FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE OF INTELLECTUALLY HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS 1 ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE MASTER’S DEGREE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING MA Dissertation Measuring foreign language learning aptitude of intellectually gifted students with a newly devised test Marianthi Serafeim Supervisor: Dr. Thomai Alexiou, Associate Professor THESSALONIKI 2020 FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE OF INTELLECTUALLY HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 6 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 7 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1: Literature Review of Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning Aptitude ....................................................................................................................... 12 1.1. Second and Foreign language acquisition ....................................................................... 12 1.1.1. Second Language Acquisition ..................................................................................... 12 1.1.2. Foreign Language Learning ......................................................................................... 17 1.1.3. Second language acquisition theories .......................................................................... 18 1.1.4. Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition ............................................ 20 1.2. Foreign Language Learning Aptitude .............................................................................. 23 1.2.1. Shaping Foreign Language Learning Aptitude ............................................................ 23 1.2.2. Foreign Language Aptitude and Intelligence ............................................................... 24 1.2.3. Foreign Language Aptitude and L1 ............................................................................. 24 1.2.4. Aptitude in the second language acquisition context ................................................... 26 1.2.5. Later considerations on foreign language learning aptitude ........................................ 28 1.2.6. Foreign Language Learning Aptitude Tests ................................................................ 32 FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE OF INTELLECTUALLY HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS 3 CHAPTER 2: INTELLECTUALLY GIFTED STUDENTS ................................................ …..40 2.1 Intellectual Giftedness ..................................................................................................... 40 2.2. Intellectually gifted students ............................................................................................ 42 2.3. Programs for the talented and gifted students: CTY Greece ........................................... 43 2.4. Intellectually gifted students and foreign language aptitude ........................................... 44 2.5. Intelelctually gifted students and gender differences ...................................................... 47 CHAPTER 3: Methodology ................................................................................................... ….51 3.1. Aims, Research Context and Research Questions ........................................................... 51 3.2. Participants ...................................................................................................................... 52 3.3. Research Tools ................................................................................................................ 54 3.4. Data Collection ................................................................................................................ 57 CHAPTER 4: Results and Discussion ........................................................................................ 59 4.1. Is the proposed measurement of aptitude a reliable instrument of measuring foreign language learning aptitude? Are all the parts of the test reliable? .............................................. 59 4.2. What is the correlation, if any, between the variables of the study (Students’ and parents’ background, Foreign Language Learning aptitude, Proficiency in the English Language, and CTY SCAT Test scores)? .................................................................................. 61 4.3. Does gender have an effect on foreign language aptitude of high ability students? Is there a gender effect on the different parts of the tool? .............................................................. 65 4.4. Does age have an effect on foreign language aptitude of high ability students? ............. 67 FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE OF INTELLECTUALLY HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS 4 4.5. Do the participants’ CTY scores predict their level of foreign language learning aptitude? Is there any effect of exposure to English and foreign language aptitude to intellectually gifted students? ..................................................................................................... 68 4.6. Interesting Findings ......................................................................................................... 71 4.6.1. The foreign language aptitude level of intellectually high ability students ................. 71 4.6.2. The effect of gender on the participants’ performance in the XLEX vocabulary size test 72 4.6.3. The effect of L1 on the foreign language aptitude of intellectually high ability students. 73 CHAPTER 5: Limitations of the study and Recommendations .................................................. 76 5.1. Limitations of the study ....................................................................................................... 76 5.2. Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 77 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 79 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 83 APPENDIX I ............................................................................................................................. 106 APPENDIX II ........................................................................................................................... 131 APPENDIX III .......................................................................................................................... 136 APPENDIX V: Correlation Matrix ........................................................................................... 137 FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE OF INTELLECTUALLY HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS 5 LIST OF TABLES 1. Participants………………………………………………………………………………..... 53 2. Adaptation of the devised parts……………………………………………………………..56 3. Reliability Analysis for Game on Cognitive Abilities – Aptitude Test (α = .87)………...…58 4. Correlation Analyses between CTY scores and IGLAT……………………………………60 5. Correlation Analyses between XLEX and IGLAT………………………………………….61 6. Correlation Analyses between gender, IGLAT and XLEX. ……………………………….61 7. Correlation Analyses between IGLAT and demographics. ………………………………..62 8. The effect of gender on IGLAT total scores. ………………………………………………64 9. The effect of gender on “Artificial Language Game”. …………………………………..…64 10. Descriptive statistics regarding the age of the participants and IGLAT…………………..66 11. Predicting the total IGLAT score. …………………………………………………………67 12. Predicting the “Paired Associates” scores. ………………………………………………..68 13. Predicting the “Symbol Associations” scores. ………………………………………...…..68 14. Results of stepwise regression……………………………………………………………..68 15. Participants’ scores in the IGLAT Test. …………………………………………………..70 16. The effect of gender on XLEX scores. ……………………………………………………71 FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE OF INTELLECTUALLY HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS 6 Acknowledgements I would like to wholeheartedly thank some people who have helped me tremendously in completing this paper. First of all, my supervisor and mentor, Dr. Thomai Alexiou. Without her support and guidance, this would have been an unimaginable task. Dr. Alexiou, thank you for believing in me. I would also like to thank my loving parents, Elsa and Giannis as well as my aunt and uncle, Fani and John, who have shaped who I am today. Thank you for teaching me how to love, and to never give up on my dreams. You are my greatest treasure. I also wish to thank George, for the long distance calls and his continuous support. No words can describe how thankful I am to you. Finally, many thanks to all my friends, Marialena especially, who bore with me and supported me throughout my journey until here. I love you all deeply. FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE OF INTELLECTUALLY HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS 7 ABSTRACT Foreign language learning aptitude predicts the rate at which a person may successfully master a foreign language (Carrol, 1973). Despite the extensive research on young learners’ aptitude (Alexiou, 2005) and gifted university students (Dai & Renzulli, 2008; Feldhunsen & Moon, 1992), as yet no studies have included school aged gifted students. The aim of the current study is to assess the level