Language Aptitude by Zhisheng Wen

Language Aptitude by Zhisheng Wen

Language Aptitude: Advancing Theory, Testing, Research and Practice brings together cutting-edge global perspectives on foreign language aptitude. Drawing from educational psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience, the editors have assembled interdisciplinary authors writing for an applied linguistics and education audience. The book is broken into five major themes: revisiting and updating current language aptitude theories and models; emerging insights from contemporary research into language aptitude and the age factor or the critical period hypothesis; redefining constructs and broadening territories of foreign language aptitude; exploring language aptitude from a neurocognitive perspective; and exploring future directions of foreign language aptitude research. Focused on critical issues in foreign language aptitude and second language learning and teaching, this book will be an important research resource and supplemental reading in both applied linguistics and cognitive psychology.

"Language aptitudes are reliable predictors of rate of classroom foreign language learning and of level of ultimate attainment in naturalistic SLAAptitude 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.

"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.

"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

Zhisheng (Edward) Wen (PhD, Chinese University of Hong Kong) is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Languages and Translation at Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao, China, having previously taught at universities in Hong Kong and mainland China for over 15 years.

Peter Skehan (PhD, Birkbeck College, University of London) has worked as a Professor at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, London; the University of Auckland; Chinese University of Hong Kong; King’s College London; and Thames Valley University.

Adriana Biedroń (PhD, School of English, Poznań) is currently Professor of English at the Faculty of Philology, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Poland.

Shaofeng Li (PhD, Michigan State University) is Associate Professor of Foreign and Second Language Education at Florida State University and previously worked as a Senior Lecturer in Applied Language Studies at the University of Auckland.

Richard L. Sparks (EdD, University of Cincinnati) is a Professor Emeritus in the Mount St Joseph University’s Department of Graduate Education, USA.