Aptitude motivation and learner strategies.docx

Aptitude motivation and learner strategies.docx

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Aptitudemotivationandlearnerstrategies

Aptitude,motivation,andlearnerstrategies

Whatis‘aptitude’?

“alearner’scapabilityoflearningatask”,dependingon‘somemoreorlessenduring

characteristics”（Carroll,1981,quotedinEllis,1994:

495）.

Itisnotclearwhetheraptitudeshouldbeconsideredasinnate,orwhetherit

developsasaresultoflearningexperiences.Itisclearlynotthesameas

achievement,normotivation.Itisacapacitywhichapparentlyenhancestherate

andeaseoflearning,butdoesnotnecessarilyguaranteeachievement.Afurther

questionisthedegreetowhichforeignlanguagelearningaptitudeisdistinctfrom

anyconceptofgeneralintelligence.

“Researchmakesitclearthatinthelongrun,aptitudeisprobablythesinglebest

predictorofachievementinsecondlanguagelearning.”（Gardner&Maclntyre,1992:

Stateoftheartarticleoncognitivevariablesinlanguagelearning,Language

Teaching25/4）.

2JohnCarroll’sresearch

AccordingtoresearchbyJohnCarrollandhiscolleagues（startedin1959）,aptitudeconsistsofthefollowing:

Phonemiccodingability.Theabilitytodiscriminateforeignsoundsandtoencodetheminamannerthattheycanberecalledlater.

GrammaticalsensitivityTheabilitytorecognisethefunctionthatwordsfulfilinsentences.Itdoesnotmeasureanabilitytonameordescribethefunction,i.e.metalinguisticknowledge.

Inductivelanguagelearningability.Theabilitytoinferorinducerulesorgeneralisationsaboutlanguagefromsamplesofthelanguage.

MemoryandlearningOriginally,theabilitytomakeandrecallassociationsbetweenwordsandphrasesinanativeandasecondlanguage.

TheaptitudetestCarrollandhiscolleaguesdevelopedwastheModernLanguagesAptitudeTest.

Thecomponentsofthistestwere:

Numberlearningtape

ThestudentistaughtontheKurdishnumbersystem1104plusthe“tensandhundreds

Thesearethentestedbyhearingnumberswhicharecombinationsoftheseelements.“

3BreakingdownAptitude

L2AptitudeandGeneralIntelligenceItisimportanttodistinguishbetween:

•CALP（CognitiveAcademicLanguageProficiency）

•BICS（BasicInterpersonalCommunicationSkills）

Genesee（1976,citedinEllis,1994:

497）foundalinkbetweenIQmeasurementsandCALP,butnotwithoralcommunicationskills.

Someresearchersnowclaimitiserroneoustothinkintermsofasingledefinition—andmeasurement—of“Intelligence”.HowardGardner,forexample,hasexpandedonthisideainhisbook,ATheoryofMultipleIntelligences.Similarly,PeterSkehan（seeSkehan,1989and1998）haslookedagainatthesingleconceptofL2Aptitudeandhassoughttoexamineitscomponentsfurther.

Phonedcscript---

ThestudentlearnsasystemofphoneticnotationforsomeEnglishphonemes.Theyarethentestedonthislearning.

-Spellingclues

Thisisaspeededtestthatmeasuresnativelanguagevocabularyandphonemiccodingability.Thestudentisgivencluestothepronunciationofawordandisthenaskedtochooseasynonymfromalistofalternatives.

WordsInsentences

Twosentencesarepresented.Onewordinthefirstsentenceisunderlined.Studentshavetodecidewhichofthewordsinthesecondsentencefulfilsthesamefunctionastheunderlinedwordinsentence1.

Pairedassociates

StudentsstudyawrittenKurdish-Englishvocabularylistandisthentestedbymeansofmultiplechoiceitems.

Partoftheproblemwiththetest,althoughithasbeentestedextensively,isthatitisnotalwaysclearhowtheindividualteststhemselvestestthefactorswhichCarrollhypothesisedmadeupforeignlanguagelearningaptitude.Thespellingcluestest,forexample,testsknowledgeofvocabularyintheLiaswellasanyotherfactor,supposedtomakeupforeignlanguageaptitude

RelationofL2AptitudewithLIDevelopment

Wells（1985,citedinSkehan,1989and1998）foundthattherateofLidevelopmentisinfactvaried,eveniftherouteisfairlysystematic.SkehancomparedresultsfromWells’researchwithresultsontheMLAT.Hefoundsignificantcorrelationbetween

•arangeofLidevelopmentmeasures（BristolLanguageScale）

•foreignlanguageaptitudetests,particularlyofinductivelearningability

•strongestcorrelationswithLiacquisition:

speedofacquisitionofareasofsyntax（e.g.auxiliarysysteminEnglish）（Formore,seeSkehan,1998:

195）

RelationshipofL2AptitudeandEnvironment

Reves（1983citedinSkehan,1989）foundthatforLiArabiclearnersofnaturalisticHebrew（inIsrael）andclassroomEnglish,aptitudewasthestrongestpredictoroflanguagelearningsuccessinthenaturalisticenvironment.

