25.244, Review: Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition: Granena & Long (2013)

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Subject: 25.244, Review: Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition: Granena & Long (2013)

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Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 14:21:21
From: Jessica Cox [jgc48 at georgetown.edu]
Subject: Sensitive periods, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-2544.html

EDITOR: Gisela  Granena
EDITOR: Mike  Long
TITLE: Sensitive periods, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment
SERIES TITLE: Language Learning & Language Teaching 35
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Jessica Cox, Georgetown University

SUMMARY

Gisela Granena and Mike Long lay out the purpose and contents of the volume in
the introduction. According to the two authors, age of onset (AoO) and
aptitude are the two greatest predictors of non-native language learning.
Their interest is in the role of aptitude in naturalistic learning settings,
not traditional classrooms, and of the effect of high or low aptitude on
ultimate attainment, not rate of learning. This marks a step away from
previous decades of aptitude research, which focused on the importance of
aptitude for progressing quickly in non-native language learning in a
traditional classroom. Part I considers a variety of issues related to age
differences and maturational constraints. Part II then considers aptitude
constructs and measures, including the LLAMA Language Aptitude Tests, working
memory, phonological short-term memory, and the High-level Language Aptitude
Battery (Hi-LAB). Part III combines the topics of the first two sections by
reporting on empirical studies investigating the roles of aptitude and AoO in
advanced L2 proficiency. Finally, Part IV relates the topics of maturational
constraints and aptitude to society: the implications of when to introduce
foreign languages in schools and the importance of aptitude-treatment
interactions in real-life classrooms.

Chapter 1: Maturational constraints on child and adult SLA (Mike Long)

Rather than simply summarizing the existing literature on maturational
constraints in SLA, Long identifies issues that plague the field and why they
have led to a lack of consensus amongst researchers regarding the specific
nature and causes of sensitive periods and maturational constraints. He also
identifies ways in which the research has improved over the decades, pointing
to a promising future. Long’s hypotheses for maturational constraints are that
native-like attainment is possible, but not guaranteed, for all domains with
an AoO ranging from 0-6, possible but less likely from 6-early teens, and
impossible beyond that. Lack of consensus amongst researchers comes from
factors including, but not limited to, overreliance on census data, comparison
of correlation coefficients rather than using regressions to identify
breakpoints in slopes, and use of untimed tests which allow for access of
explicit knowledge rather than forcing participants to rely on implicit,
native-like knowledge. The list of ten improvements to the field leaves one
with the positive feeling that increasing sophistication of research design
(methodology, participant selection, specificity of hypotheses) will yield
interesting and informative results in the rest of this volume and in the near
future.

Chapter 2: Maturational constraints on lexical acquisition in a second
language (Katherine Spadaro)

Spadaro reports on an empirical study that investigated how AoO (age 0-6,
7-12, or 13+) relates to ultimate attainment in the lexical domain.
Participants spoke English as a second language and fully participated in life
in the English-speaking community either through work or school. These
participants were compared to ten native speaker controls. All participants
completed the Kent-Rosanoff word association task, seven written production
tasks (filling in blanks, discriminating nonce words, and others), and an oral
production task (retelling a story from a video). The experimental groups,
especially those with older ages of onset, had difficulty using core
vocabulary items in collocations and seemed to have a “considerably smaller
repertoire of ‘memorized chunks’” (p. 63) available to them. Many of these
were trends rather than significant differences between groups, but still
suggest that findings for maturational constraints in L2 morphosyntactic
learning (e.g., Abrahamsson & Hyltenstam, 2008) extend to the lexical domain.

Chapter 3: Age of acquisition effects or effects of bilingualism in second
language ultimate attainment? (Emanuel Bylund, Kenneth Hyltenstam, & Niclas
Abrahamsson)

According to the authors, the Bilingual Turn proposed by Ortega (2010) (which
states that the goal of developing bilinguals is not to be a native-like
monolingual in the L2 but rather a balanced bilingual) implies that ultimate
attainment should be defined by the effects of two or more languages
coexisting in the mind (i.e., level and control of bilingualism) rather than
AoO. According to this view, it is not an individual’s language-learning
ability that decreases with age, but rather an increase in the interference
from L1 (given that L1 proficiency increases with maturational development).
While Bylund et al. (2012) found that bilinguals’ proficiency in L1 and L2
differed from that of native speakers’ in each language, the correlations
between L1 and L2 proficiency were positive, not negative: higher proficiency
in one language occurred with higher proficiency with the second; moreover,
both correlated positively with aptitude scores. Thus, they argue that it is
degree of aptitude, not interlingual interference or degree of bilingualism,
that leads to ultimate attainment. Moreover, the authors argue that the lack
of specificity on native speaker controls in studies of ultimate attainment
may mean that controls are somewhat bilingual themselves, so the contrast is
not as great as some critics say. Finally, since many ultimate attainment
studies use immigrant populations, it is unclear to what extent the L1 is
maintained and used. Finally, the scarcity of studies investigating bilingual
effects on ultimate attainment impedes formulation of specific hypotheses for
the various multiple sensitive periods that researchers currently propose: the
magnitude of any effect may vary by linguistic domain and may coexist with
maturational constraints.

