This book presents original, empirical data from quantitative and qualitative research studies in the field of language learning aptitude, ability, and individual differences. It does so from the perspectives of Second Language Acquisition, psychology, neuroscience and sociolinguistics. All studies included in the book use a similar and uniform layout and methodology. Each chapter contains a study examining factors such as memory, personality, self-concept, bilingualism and multilingualism, education, musicality or gender. The chapters investigate the influence of these concepts on language learning aptitude and ability. Several of these chapters analyse hypotheses which have never been tested before and therefore provide novel research results. The book contributes to the field both by verifying and contesting existent findings and by exploring novel approaches to devising research in the subject area.

Inhalt

Foreword; Susanne M. Reiterer.- Introduction: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Language Aptitude; Victoria Ameringer, Daniel Leisser, Luke Green, Sabrina Turker.- Part I: Language Aptitude and Memory.- Cognitive Abilities: Different Memory Functions and Language Aptitude; Victoria Ameringer.- Aptitude for Vocabulary Acquisition; Hannah Hackl.- Working memory and language aptitude with focus on L2 vocabulary learning; Hyun Jung Kim.- Part II: Language Aptitude and Psychological Factors.- On the Role of Self-Efficacy as a Possible Component of Language Aptitude in the Acquisition of British /æ/; Daniel Leisser.- Motivation and Personality in Language Aptitude; Nejra Rizvanovic.- Part III: Language Aptitude in Relation to Neuroscience and Musicality.- The Neuroanatomical Correlates of Foreign Language Aptitude; Sabrina Turker, Susanne Reiterer, Peter Schneider, Annemarie Seither-Preisler.- Let the Music Speak: Examining the Relationship between Music and Language Aptitude in Pre-School Children; Markus Christiner.- Language Aptitude in Relation to Handedness, Hemispheric Dominance, Cognitive Learning Strategies and Non-Verbal IQ: a Combined Quantitative and Qualitative Study; Klara Kager.- The impact of speaking a tone language on music aptitude; Niloufar Saraei.- Making Music and Learning Languages - Musicality and Grammar; Daniel Malzer.- Language Aptitude and Gender; Cornelia Habl.- Part IV: Language Aptitude and Socio-Environmental Influences.- Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies & Language Aptitude; Jakob Poschner.- Comparing the Language Aptitudes and Language Attitudes of Mono- and Bilingual Burgenland Croats; Katharina Anna Maria Krumpeck.- The Correlation of Early Multilingualism and Language Aptitude; Sofia Hörder.- The Role of Language Aptitude in Second Language Attrition; Astrid Elisabeth Lehner.- So what's the deal now!? Am I talented or not? Stefanie Rüdegger.- Part V Language Aptitude for Pronunciation.- Factors Affecting the Pronunciation Abilities of Adult Learners of English: A Longitudinal Group Study; Karin Richter.- Language Transfer vs. Language Talent? Individual differences and aptitude in L2 phonology of Persian-speaking learners of English; Zhaleh Ghafoorian Maddah, Susanne M. Reiterer