LangSci Lunch Talk: Sunhee Kim (SLA)

Food and ideas bring people together.  Our weekly lunch talk series provides students and faculty with the opportunity to present their in-progress work to a supportive, interdisciplinary audience.

Looking beyond cognitive measures for language learning aptitude

There has been increasing interest in second language (L2) aptitude, in terms of how to measure this aptitude and improve its measurement, so it can better predict successful language learning. The link between cognitive ability and language aptitude has become increasingly clear in recent years, but there are still many avenues to explore to better improve the measurement of language aptitude.

Research in second language acquisition has readily emphasized the impact of first language (L1) on L2 development. Skills such as listening comprehension can transfer from L1 to L2. Similarly, individuals with better low-level auditory perceptual abilities can use those skills to discriminate L2 speech sounds with more ease. Being able to discriminate L2 sounds can result in quicker word identification and learning of that second language. Based on existing evidence that first language and phonemic discrimination ability can predict subsequent language learning success, two tests were specifically developed and field tested at an intensive program in the US.

Tests on English listening comprehension (ELC) and non-native phonemic discrimination ability (NPD) were distributed to students in the intensive program prior to the start of instruction. These two tests along with an institutional test were analyzed using mixed effects regression modeling to determine whether these tests individually and in conjunction with each other could predict and explain learners’ grades, proficiencies, and graduation outcomes. The predictive, incremental validity for these two tests will be presented in detail along with future directions.