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This article examines the relationships of a variety of individual difference variables to end‐of‐training proficiency ratings in speaking and reading for a large sample of adults in intensive training in a wide range of languages at the U.S. Department of State. Variables included tested cognitive aptitude, learning strategies, learning styles, personality, motivation, and anxiety. Although tested cognitive aptitude showed the strongest correlations with proficiency test results in both skills, the other variables also correlated in ways that show how rich and complex the individual learner's role in language is. Results may contribute to increasingly sophisticated student counseling and to efforts to enhance student autonomy by tailoring treatments to student characteristics. They also increase knowledge of attributes that may affect language training to the upper proficiency levels.

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This article presents a rationale, description, and partial construct validation of a new theory of foreign language aptitude: CANAL‐F—Cognitive Ability for Novelty in Acquisition of Language (Foreign). The theory was applied and implemented in a test of foreign language aptitude (CANAL‐FT). Three unique features differentiate the new test from many existing tests of FL aptitude. The CANAL‐FT is grounded in cognitive theory, dynamic rather than static, and simulation‐based. This article outlines the CANAL‐F theory and details of its instrumentation through the test (CANAL‐FT), discusses the psychometric properties of the CANAL‐FT, and presents the first construct‐validation data on the theory and test.