The MLAT at 60 Years

Abstract

The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) was developed by John B. Carroll and Stanley S. Sapon in the late 1950s. This chapter begins with a review of Carroll’s conceptualization of language aptitude. It reviews the adaptations of the MLAT that have been developed in several languages. These include French, Arabic, Braille, Mandarin, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian and Spanish. Of these, the most successful version is the French version, which was developed in Canada and is used along with the English version by multiple agencies of the government of Canada. Both the English and French versions have been used to identify whether students with a propensity to learn do better through an analytic approach or a functional approach. The chapter includes a discussion of the validity of the MLAT and the need for more forms, including an online version. Additional uses of the MLAT are also covered. These include using the test to determine the time needed to reach a certain level of proficiency in the language, using part scores to create a diagnostic profile of the student and by psychologists, as part of a process to determine if a student has a foreign language learning disability.