Methodology in Language Learning: Try

 

Ever since the MLAT and the PLAB were introduced, language aptitude has been equated in most research studies with the scores of one of these (or some other, similar) tests and the tacit understanding in the L2 research community has been that language aptitude is what language aptitude tests measure. Although such a pragmatic test-based definition might appear rather unscientific, the fact is that the study of cognitive abilities has often been characterized in the past by such an atheoretical and assessment-based approach in psychology.

 

The standardization of the administration is insured by the use of recorded material that includes the instructions

and the phonetic material for certain parts (Parts 1 and 2). The five constituent sections are as follows:

·    Number Learning: Subjects hear some numbers in a new language (only numbers 1-4, 10-40 and 100-400), and are provided with some auditory practice to learn them. Then they must translate 15 numbers between 1 and 400 into English.

·    2. Phonetic Script: First students hear a set of short nonsense words while they follow their printed phonetic script, which is presented in fairly simple and regular symbols. Then they hear one word at a time and must choose from four printed alternatives. The whole task includes 30 sets of four words each.

·    3. Spelling Clues: This part looks like a vocabulary test in that subjects must choose, from five alternatives, the word which is nearest in meaning to a test word, thus the results depend on vocabulary knowledge in one’s first language. A unique feature of the task is that the test word is not spelled normally but phonetically. There is a total of 50 test words.

E.g., ernst

A. shelter D. slanted E. impatient

B. sincere E. free

·    4. Words in Sentences: This test measures ‘grammatical sensitivity.’ First subjects are presented with a key sentence in which a word or phrase is underlined. In the sentence (or sentences) following the key sentence, five alternative words or phrases are underlined. Subjects must select the one that performs the same function as the underlined word in the key sentence. There are altogether 45 key sentences.

E.g., Mary is cutting the APPLE.

My brother John is beating his dog with a big stick.

A B C D E

·    5. Paired Associates: In this test students have a total of four minutes to memorize 24 Kurdish/English word pairs. Retention is tested by means of a multiple choice test in which subjects must choose the proper equivalent for each Kurdish word from five English alternatives. All the distracters are selected from the 24 English words contained in the original list, which makes the test more difficult.

 

 

If properly conducted, the trial-and-error method can produce instruments with adequate psychometric capacities, yet these outcomes are somewhat ad hoc with two separate attempts in our case resulting in two rather different instruments that also contain certain theoretically questionable elements. The other side of the coin is, however, that reliable instruments that appear to tap into some psychological construct can subsequently be used to define the content and the boundaries of the construct in question.

 

 

 

Language aptitude comprises four constituent abilities:

1.  Phonetic coding ability, which is considered the most important component and is defined as “an ability to identify distinct sounds, to form associations between these sounds and symbols representing them, and to retain these associations” main problem is not so much that of discriminating sounds, as it is that of identifying sounds or string of sounds as unique entities and storing them in long-term memory. This ability therefore involves the coding, assimilation, and remembering of phonetic material.

2.  Grammatical sensitivity, which is “the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words (or other linguistic entities) in sentence structures” or in other words, “the individual’s ability to demonstrate his awareness of the syntactical patterning of sentences in a language and of the grammatical functions of individual elements in a sentence”. Although this ability does not require any knowledge of grammatical terminology, it implies an awareness of grammatical relationships.

3.  Rote learning ability, which is the “ability to learn associations between sounds and meaning rapidly and efficiently. It refers to the capacity to remember large amounts of foreign language materials.

4.  Inductive language learning ability, which is “the ability to infer or induce the rules governing a set of language materials, given samples of language materials that permit such inferences”  or in other words, the ability to “identify patterns of correspondences and relationships involving either meaning or grammatical form.

 

The general feeling in the profession was that although aptitude might be predictive for the context of structured input and practice oriented activities, it was less relevant to the communication-based, meaningful language use that characterized the new emerging language teaching paradigm, communicative language teaching. Analytical language ability is more closely associated with second language outcomes when intensive exposure to the language is first experienced in adolescence. This relationship appears to hold, though not as strongly, even when exposure takes place in an environment outside the second language classroom.

 

©

Bibliography:

1)  Blundell, Lesley and Stokes, Jackie, Task listening, Cambridge University Press, 198r.

2)  Gore, Lesley, Listening to Maggie, Longman, 1979.

3)  McClintock, John and Stern, Borje, Let's listen, Heinemann EducationalBooks, 1974.

4)  Maley, Alan and Moulding, Sandra, Learning to listen, CambridgeUniversity Press, 198 I.

5)  Scott, Wendy, Are you listening?, Oxford University Press, 1980.

6)  Stokes, Jacqueline StClair, Elementary task listening, CambridgeUniversity Press, 1984.

7)  Underwood, Mary and Barr, Pauline, Listeners (series), Oxford University Press, 1980.

8)  Abbs, Brian and Jones, T., Cloudsongs, Longman, 1977.

9)  Abbs, Brian and York, N., Skyhigh, Longman, 1975.

10)         Jones, Christopher, Back home, Longman, 1980.

11)         Kingsbury, Roy, and O'Shea, Patrick, Seasons and people and other songs,Oxford University Press, 1979.

12)         Wilson, Ken, Mister Monday and other songs for the teaching of English,Longman, 197r.

13)         Wilson, Ken and Morrow, Keith, Goodbye rainbow, Longman, 1974.

14)         Seidl, Jennifer and McMordie, W., English idioms and how to use them, Oxford University Press, 1978.

15)         Wilson, F. P. (ed. ), Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, Oxford University Press, 1970.

16)         Brown, Gillian, Listening to spoken English, Longman, 1977.

17)         Brown, Gillian, 'Understanding spoken language', TESOL Quarterly 12:2, 1978.

18)         Brown, Gillian and Yule, George, Teaching the spoken language, Cambridge University Press, 1983.

19)         Byrne, Donn, 'Listening comprehension', Teaching oral English, Longman, 1976.

20)         Crystal, David and Davy, Derek, Investigating English style, Longman, 1969:

21)         Curfs, Emile, 'Listening deserves better', Modern English Teacher 9:3, 1982.

22)         Geddes, Marion, 'Listening', inK. Johnson and K. Morrow (eds. ),

23)         Communication in the classroom, Longman, 1981. Geddes, Marion and White, Ron, 'The use of semi-scripted simulated authentic speech and listening comprehension', Audio-visual Language journal, 1978.

24)         Littlewood, William, Communicative language teaching, Cambridge University Press, 198 I.

25)         Maley, Alan, 'The teaching of listening comprehension skills', Modern English Teacher, 1978.

26)         Porter, Don and Roberts, Jon, 'Authentic listening activities', English Language Teaching]ournal, 1981.

27)         Richards, Jack C., 'Listening comprehension', TESOL Quarterly, 1983.

28)         Rivers, Wilga, 'Hearing and comprehending', Teaching foreign language skills (revised edn.), University of Chicago Press, 1980. Widdowson, Henry, Teaching language as communication, Oxford University Press, 1978. The teaching of listening comprehension, British Council, E.L. T. Documents Special, 1981.