Language Aptitude Implicates Language and Cognitive Skills 1

Abstract

The broad aim of this chapter is to consider what role specifically linguistic abilities might have as part of foreign language aptitude. It is not argued that more general cognitive abilities are unimportant, but that the issue of how specifically linguistic abilities contribute to foreign language learning success, de-emphasised in recent years, has both theoretical and practical importance. Theoretical positions which contain a place for linguistic abilities are outlined. Then a broad characterisation of a sequence of acquisitional processes is outlined, and the detailed components of the sequence are explicated and related to recent aptitude research. Early stages of this sequence are concerned with handling sound and handling pattern. Later stages are concerned with automatising (or proceduralising) such sounds and patterns. It is argued that language abilities still need to be considered at the automatisation stage and that understanding the measurement and functioning of these automatisation abilities can make considerable theoretical contributions to our understanding of second and foreign language learning.