Measuring language aptitude of young learners

Abstract

Apart from versions of MLAT-E(elementary) (Carroll & Sapon, 2002), which has shown good predictive validity in several studies conducted in different L1 contexts (Kiss & Nikolov, 2005;
Tellier & Roehr-Brackin, 2017), there have been no systematic attempts at designing new measures of FL aptitude of young learners (YLs). Drawing on existing literature as well as existing aptitude tests for YLs, a new aptitude measure was designed following the miniature natural language learning paradigm proposed by Kempe & Brooks (2016). The miniature
language learning paradigm was used with the aim of achieving a measure of higher ecological validity in comparison to the existing measures. The ecological validity of the new measure was
meant to ensure that the task demands resemble the demands of the particular language learning stage learners are trying to master as well as cater to the cognitive demands of a particular age group. During the validation process two studies (N=49; N=207) were conducted involving YLs aged 7 to establish the final product of the validation: a novel aptitude test. A measure consisting of both visual and auditory input was designed using a natural language (Hungarian) which was at the same time a new language to the participants whose native language is Croatian. The final version of the aptitude test consisted of two measures: an auditory alertness measure and a language analytic ability measure consisting of two subtasks (auditory morphophonological pattern recognition and auditory perceptual acuity).

To address the previously mentioned gaps in literature the present study is set out to investigate the FL aptitude construct of YLs at the very beginning of formal education. To test the convergent-divergent validity of the FL aptitude construct several correlations were explored: correlations between the FL aptitude construct and domain general abilities (verbal working memory and mental transformation), correlations between the FL aptitude construct and phonological awareness, correlations between the FL aptitude construct and motivation and, finally, correlations between FL aptitude construct and environmental factors were explored. All the variables included in the study (FL aptitude measures, verbal working memory, mental transformation, phonological awareness, motivation and environmental factors) were tested for their predictive validity for the results on the listening comprehension test administered at the end on the first year of FL learning. Finally, the study examined the incremental validity of the FL aptitude construct.
The results of the main study (N=209) point towards auditory alertness as the one aptitude measure that showed to be positively correlated with both verbal working memory (r(201) = 0.19), mental transformation (r(201) = 0.23, p < 0.001)., phonological awareness (r(201) = 0.32, p < 0.001), parents’ attitudes towards FL learning (r(167) = 0.20, p = 0.08), maternal education (τ-b(184) = 0.16, p = 0.014), and motivation (r(201) = 0.14, p = 0.043). Auditory alertness was also the only aptitude measure included in the study to be predictive of listening comprehension in English at the end of the first year of FL learning (r(201) = 0.35, p < .001). Since language analytic ability displayed no correlation to the results of the listening comprehension measure, nor any other measure included in the main study, apart from auditory perceptual acuity task and the mental transformation task (r(206) = 0.13, p = 0.059), it could not be tested further for its predictivity as an aptitude measure.