Foreign language learning ability.

Abstract

This report on 2 studies of factors involved in learning French is based on 23 tests administered to 208 students in college French, and on 22 tests administered to 202 additional students a year later. The factors extracted and rotated in each study included: Verbal, Reasoning, Speed of Articulation, Pitch Discrimination, Timbre Discrimination, Interest, and Biographic. Multiple correlation test selection analyses resulted in (a) R = .65, using 6 tests to predict Cooperative French Test scores; (b) R = .41, using 5 tests to predict aural comprehension; and (c) R = .41, using 5 tests to predict speaking proficiency. Verbal IQ and Interest (motivation) appear to be the most important factors in college foreign language learning; Reasoning, Word Fluency, and Pitch Discrimination also contribute.

Predicting Success in High School Foreign Language Courses

“…The role played by this factor is most uncertain. In a study involving 208 second semester French students at UCLA ( Pimsleur, Stockwell & Comrey, 1962), two tests of this factor both correlated well with teacher grades; in a follow-up with 202 student? in the same course a year later, the same tests failed to correlate significantly with the Cooperative French Test.…”

“…Even used alone it would probably be an excellent predictor, correlating as it does to the extent of .613 with the criterion. Previous factor analytic findings (Pimsleur, Stockwell & Comrey, 1962) indicate that this test is associated with a Reasoning factor. The fact that it seems to account for much of the variance attributable to the Verbal factor (vocabulary) means that it probably contains both Verbal and Reasoning elements.…”

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PREVIOUS studies in this series (Pimsleur, Stockwell & Comrey, 1962) have attempted to predict achievement in college French courses, using as predictors specially constructed pure-factor tests.lThe results of these efforts were: a) achievement as measured by the Cooperative French Test was predicted to the extent of .65 (after correction for shrinkage) by a battery of six tests; b) achievement in speaking and in listening comprehension were each predicted to the extent of .41 by a battery of five tests; c) the main contributing factors were found to be Verbal Intelligence and Interest (motivation), although Reasoning, Word Fluency, and Pitch Discrimination also helped prediction.The present study attempts similar prediction at the secondary school level, in Spanish as well as in French. The predictive tests found most effective on the college population, plus criterion measures, were administered in the Spring of 1961 to fifty beginning French students and to 174 beginning Spanish students at Culver City Junior High School and Culver City High School.

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“…PREVIOUS studies in this series (Pimsleur, Stockwell & Comrey, 1962) have attempted to predict achievement in college French courses, using as predictors specially constructed pure-factor tests.l…”

Notes and Discussion

“…Some scholars attribute it to the existence of a "critical age" for acquiring authentic pronunciation which roughly corresponds to the onset of puberty (Lennenberg, 1967;Penfield & Roberts, 1963;Scovel, 1969). Others suggest that language learning talent (or "aptitude") varies across individuals in much the same way äs artistic and musical ability do (Carroll, 1981;Kaulfers, 1930;Pimsleur, Stockwell & Comrey, 1962;Schneiderman & Desmarais, 1988). Psychological and sociological factors have also been examined äs possible causes for the adult's failure to acquire a native-like accent.…”