English Language Teaching in its Social Context

FACTORS AFFECTING SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING 31became successful because of their motivation? It is also plausible that early successheightened their motivation or that both success and motivation are due to their specialaptitude for language learning or the favourable context in which they are learning.IntelligenceThe term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally been used to refer to performance on certain kindsof tests.These tests are often associated with success in school, and a link between intelligenceand second language learning has sometimes been reported. Over the years, many studiesusing a variety of intelligence ( ‘IQ’) tests and different methods of assessing language learninghave found that IQ scores were a good means of predicting how successful a learner wouldbe. Some recent studies have shown that these measures of intelligence may be more stronglyrelated to certain kinds of second language abilities than to others. For example, in a studywith French immersion students in Canada, it was found that, while intelligence was relatedto the development of French second language reading, grammar, and vocabulary, it wasunrelated to oral productive skills (Genesee 1976). Similar findings have been reported inother studies. What this suggests is that, while intelligence, especially as measured by verbalIQ tests, may be a strong factor when it comes to learning which involves language analysisand rule learning, intelligence may play a less important role in classrooms where theinstruction focuses more on communication and interaction.It is important to keep in mind that ‘intelligence’ is complex and that individuals havemany kinds of abilities and strengths, not all of which are measured by traditional IQ tests.In our experience, many students whose academic performance has been weak haveexperienced considerable success in second language learning.AptitudeThere is evidence in the research literature that some individuals have an exceptional‘aptitude’ for language learning. Lorraine Obler (1 989) reports that a man, whom she callsCJ, has such a spccialized ability. CJ is a native spcaker of English who grew up in an Englishhome. His first true cxperience with a second language came at the age of 15 when he beganlearning French in school. CJ also studied German, Spanish, and Latin while in high school.At age 20, he made a brief visit to Germany. CJ reported that just hearing German spokenfor a short time was enough for him to ‘recover’ the German he had learned in school. Later,CJ worked in Morocco where he reported learning Moroccan Arabic through both formalinstruction and informal immersion. He also spent some time in Spain and Italy, where heapparently ‘picked up’ both Spanish and Italian in a ‘matter of weeks’. A remarkable talentindeed!Learning quickly is the distinguishing feature of aptitude.The ‘aptitude’ factor has beeninvestigated most intensively by researchers interested in developing tests which can be usedto predict whether individuals will be efficient learners of a foreign language in a classroomsctting.The most widely used aptitude tests are the Modern Language AptitudeTest (MLAT)and the Pimslcur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAR). Both tests are based on the view thataptitude is composed of different types of abilities:(1) the ability to identify and memorize new sounds;(2) the ability to understand the function of particular words in sentences;(3) the ability to figure out grammatical rules from language samplcs; and(4) memory for new words.