Chapter 4: Cognitive aptitudes for second language learning and the LLAMA
Language Aptitude Test (Gisela Granena)

This chapter reports on results of an exploratory validation study of the
LLAMA, a relatively new aptitude measure. It uses picture stimuli and thus is
language-independent, unlike the MLAT. Its subsections include vocabulary
learning, sound sequence recognition, sound-symbol association, and
grammatical inferencing. Granena’s summary of previous empirical literature
concludes that LLAMA scores correlate, above all, with learning outcomes when
measured by explicit tests and/or when combined with explicit instruction;
only the LLAMA D (sound recognition) correlates with timed assessments. The
validation study considered both internal consistency (across items) and
test-retest consistency (within individuals after a two-year gap). Both showed
acceptable, but not superior, reliability. Validity analysis of the LLAMA
showed that the LLAMA D loaded on a component separate from the other
subtests, which loaded on one component. A primary component analysis
supported the idea that LLAMA D does not reflect explicit, metalinguistic
ability whereas the other subtests do. Thus, it is not surprising that LLAMA
scores have generally been found to correlate with language learning in more
explicit conditions. Separating LLAMA D scores may be a way of investigating
more implicit language learning ability in the future.

Chapter 5: New conceptualizations of language aptitude in second language
attainment (Judit Kormos)

This chapter takes on the different cognitive factors related to L2
development; namely, intelligence, aptitude, working memory (WM), and
phonological short-term memory (PSTM), and considers how they might be related
or interact in the language learning process. Language-learning aptitude, as
with general intelligence, has historically lacked a theoretical basis and
definition because aptitude tests were created via the psychometric approach:
by including tests that correlated with achievement, rather than by picking
tests based on a theoretical explanation of how they would relate to
achievement. WM has been shown to correlate with aptitude, whereas PSTM has
not. There are theoretical bases for including both aptitude components
proposed by Carroll and Sapon (1992) and cognitive factors such as WM and PSTM
in various stages of the language learning process. Kormos concludes by saying
there is likely a role for aptitude in both explicit and naturalistic language
learning situations, and that there is evidence that being in instructed
language learning situations yields an increase in some aptitude components
(metalinguistic awareness and phonological sensitivity); however, the
importance of non-cognitive factors, such as motivation and personality,
should not be forgotten, as likely all interact to determine ultimate
attainment.

Chapter 6: Optimizing post-critical-period language learning (Catherine J.
Doughty)

This chapter introduces the High-level Language Aptitude Battery (Hi-LAB), a
measure of aptitude for high L2 proficiency, presenting its constructs,
measures, reliability, and validity. The Hi-LAB aims to predict ultimate
achievement rather than rate of progress in classroom settings, given that
some learners have been shown to achieve very high proficiency despite being
later learners. “High proficiency” was defined as Interagency Language
Roundtable (ILR, a scale used by US government agencies) Level 4 (Advanced
Professional Proficiency). The theoretical constructs behind the Hi-LAB
include working memory (capacity and executive control), long-term memory,
primability, perceptual acuity, processing speed, implicit induction ability,
explicit induction ability, pragmatic sensitivity, and fluency/automaticity in
speech. The version of the Hi-LAB reported on here includes tasks
operationalizing working memory through implicit induction. Validity studies
compared Hi-LAB performance of highly successful language learners to that of
the more average learner, all government employees. The Hi-LAB correctly
classified highly successful learners 70% of the time for listening, 60% for
reading, and 67% for either-skill attainment. Hi-LAB results are also used to
create an aptitude profile for each test taker, evaluating that person’s
likely language learning outcome and in what environment they likely will
achieve most (e.g., immersion or classroom). The development of
aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) studies based on these profiles is still
in development.

