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The Impact of Language Aptitude, Working Memory and Verbal Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University Des Frères Mentouri - Constantine Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of Letters and English Language The Impact of Language Aptitude, Working Memory and Verbal Reasoning as Aspects of Linguistic Intelligence on Language Learning Achievement The Case of First Year Students at the Department of Letters and English language, University Des Frères Mentouri, Constantine Thesis submitted to the department of Letters and English Language in candidacy for the degree of Doctorat LMD in Didactics of Foreign languages Submitted by Supervised by Mrs. Lamia ELMECHTA Pr. Hacène SAADI Board of Examiners Chairman: Pr. Samir LARABA University Des Frères Mentouri- Constantine Supervisor: Pr. Hacène SAADI University Des Frères Mentouri- Constantine Member: Pr. Abdelhak NEMOUCHI University Larbi Ben M’hidi- Oum El Bouaghi Member: Pr. Omar GHOUAR University Hadj Lakhdar- Batna Member:Dr. El Houas AHMED SID University Des Frères Mentouri- Constantine Member: Dr. Nadir KAOULI University Hadj Lakhdar- Batna 2015-2016 DEDICATION To my beloved mother and father for their never-ending love, care and support; To my dearest husband for his constant assistance. Tank You Amar for being a source of inspiration; To my brothers and sister; To all my family; To my in-laws; To my friends and colleagues; I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my total gratitude to my supervisor Professor Hacéne SAADI for his precious advice, intellectual guidance, encouragement, and assistance. His motivational support pushed me forward to carry out the task despite its complexity. He was the person without whom the work would never be achieved. I owe a special gratitude to the psychologists Jennifer MICHAUD and David CAPLAN for being kind enough to respond to my constant questions and for having provided me with software containing automated working memory tasks. A special thank goes to the students who took part in this study. Thank you all for your patience and honesty to produce serious answers. II ABSTRACT The present study addresses some cognitive aspects of individual differences that influence foreign language learning. The research attempts to investigate the relationship between one type of intelligence that is referred to as linguistic intelligence and language learning achievement. Since linguistic intelligence is just a theoretical concept, we felt the need to look for a set of cognitive abilities as its constituent factors. Language aptitude, working memory, and verbal reasoning were, thus, elected to be the main factors of linguistic intelligence and the major components of the test intended for that broad ability. Three measures of the three aforementioned capacities (working memory measure, language aptitude measure, and verbal reasoning measure) were, in effect, administered to a sample of seventy subjects from a population of 300 first-year students at the department of Letters and English, University Des Frères Mentouri, Constantine. Correlations were made between the obtained scores in these measures, and factor analysis was conducted to determine the final factors of Linguistic intelligence. The results confirm the existence of three factors, albeit with a precision in the designation of the hypothesized abilities. Grammatical ability is substituted for language aptitude, while working memory and verbal reasoning remain intact. On the basis of these findings, a further correlational study was conducted between the overall Linguistic intelligence score, as with the score of its final factors, and language learning achievement score. Again, the results prove a significant relationship between the overall Linguistic intelligence and language learning achievement. As for the relationship between this latter and the final factors of Linguistic intelligence, two factors reveal a significant moderate correlation (grammatical ability and verbal reasoning), while the third factor (working memory) indicate a weak association. The study would, hence, encourage the implementation of Linguistic intelligence test as the basis for selection in learning English as a foreign language. III LIST OF ABREVIATIONS FL foreign language Gf fluid intelligence G factor general factor Gc crystallized intelligence IQ intelligence quotient K :m spatial practical ability LSPAN listening span tasks LTM long term memory LTS long term store MLAT Modern Language Aptitude Test OSPAN operation span tasks PLAB Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery RSPAN reading span tasks SLA second language acquisition STM short term memory STS short term store V :ed verbal educational ability WM working memory WMC working memory capacity IV LIST OF TABLES