AptitudeandLearningStyle

Skehans（1986citedinSkehan,1989）researchfocusedonagroupofLiEnglishadultlearnersengagedinabeginners’courseofArabic.Aptitudetestsweregiventoalllearnersandcorrelatedwiththeirsuccessonthecourse.Theresearchsuggestedthatthereweretwohighlysuccessfulgroups:

GroupIyoung,veryhighmemoryscores,slightlyaboveaveragegrammaticalsensitivity.MEMORYBASEDLEARNERS

Group2older,averagememoryscores,wellaboveaveragegrammaticalsensitivity.ANALYSERS.

Similarlearnertypeshavebeenidentifiedbyotherresearchers.SeeEllis,1994:

508.

AnalyticHolisticResearcher

ReferentialExpressivePeters（Li）

RuleformersDatagatherersHatch,1974

Monitorover-usersMonitorunder-usersKrashen,1978

AnalyticSyntheticDechert,1984

Rule-basedExperientialEllis,1994

Conformists/ConvergersorAuthority/AnalyticConcrete/CommunicativeWilling,1988

4ExceptionalLearners

AsreportedinSkehan,1998:

chap.9,therehavebeensomstudiesconductedonexceptionalforeignlanguagelearners.

•CJ（Obler,1989）

•Julie（loup,1994）

•AB&XY（Schneiderman&Desmarais,1988）

•Christopher（Smith&Tsimpli,1995）

ExceptionallanguagelearnersdonotappeartohaveoutstandingIQ,althoughtheyseemedtoshowadistinctionintheirtestresultsbetweennumericalorgeneraltestsand（significantlyhigher）verbalskillstests.

Alltheexceptionallearnersdidoutstandinglywellinanumberofareasofmemoryfunctioning.[...]Theresultsadduptoapictureoftheoutstandinglearningasbeingverygoodatassimilatingnewmaterial.Theemphasisdoesnotseemtobeonhighanalyticskillswithlanguage,butratherondealingwithrelativelysimplecodeswhich

canbelearnedandoperatedquicklyandwhichthencanbethebasisfortheretentionofmaterial.Patternanalysisatasuperficiallevelseemstobeimportant,butthekeyseemstobethecapacitytodealwithlargequantitiesofmaterialstobememorisedquicklyandeasily.”（Skehan,1998:

213）

5LanguageLearningstrategies-thebackground

Muchofthefocusofearlyappliedlinguisticsresearchwasondevelopingeffectiveapproachestolanguageteaching.Bythelatesixties,however,therewasincreasingdisillusionmentwiththisfocus,sincelargeresearchprojectsundertakentoinvestigatepossiblelearninggainsbroughtaboutbychangesof‘teachingmethod’failedtoshowanyreliableandconsistentdifferencesbetweenmethodsandachievement（formorediscussion,seeEllis,1994:

569-570）.

Thisdisillusionmentfuelledgreaterreflectiononthelearner’sroleinthesecondlanguagelearningprocess.AlargescaleresearchprojectwasconductedinCanadaoverthe1970’swhichattemptedtoidentifythecharacteristicsof‘thegoodlanguagelearner’（Naimanetal.1978）.Alongsidethis,JoanRubinwasalsotryingtoidentifyeffectivelanguagelearnerstrategiesamongherlearnersintheUnitedStates.

OriginalGoodLanguageLearnerconclusions

FromNaiman,N.etal.（1978）TheGoodLanguageLearner.

StrategyIActiveTaskApproach

Goodlanguagelearnersactivelyinvolvethemselvesinthelanguagelearningtask.

Strategy2RealisationofLanguageasaSystem

Goodlanguagelearnersdeveloporexploitanawarenessoflanguageasasystem.

Strategy3RealisationofLanguageasaMeansofCommunicationandInteraction

Goodlanguagelearnersdevelopandexploitanawarenessoflanguageasameansofcommunication（i.e.conveyingandreceivingmessages）andinteraction（i.e.behavinginaculturallyappropriatemanner）.

Strategy4ManagementofAffectiveDemands

Goodlanguagelearnersrealiseinitiallyorwithtimethattheymustcopewithaffectivedemandsmadeuponthembylanguagelearningandsucceedindoingso.

Strategy5MonitoringofL2Performance

GoodlanguagelearnersconstantlyrevisetheirILsystems.Theymonitorthelanguagetheyareacquiringbytestingtheirinferences（guesses）:

bylookingforneededadjustmentsastheylearnnewmaterialorbyaskingnativeinformantswhentheythinkcorrectionsareneeded.

Sincethe1970’stherehasbeenconsiderableinterestinlanguagelearningstrategyresearch,butthereisstillnoconfidentconsensusonwhichstrategiesconsistentlycharacteriseeffectivelangaugelearners.AsElliswrites:

“Alotofresearchhasbeenbasedontheassumptionthatthereare‘goodlanguagelearningstrategies’.Butthisisquestionable.Thebeneficialeffectofstrategiesmayberelativetothekindsoftaskstheyaredeployedin.Forexample,somestrategiesmayworkintasksaimedattheedevelopmentoflinguisticcompetenceandothersintaskswithmorecommunicativeobjectives.Effectivestrategyusemayconsistoftheflexibledeploymentoftherightstrategiesintherighttask,butlittleiscurrentlyknownabouthits”（Ellis:

94:

558）

6Defininglanguagelearnerstrategies

Firstweneedtodistinguish

Languageusingstrategies

Actionsandtechniqueswehavetoovercomingthelimitationsinourlanguageproficiencywhenusingthetargetlanguage,e.g.

•usingfillers’（e.g.ohreally?

）tokeepaconversationgoing

•askingfor