Chapter 7: Reexamining the robustness of aptitude in second language
acquisition (Gisela Granena)

This chapter extends previous research on aptitude and SLA, which in the past
has been restricted to SLA in instructed conditions, by investigating aptitude
in naturalistic learning contexts. Tests were grammaticality judgment tests
(GJTs; aural and written, with aural being timed and written untimed) with two
types of items (simple or complex syntax) and the LLAMA as a measure of
aptitude. Participants were L1 English-L2 Spanish residents of Barcelona or
controls who were Spanish/Catalan bilinguals. Results showed that the
difference in accuracy between the experimental and control groups was greater
on the aural GJT than the written, although control outperformed experimental
in both cases. For the experimental group, aptitude played a role in accuracy
for written items, but not auditory. Reaction time (RT) analyses showed that
controls were faster than the experimental group in both GJTs. However, within
the control group, RT was slower in the auditory GJT than in the written,
whereas within the experimental group, RT was slower in the written than the
auditory. Aptitude did not moderate RT outcomes nor did it interact with
sentence complexity for accuracy. Granena concludes that whether tests are
timed or untimed is crucial for SLA: high-aptitude L2 speakers had
significantly higher accuracy when they were given time to think, with RT
analyses corroborating this explanation by showing that L2 learners did take
more time when possible.

Chapter 8: Memory-based aptitude for nativelike selection: The role of
phonological short-term memory (Cylcia Bolibaugh & Pauline Foster)

The authors present an empirical study whose results suggest that phonological
short-term memory (PSTM) limits both the initial rate of learning a second
language for adult learners as well as their ultimate attainment. They argue
that for aural input to be remembered as a chunk, it must first be held in
PSTM. Participants were Polish immigrants to the UK who arrived after the age
of 18 and had been in residence at least 10 years, and a native speaker (NS)
control group. They completed texts describing a video they had just seen
(nativelike selection of lexical entries) and a nonword repetition task
(PSTM), as well as a background questionnaire that asked after their frequency
of use of L1 and L2 and attitudes toward interacting with English speakers.
Hierarchical regressions showed that level of interaction with English
speakers, PSTM, and attitude toward interacting with English speakers were all
significant predictors of nativelike selection of lexicon. Finally, comparing
the scores of the four immigrants who scored within the native-speaker range
showed that greater ability in one domain (e.g., level of interaction with NS)
can offset weaker ability in another area (e.g., PSTM). Therefore, unlike in
studies of child language acquisition, the nature of the environment, as well
as individual differences, is crucial for adult learners.

Chapter 9: High-level proficiency in late L2 acquisition: Relationships
between collocational production, language aptitude, and personality (Fanny
Forsberg Lundell & Maria Sandgren)

This empirical study compares the relationship between high L2 proficiency and
aptitude (as measured by the LLAMA) and that of high L2 proficiency and
personality. High L2 proficiency was measured by tests of collocations and
grammaticality judgment. Participants were 13 L1 Swedish/L2 French speakers
who began learning French late (after age 12) and had spent at least five
years in France. L2 collocation score correlated with LLAMA-D score, cultural
empathy score, and open-mindedness score. LLAMA-D also correlated with the
same two personality measures. LLAMA-D is related to phonetic memory, so it
makes sense that that aptitude subcomponent would be related to acquisition of
L2 collocations. It is less clear what the correlations between LLAMA-D and
personality subcomponents mean, but the authors suggest a root construct of
openness to new sounds and experiences. As in the previous chapter, the
conclusion is that both aptitude and additional factors (here, psychosocial
ones) need to be considered to predict adult learning, especially at high
proficiency.

Chapter 10: Some implications of research findings on sensitive periods in
language learning for educational policy and practice (Mike Long)

Long begins this chapter by acknowledging that the policy implications for
sensitive periods in language learning are highly dependent on the context and
the individuals. Many countries have begun to introduce foreign languages at
earlier and earlier ages in schools, but that type of exposure is unlikely to
be of sufficient quantity to make the most of younger childrens’ advantage in
implicit learning. Thus, it might be better in some cases to either wait until
the children are slightly older and better able to take advantage of
focus-on-form instruction or to develop more age-appropriate approaches to
early childhood education in a second language. This is where context comes
in: in the case of immigrants, one is not going to wait to begin their ESL
education; rather, ESL classes for young children should be focused on
providing rich input with minimal instruction. In contrast, in cases of
foreign language instruction, there may be no harm in waiting to begin
instruction. Long also highlights the need for applied research in these areas
rather than relying on basic research investigating the effects of AoO at a
later age.

Chapter 11: Aptitude-treatment interaction studies in second language
acquisition: Findings and methodology (Karen Vatz, Medha Tare, Scott R.
Jackson & Catherine J. Doughty)

This chapter reviews existing literature on ATIs to identify trends in the
findings and to critique the current methodology, with an aim to improving
research design in future studies. Studies have generally used one of two
designs: in the first, learners’ cognitive aptitude is measured and the
researcher deliberately assigns each participant to a treatment that either
matches or mismatches their aptitude, to observe the resultant learning
outcome. The second option for a research design is assigning participants to
treatments arbitrarily and then analyzing the role of aptitude in the learning
outcomes of each treatment in a post hoc manner. Although many studies have
not had ATI as their primary goal, they do generally report differential
outcomes within treatments due to aptitude. However, the operationalizations
of both aptitude and type of treatment vary so widely that it is difficult to
consolidate findings, much less perform a meta-analysis. The authors also
discuss different patterns of interactions found: studies can find that
treatments affect both high and low aptitude learners differentially (a rare
finding), that aptitude has a role in one treatment but not another (in which
case the second is preferable for being fair to all learners), or that one
treatment’s superiority is carried by the high aptitude learners. Thus,
implications for pedagogy need to be cautious based on the type of interaction
found.