Table N° Title Page Table1 Characteristics of the Experiential and Analytic Processing 49 Systems Table 2 Skehan’s Language Aptitude Components and SLA Stages 77 Table 3 Aptitude and Language Learning Stages 91 Table 4 Phonemic Ability Task, Correct Answers and Percentages 236 Table 5 Grammatical Sensitivity Subtest, Correct Answers and 237 Percentages Table 6 Whole-Part Correlation of Language Aptitude Pilot Test 239 Table 7 Item-Item Correlation of Language Aptitude Pilot Test 239 Table 8 Whole-Part Correlation of Working Memory Pilot Test 241 Table 9 Item-Item Correlation of Working Memory Pilot Test 242 Table 10 Analogies Subtest, Correct Answers and Percentages 243 Table 11 Similarity Subtest, Correct Answers and Percentages 244 Table 12 Knowledge Subtest, Correct Answers and Percentages 244 Table 13 Understanding Relations, Correct Answers and Percentages 245 Table 14 Syllogisms, Correct Answers and Percentages 246 Table 15 Verbal Reasoning Pilot Test, Whole-Part Correlation 247 Table 16 Verbal Reasoning Pilot Test, Item-Item Correlation 247 Table 17 Phonemic Ability Subtest, the Participants Correct Answers + 251 Percentages Table 18 Phonemic Ability Subtest, the Participants Answers in Task 6 252 Table 19 Grammatical Sensitivity Subtest, Correct Answers+ 255 Percentages Table 20 Inductive Language Learning Ability Subtest, Correct 256 Answering Percentages Table 21 Working Memory Capacity in RSPAN 258 Table 22 Working Memory Capacity in OSPAN 262 Table 23 Working Memory Capacity in Anagrams 265 Table 24 Working Memory Capacity in LSPAN 267 Table 25 Knowledge Subtest, Correct Answers+ Percentages 270 Table 26 Similarity Subtest, Correct Answers+ Percentages 271 V Table 27 Syllogisms Subtest, Correct Answers+ Percentages 272 Table 28. Understanding Relations Subtest, Correct Answers+ 273 Percentages Table 29 Analogies Subtest, Correct Answers+ Percentages 274 Table 30 Language Aptitude Whole-Part Correlation 281 Table 31 Language Aptitude Item-Item Correlation 281 Table 32 Working Memory Whole-Part Correlation 282 Table 33 Working Memory Item-Item Correlation 283 Table 34 Verbal Reasoning Whole-Part Correlation 284 Table 35 Verbal Reasoning Item-Item Correlation 284 Table 36 Language Aptitude Mean Scores 286 Table 37 Working Memory Mean Scores 286 Table 38 Verbal Reasoning Mean Scores 287 Table 39 Sex Differences in Aptitude, Working Memory, and Verbal 288 Reasoning Table 40 The Correlation between Language Aptitude Subtests, 301 Working Memory Subtests and Verbal Reasoning Subtests Table 41 Correlation Matrix, Significance Level and Determinant 304 Table 42 KMO and Bartlett’s Test 305 Table 43 Total Variance Explained 307 Table 44 Component Matrix 310 Table 45 Rotated Component Matrix 310 Table 46 Subjects Scores Vis-À-Vis the Score 10 318 Table 47 The Correlation between Linguistic Intelligence Test and Its 319 Three Components Table 48 The Correlation between the Three Components of Linguistic 320 Intelligence Test VI LIST OF FIGURES Figure N° Title Page Figure 1 Diagram Illustrating Hierarchical Structure of Human Abilities 21 Figure 2 Mental Activities in Thinking 46 Figure 3 Laird And Byrne’s Three Stages of Reasoning in Mental Models 52 Theory Figure 4 Major Components in Analogical Reasoning 58 Figure5 Memory Systems and Brain Mechanisms 114 Figure 6 A Stage Model Proposed By Atkinson and Shiffrin 115 Figure7 The Traditional Model of Memory By Atkinson & Shiffrin 115 Figure 8 The Initial Model of WM Proposed By Baddeley & Hitch (1974) 126 Figure 9 The Current Model of Working Memory 127 Figure 10 Distribution of Language Aptitude Scores in the Curve 277 Figure 11 Distribution of Working Memory Scores in the Curve 278 Figure 12 Distribution of Verbal Reasoning Scores in the Curve 279 Figure 13 Distribution of Linguistic Intelligence Total Scores 322 Figure 14 Distribution of Verbal Reasoning Reproduced Scores 323 Figure 15 Distribution of Working Memory Reproduced Scores 324 Figure 16 Distribution of Grammatical Ability Scores 325 Figure 17 Distribution of Language Learning Achievement Scores 327 VII CONTENTS Dedication.............................................................................................. I Acknowledgements................................................................................ II Abstract.................................................................................................. III List of abbreviations............................................................................. IV List of tables......................................................................................... V List of figures........................................................................................ VII General Introduction..........................................................................
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