Test-taker characteristics (TTCs), or individual difference variables, are known to be a systematic source of variance in language test performance. Although previous research has documented the impact of a range of TTCs on second language (L2) learners’ test performance, few of these studies have involved young learners. Given that young L2 learners undergo rapid maturational changes in their cognitive abilities, are susceptible to affective factors in unique ways, and have little autonomy with respect to the context of L2 acquisition, the relationship between their personal attributes and their test performance merit separate research attention. To fill this gap, we investigated the extent to which sixth-grade, Korean-L1, EFL learners’ ( n = 107) TTCs predicted their performance on tests of L2 listening and reading comprehension. The TTCs under investigation included three cognitive characteristics (aptitude, phonological working memory, L1 competence), one affective factor (motivation), and two demographic variables (socioeconomic status and gender). Results showed that aptitude and phonological working memory significantly predicted participants’ performance on both L2 listening and reading comprehension tests, whereas motivation predicted performance on the L2 listening comprehension test only. These findings suggest that higher aptitude, phonological working memory, and motivation contribute positively to young learners’ L2 outcomes.

This study examined the moderating role of two individual difference factors, metacognitive awareness of listening and motivation, in young second language (L2) learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories. Participants were 66 fifth-grade English as a Foreign Language learners in South Korea who were randomly assigned to one of two groups: listening to stories or control. A vocabulary meaning recognition test was administered as a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. Self-reported questionnaires were employed to assess participants’ metacognitive awareness and motivation. Metacognitive awareness of listening, or more specifically, mental translation strategies, were shown to moderate the effects of treatment such that L2 learners who indicated greater awareness of translation strategies learned more vocabulary from listening to stories than L2 learners who had less awareness of these strategies. Motivation also moderated the effects of treatment such that L2 learners who had higher intrinsic motivation to learn English were able to acquire more vocabulary through listening to stories than learners who were less motivated.

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