Julie Luebbers’s research while affiliated with Thomas More University and other places

Studies with U.S. secondary second language (L2) learners have revealed individual differences (IDs) in first language (L1) skills and L2 aptitude and shown that these IDs are related to L2 achievement and proficiency. In this study, U.S. students were administered measures of L1 achievement, L1 cognitive processing, and L2 aptitude; followed through 2 to 3 years of Spanish courses; and administered standardized measures of Spanish achievement at the end of each year. Students were divided into high‐, average‐, and low‐achieving groups according to their scores on the Spanish measures and compared on the L1 measures and L2 aptitude test. Findings showed significant overall group differences on most L1 measures and significant between‐group differences on most L1 measures and the L2 aptitude test. IDs in L1 literacy, L1 working memory, and L2 aptitude best discriminated among students who completed 2 versus 3 years of Spanish. Results support claims that IDs in L2 achievement mirror IDs in L1 skills and provide evidence for the crosslinguistic transfer of L1 to L2 skills. Students are thought to develop full competence in their mother tongue and to exhibit little or no variance in their first language (L1) skills. But do they? What if students in second language (L2) classrooms vary considerably in L1 skills such as literacy, vocabulary, and working memory, and in their language aptitude? The present study presents results showing that students’ L1 skills and L2 aptitude not only vary considerably but also mirror their L2 achievement.

Reviews (Michael Long) "Language aptitudes are reliable predictors of rate of classroom foreign language learning and of level of ultimate attainment in naturalistic SLA. Aptitude is a central interest in the field, therefore, as reflected both in increasingly detailed analyses of the construct itself and in the development of several new aptitude measures in recent years. Language Aptitude: Advancing Theory, Testing, Research and Practice provides an authoritative historical overview of aptitude research, analyses of its sub-components, and instrumentation, surveys of current work on relationships among age of onset, aptitudes, and ultimate L2 attainment, and chapters on related cognitive and neurocognitive models, concluding with suggestions for future work and potential applications in language teaching. The contributors are experts, and the book will be a vital resource for SLA researchers, applied linguists, graduate students and language teachers for years to come." Michael H. Long, University of Maryland, USA. (Morten Christiansen): "Individual differences in language ability form a new frontier for the language sciences. To make progress, we need more advanced ways of measuring variation in language skills. Encapsulating the state of the art and outlining possible future directions, Language Aptitude will be invaluable not only to researchers in second language learning but also to language scientists, more generally." Morten Christiansen, Cornell University, USA. (Peter Robinson): "This impressive collection of papers by leading researchers provides a much-needed state-of-the-art overview of developments in the theory and measurement of language learning aptitudes that have accumulated steadily in recent years. Understanding aptitudes for learning successfully from different conditions of exposure and pedagogic interventions is now a major area of SLA research, and one of great educational consequence, as this important book clearly describes. Authoritative, comprehensive, forward-looking, and highly recommended!" Peter Robinson, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo

Second language (L2) educators have proposed a unique anxiety for general L2 learning and an anxiety specific to L2 reading. Since the early 1990s, the L2 anxiety concept has been challenged on theoretical and empirical grounds. In this investigation, U.S. high school L2 learners were administered the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) and measures of first language (L1) skills, L1 phonological memory and working memory, L1 print exposure, L1 reading attitudes, L1 metacognitive ability, L2 aptitude, and L2 achievement, then were followed through 2 to 3 years of Spanish. Results showed that the FLRAS explained significant unique variance in most L1 skills and L2 aptitude. Hierarchical regressions showed that the FLRAS explained growth in L2 achievement from first‐ to second‐ to third‐year Spanish. Findings suggest that the FLRAS is likely to measure individual differences in or self‐perceptions of students’ language learning skills rather than a specific anxiety for L2 learning. Implications for the teaching of L2s to U.S. students are discussed.

A unique anxiety for foreign language (L2) learning has been hypothesized to explain students’ problems with language learning. However, L2 anxiety instruments have been challenged on the grounds that they reflect students’ language learning ability and/or perceptions of their language learning skills. In this study, 266 U.S. high school students were administered measures of first language (L1) skills, L2 aptitude, and L2 achievement and followed through 2–3 years of Spanish courses. In 1st‐year Spanish, they were administered the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS), divided into 3 anxiety groups, and compared on the L1 and L2 measures. Findings showed that the Low Anxiety group scored significantly higher than the High Anxiety group on all L1 and L2 measures, and significantly higher than the Average Anxiety group on most L1 and L2 measures at the end of 1st‐ and 2nd‐year Spanish. Students who completed 3rd‐year Spanish displayed either low or average anxiety on the FLRAS. Results revealed negative correlations between the FLRAS and all L1 and L2 measures. Correlations between the FLRAS and the L2 achievement measures increased over time. Findings show that the FLRAS is unlikely to be measuring anxiety for language learning but more likely to be a proxy for students’ levels of L1 skill, L2 aptitude, and L2 achievement.

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) model posits that reading is the product of word decoding and language comprehension and that oral language (listening) comprehension is the best predictor of reading comprehension once word-decoding skill has been established. The SVR model also proposes that there are good readers and three types of poor readers - dyslexic, hyperlexic, and garden variety. In this study, a random sample of US high school monolingual English speakers completing first-, second-, and third-year Spanish courses were administered standardized measures of Spanish word decoding, reading, listening comprehension, and vocabulary and then classified according to SVR reader types. Findings showed that regardless of reader type, most students exhibited good word decoding but poor reading and listening comprehension skills even when compared to young native Spanish speakers. There were strong and significant correlations between Spanish reading comprehension, Spanish listening comprehension, and Spanish vocabulary. Path analyses showed that listening comprehension was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension but vocabulary contributed independent variance to Spanish reading ability. Findings indicate that Spanish reading comprehension is hard for US learners primarily because their Spanish oral language comprehension skills are very weak. AATSP