This study longitudinally examined the effects of cognitive and sociopsychological individual differences (aptitude, motivation, personality) and the quantity and quality of second language (L2) experience on L2 speech gains in naturalistic settings. We elicited L2 spontaneous speech from 50 Chinese learners of English at the beginning and the end…

After discussing key issues in the aptitude literature and presenting an updated, multicomponential model of cognitive language aptitude, we consider two analyses from a longitudinal investigation using aptitude to predict success in language learning. Aptitude is conceptualized as a special talent for learning languages and a ceiling on success.…

Answering calls to map college-level proficiency development (Modern Language Association, 2007) and longitudinally chart language learning (Barkaoui, 2014; Ortega & Byrnes, 2008), we mapped the oral proficiency growth of 1,922 lower-division college students of Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish (in the second, third, or fourth semester of…

This study examined the motivation to learn English of Indonesian junior high school pupils, 13-14 years of age, in three distinct contexts: a metropolitan city, a provincial town, and a rural district. Utilizing Dornyei's second language (L2) Motivational Self System as the theoretical framework, this study employed a 50-item questionnaire to…

Learning context has increasingly been postulated to exert an influence on the dynamics of individual differences in language learning. In a longitudinal design that tested the proficiency gains of 1,682 learners over a 2-year foreign language program, a multilevel modeling approach was deployed in this study to account for variation in second…

Examined the magnitude of the contributions that motivation and attitudes make to achievement in the second language in he research conducted by Gardner and associates. Meta-analysis indicates the relationship of second language achievement to the five attitude/motivation variables from Gardner's socioeductional model. (Author/VWL)

Describes a study of the effects on second language attrition of attitudes, motivations, and reported language use by learners during a six-month period after the completion of an intensive French course. (SED)