Doctoral Dissertation Research: Age Differences and Cognitive Aptitudes in Ultimate Second Language Attainment

在从商业和科学到外交和国家安全的许多行业中，非常高水平的外语应用能力越来越重要。这也是非常罕见的，早起和/或在语言方面的特殊天赋或天赋被认为是必要的。语言能力被定义为认知/知觉能力的组合，可通过标准化测试测量，并有利于第二语言(L2)习得。语言能力与课堂和浸入式环境中最终成就的差异(即习得的长期差异)有关。这项研究将调查外显语言学习能力(定义为语言分析能力)和内隐语言学习能力(定义为顺序学习能力)在多大程度上具有不同的重要性，这是通过在涉及受控或自动使用第二语言知识的任务上的表现来衡量的。将有三组受试者：一组以西班牙语为母语的对照组，以及两组中国移民，他们是西班牙的长期居民，他们自然主义地学习西班牙语(一种在类型上非常不同的第二语言)，他们第一次持续接触的时间要么是儿童(3岁和6岁)，要么是成年人(15岁以后)。以前的研究依赖于单一的能力衡量标准，主要侧重于允许外显学习(被认为是主要的成人学习过程，而不是儿童的内隐学习)的认知能力，以及倾向于控制使用第二语言知识的单一成就衡量标准。为了纠正这一点，我们将使用一项元语言知识测试和一项词汇监控任务，以及四项语法判断测试来评估中国学习者在不同时间压力(压力/非压力)和情态(视觉/听觉)条件下的西班牙语水平。研究结果将有助于阐明起始年龄和语言能力类型(外显或内隐)对于需要达到更高的第二语言熟练程度的学习者的相对重要性。

Very high-level, functional ability in foreign languages is increasingly important in many walks of life -- from business and science to diplomacy and national security. It is also very rare, and an early start and/or a special talent, or aptitude, for languages is believed to be necessary. Language aptitude is defined as a combination of cognitive/perceptual abilities measurable on a standardized test and advantageous in second language (L2) acquisition. Language aptitude has been related to variation in ultimate attainment (i.e., long-term differences in acquisition) in both classroom and immersion settings. This research will investigate the extent to which aptitude for explicit language learning, defined as "language analytic ability," and implicit language learning, defined as "sequence learning ability," are differentially important, as measured by performance on tasks that involve either controlled or automatic use of L2 knowledge. There will be three groups of subjects: a control group of Spanish native speakers, and two groups of Chinese immigrants, long-term residents of Spain, who learned Spanish (a typologically very different L2) naturalistically, and whose first sustained exposure was either as children (ages 3 and 6) or adults (after 15). Previous studies have relied on single measures of aptitude, weighted heavily in favor of cognitive abilities that allow for explicit learning (thought to be the primary adult learning process, as opposed to implicit learning by children), and single measures of attainment that favored controlled use of L2 knowledge. To correct for this, a metalinguistic knowledge test and a word-monitoring task, as well as four grammaticality judgment tests, will be used to assess the Chinese learners' Spanish under different conditions of time pressure (pressured/unpressured) and modality (visual/auditory). The results will help clarify the relative importance of starting age and type of language aptitude (explicit or implicit) for learners who need to achieve advanced L2 proficiency.