of aptitude tests, psychological questionnaires, even blood-sampling and cranial measurements; he hoped to discover a method of gauging student-potential”. Also defined in Warren’s Dictionary as “a condition or set of characteristics regarded as symptomatic of an individual’s ability to acquire with training some knowledge, skill, or set of responses such as the ability to speak a language, to produce music, etc.” Aptitude for learning anything can be defined for operational purposes as "the amount of time it takes an individual to learn the task in a question." Thus, individuals typically differ not in whether they can learn a task or not learn
Citations: Bialystok, E. and Fröhlich, M. (1977) "Aspects of second language learning in classroom settings." Working Papers on Bilingualism 13: 1-26. Carroll, J.B Carroll, J. (1973) "Implications of aptitude test research and psycholinguistic theory for foreign language teaching." Linguistics 112: 5-13. Carroll, J.B Chomsky, N. (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: MIT Press. Dulay, H Gardner, R., P. Smythe, R. Clement, and L. Gliksman (1976) "Second-Language learning: a social-psychological perspective." Canadian Modern Language Review 32: 198-213. Gardner, R Gardner, R. and W. Lambert (1959) "Motivational variables in second language acquisition." Canadian Journal of Psychology 13: 266-272. Gardner, R Gardner, R. and W. Lambert (1965) "Language aptitude, intelligence, and second-language achievement." Journal of Education Psychology 56: 191-199. Reprinted in Gardner and Lambert (1972). Krashen, S Krashen, S. (1978b) "Adult second language acquisition and learning: a review of theory and practice.: In R. Gingras (Ed.), Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics. Lett, J.A Oller, J., A. Hudson, and P. Liu (1977) "Attitudes and attained proficiency in ESL: a sociolinguistic study of native speakers of Chinese in the United States." Language Learning 27: 1-27. Parry, T.S Pimsleur, P. (1966). "Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery." New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Stevick, E Stansfield, C.W. (1989). Review of the Pimsleur language aptitude battery. In D.J. Keyser & R.C. Sweetland (Eds.), "Test critiques" (Volume III, pp. 438-445). Kansas City, MO: Test Corporation of America. Wesche, M., Edwards, H., & Wells, W