EVALUATION

This volume brings together a wealth of information on its topics of focus:
sensitive periods, language aptitude, and ultimate attainment in the L2. Much
of the research reported is cutting-edge; for example, by investigating
acquisition on collocations and lexical development (Chapters 2, 7, 8, and 9)
and testing the reliability of recently developed aptitude measures (the LLAMA
and the Hi-LAB, Chapters 4 and 6, respectively). Many chapters also bring new
perspectives to very current debates in applied linguistics, some
long-standing (e.g., Chapter 1, on the nature of maturational constraints) and
some newer (e.g., Chapter 3, on the “bilingual turn” in SLA and its
implications -- or lack thereof -- for proposed sensitive periods). Finally,
the implications for real-world educational practices are clearly discussed in
both empirical and theoretical chapters (e.g., implications of the Hi-LAB in
government language training in Chapter 4, issues of educational policy in
Chapter 10, and the future of ATIs in Chapter 11). Therefore, this volume will
be of value not only to applied linguists who already work on these topics,
but also those looking to make a future contribution to the field (perhaps by
using a more recent aptitude test, targeting an understudied linguistic
domain, or investigating deliberate rather than post hoc ATIs) and for
educational practitioners and policy makers.

This volume may be of particular use for aptitude researchers, as the three
chapters in Section II are very explicit in the theoretical constructs behind
their aptitude tests and how they are operationalized in the tests. In the
past, researchers have theorized about constructs (e.g., Skehan, 2002) or
proposed tests without a clear theoretical background (e.g., the MLAT, Carroll
& Sapon, 2002), but rarely are the two as well integrated as they are in these
chapters.

Nevertheless, some of the chapters are narrow in their view of what fits the
authors’ definitions, especially in terms of nativelikeness in ultimate
attainment. Chapter 1 sets the trend in this regard by rejecting evidence of
NNS nativelikeness in untimed L2 tests, stating that such tests allow for
explicit reflection rather than requiring use of implicit knowledge. It is not
clear why explicit knowledge, especially if automatized and thus nearly
identical to implicit knowledge in practice (i.e., Segalowitz & Segalowitz,
1993) is not acceptably like a native speaker. Empirical studies in this
volume, as in this subfield in general, focus on the tests that show
non-nativelikeness in near-native speakers to the detriment of the tests that
show nativelikeness. From a scientific perspective, both findings are
informative.

Finally, in embracing current trends in SLA to focus on lexical acquisition
and collocations, previously understudied domains, the current volume has
little to say about aptitude and ultimate attainment in morphosyntactic or
phonological development. Pragmatics is mentioned in the chapter on the
Hi-LAB, but pragmatic knowledge is not assessed in any chapter of the volume.
Overall, this volume makes a clear contribution to the field and will be very
useful to practitioners, regardless of their level of experience in the field.
The breadth and depth of its contents is impressive for an edited volume.

REFERENCES

Abrahamsson, N. & Hyltenstam, K. (2008). The robustness of aptitude effects in
near-native second language acquisition. “Studies in Second Language
Acquisition” 30, 481-509.

Carroll, J. B. & Sapon, S. (2002). “Modern Language Aptitude Test: Manual,
2002 Edition”. Rockville, MD: Second Language Testing, Inc.

Segalowitz, N. S. & Segalowitz, S. J. (1993). Skilled performance, practice,
and the differentiation of speed-up from automatization effects: Evidence from
second language word recognition. “Applied Psycholinguistics”, 14, 369–385.

Skehan, P. (2002). Theorising and updating aptitude. In P. Robinson (Ed).,
“Individual differences and instructed language learning”, pp. 69-93.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Jessica G. Cox is a PhD Candidate in Spanish Applied Linguistics at Georgetown
University. Her dissertation, partly funded by a Language Learning
dissertation grant, investigates the effects of two internal variables,
bilingualism and cognitive aging, and one external variable, instructional
conditions, in the initial development of non-primary morphosyntax. She also
considers the roles of IDs (cognitive control, aptitude, and implicit sequence
learning ability) in L2 learning. Cox currently teaches Spanish language and
linguistics at Georgetown University and has studied in Mexico, Costa Rica,
China, and Brazil.








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