Week 9 Reflection

Reflection Week 9
Aptitude
(sorry, color and cool pretty effects aren't available on my computer)

Personal Issues:
I’ve always been rather fascinated with language aptitude… before I even had any clue what it was. It’s interesting stuff! I remember visiting my grandfather in Florida when I was a kid. He’d sit in the corner of his room at the old-folks home and complain about the nurses, the food… or just about anything and everything in heavily accented slightly broken English. It was funny. He was in his late eighties and had lived in the United States for over 70 years, yet his English was… well… not so great. That in itself isn’t funny. You find it a lot. The funny thing was that he spoke over 10 languages. He’d talk story with Haitian nurses in French and he rarely spoken in anything but German with my mother. According to those involved he had a greater mastery of pronunciation and fluency in these foreign languages, languages that he learned as an adult, that had little in common with his native languages.
I noticed more of the same while teaching in Japan. I had students who had worked hard at learning English for years with little growth while other students who lackadaisically attended classes and rarely studied continued to progress at a steady rate.
These examples resulted in musings and puzzlement for me. I decided aptitude is weird and complex. Before coming to UH and studying SLS I never imagined that it was as weird and complex as it. Go figure.
The rest of this post recounts what was discussed in class with some musings thrown in.

Our illustrious presenters began by dividing the issue of aptitude into 6 subsections:
-Intelligence
-Aptitude
-Learning Styles
-Personality
-Motivation & Attitudes
-Identity

In the handout “What do you think?” we rated individual qualities that we felt were related to foreign language learning aptitude. Class participants were clustered but split with:

Popular choices:
high EQ (emotional quotient)= 3 supporters
figure out grammatical rules from language samples= 5 supporters
remember new words= 5 supporters

Un-chosen qualities:
high IQ
understand the function of particular words in sentences or grammar in general

Confusion:
Identify, memorize and produce new sounds= 1 supporter (I believe) who to avoid
loneliness joined another group

In the discussion that followed…

EQ= gregarious, sociability, and bond building leads to language learning
The problem is: is it aptitude, or a disposition that puts one in a situation
where one is more likely to learn a language?

Grammar= people with a grasp of grammar rules and inductive learning skills can
learn on their own through deduction

Words= if one has a large vocabulary, yet little else, one can communicate
Aptitude tests always test vocabulary.
Vocabulary/chunking can allow for successful reading as well as speaking.

Sounds= people can learn without formal language learning
Ky spoke of the multitudes of illiterate Vietnamese who became successful French speakers. We revisited Bill who listened to and memorized sounds to become a successful English speaker. In the course of discussing these examples we agreed that a strong analytical ability and/or grammatical sensibility would enable one to gain more from sounds.

MLAT Test:
J.B. Carroll developed four components to language aptitude:

Phonetic coding ability= ability to perceive and remember distinct sounds associated with symbols
Grammatical sensitivity= ability to recognize the function of a lexical element in a sentence
Rote learning ability= ability to learn and retain associations between words in a new language and their meaning in English
Inductive learning ability= ability to infer or induce rules governing the structure of a language

Between 1953 and 1958 he devoted himself to developing the MLAT (Modern Language Aptitude Test).

After taking a sample of the test, a nice touch as we’ve all heard of the test but haven’t had experience taking it, we were presented some questions to discuss in small groups.

-How did you do?
Most of us did well. This was to be expected as we are all relatively successful language learners.

-Based on these few sample questions, what do you think about this test?
We all agreed that there were serious limitations to this particular test and discussed how some of the test items might predict ability to succeed in some areas of language learning.

-Can you guess what some of the criticisms of this test might be?
We all had nice guesses and in the discussion that followed addressed the following:

Grammar Translation= at the time (early ‘50’s) the primary method of instruction was the grammar translation method. The MLAT does a good job testing the abilities that translate well into success in a grammar translation classroom. It does not however have as much success in testing skills that would be more beneficial in a modern language classroom implementing a number of methods that weren’t conceived of in the 1950’s.

Memory= the MLAT is based on an outdated view of memory focusing on short-term memory and not dynamic/long-term memory that seems to be a better indicator of success.

Quality= the test doesn’t address high quality language users across various learning situations.

Motivation= while poking around on the internet I found a number of concerns regarding the MLAT and motivation. Learners with high results on the MLAT and low motivation will not necessarily be successful learners; conversely low results on the MLAT combined with high levels of motivation can result in successful language learners.

Day 2:
We split into groups and discussed the aspects of aptitude put forth in the text. The aspects and fruits or our discussion follow:

L1 Ability/ Predisposition (6.5, 6.6)=
-L1 ability and the grammatical sensitivity component are related
-L1 levels of automaticity and fluency relates to the same in L2
-Low L1 phonetic coding abilities lead to disfluent L2 speech with difficulties in foreign language sounds and new word memorization
-Skeehan among others state that intelligence, first language ability, and foreign language aptitude overlap and are related, but the are distinct!
-An interesting side note: + and – ability seem to carry over to L2

Memory (6.7, 6.8)
-Good memory doesn’t always lead to good L2 ability
-Those with good phonemic memory learn lots of new words quickly in the beginning. At more advanced levels, a larger vocabulary leads to quicker learning and memory plays less of a factor.
-Phonological memory seems to have no benefit for beginners but may be important to grammar later on.

Multidimensional Aptitude (6.11)=
-Aptitude is not a single factor, a learner can be good at some aspects but not at others.
-Pedagogical implications?? Differentiated instruction can tap many aspects of aptitude resulting in better learning among all students.
-Notable examples: noticing, patterning, controlling, lexicalization (chunking/decoding)

Playing it to One’s Strengths (6.12)
-Pedagogical implications?? Let L2 language users try the approach they choose. Don’t be afraid to suggest other approaches if they aren’t progressing. Eliciting preferences, determining what’s working, and making the appropriate adjustments is a teacher’s job!

Age and Aptitude (6.9)
-Does aptitude matter with young learners? Who would have known this was such a contentious issue?

YES NO
If kids younger than a certain age DON’T If kids younger than a certain age DO learn an L2 like
learn an L2 like they learn an L1… it should. they learn an L1… it shouldn’t.
Aptitude will kick in when learning an L2. Aptitude won’t kick in until they are older.

Both sides make good points, but it’s hard to figure out which side is right due to the difficulty in testing and experimentation on subjects of such a young age.

Explicit vrs Implicit Learning and Aptitude (6.10)
-Robinson found an implicit link to aptitude if left to your own devices.
-Another controversy:

Implicit Explicit
Born with a capacity to learn language. You make everyone equal by explaining everything in detail.
Students soak in the input so aptitude Students are fed the information so aptitude doesn’t come into play.
doesn’t come into play. Student’s In implicit learning some students can handle the input but others
differences in aptitude start when explicit can’t due to individual aptitude.
ways of teaching are involved.



Well, that’s about all for this week’s reflection. We laughed, we cried, we argued about aptitude. It was great fun. Stay tuned for next week and another exciting episode of SLA staring Motivation.