| As one of the principal individual differences (IDs) in second language acquisition (SLA), foreign language aptitude (FLA) has continuously been proved to be one of the two best predictors of the outcome of SLA so far, thus it has received much attention in SLA research. However, the study of the relationship between FLA and SLA mainly appears in America and other developed countries, far fewer research findings can be obtained in China. Besides, in the past 30 years or so, with the advance of the research into SLA and its feeding disciplines, such as linguistics, cognitive science, language education, the study of FLA has also experienced tremendous development, of which one essential aspect is that FLA can be linked with the processes of SLA through the role of working memory (WM), which may be a key component of FLA, and this specific cognitive ability has attracted most of the attention of scholars in FLA research. Furthermore, linguistic complexity may play a certain role in the outcome of SLA; subsequently, FLA and WM might affect the acquisition of the target structure to a different extent depending on the complexity of the structure to be acquired.To address the aforementioned issues, three empirical studies have been conducted in the present research corresponding to them. The first study investigated two groups of college students at different levels of second language (L2) proficiency aiming to find out the effects of FLA and its related factors including gender and learning strategy on the overall development of a second language by Chinese learners of English as a second language (ESL). The study is composed of a cross-sectional study and a follow-up study so as to compare the difference of the effects that FLA has on SLA for learners of different L2 proficiency and to identify the variation of FLA spanning one and a half years of time. Using two classes of junior high school students as subjects, the second study was conducted to discover the effects of WM and instructional treatment on the acquisition of syntactic rules in the case of relative clauses (RCs) as well as to explore the interactive effects of the two factors. Incidentally, the acquisition difficulty induced by RC type and RC position was examined in terms of five linguistic theories, namely Noun Phrases Accessibility Hierarchy Hypothesis, the Markedness Differential Hypothesis, the Syntactic Prediction Locality Theory, the Filler-gap Distance Hypothesis and the Operational Principles of language learning. The third empirical study was carried out to determine the relationships among WM, rote memory (RM) and analytic ability, and the extent to which WM, RM and language analytic ability affect the acquisition of complex syntactic rules in comparison with simple syntactic rules by investigating a group of college students majoring in English at the advanced level of second language learning.The three empirical studies, which are coherently associated with each other, consist of a range of related variables probing into cognitive factors, instructional treatments, learning processes of SLA as well as linguistic theories. The effects of these variables on SLA are examined and reflected in the overall development of a second language and the acquisition of simple and complex syntactic rules by investigating five groups of learners at four levels of L2 proficiency. The research design of the present study combines both the cross-sectional study and the follow-up study. Multiple quantitative analyses are conducted in the present study with the use of a variety of measures including the internationally influential FLA test (the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT)), domestically developed WM test (Chinese Reading Span Test), two standardized English language proficiency tests (TEM-4 and Matriculation Test of English), one self-designed test of RCs and one other-developed test of complex sentences. The findings of the investigation are interpreted in terms of both cognitively and linguistically oriented theories of SLA. Therefore, the present study reflects a truly multidisciplinary nature.The results of the three empirical studies indicated that (1) the traditional FLA measured by the MLAT also has some predictive value in the overall L2 proficiency in the Chinese context, and it is substantially correlated with the gender of learners, but not with their learning strategy, (2) WM plays a certain role in the acquisition of both simple and complex syntactic rules, and it does not significantly correlate with RM and analytic ability of FLA; these indicate that WM can be a crucial component of FLA; in addition, there is no interplay between WM and instructional treatment, which affects the acquisition of simple syntactic rules significantly though, and (3) RM and analytic ability measured respectively by Paired Associates section and Words in Sentences section of the MLAT have no substantial effects on the acquisition of complex syntactic rules, but WM does, this enhances the significance of the research on WM, and reinforces the hypothesis that the predictive validity of FLA in advanced language learning might be limited.Based on the findings of the present study, four implications are presented. First, new tests of FLA have to be developed with the retheorizing of the construction of FLA. The MLAT was originally created for high-school, college, and adult population who were learning foreign languages in audio-lingual learning contexts, especially for language learning at the early stage; in the communicative language classroom and for the advanced learners, new tests incorporating other crucial components such as WM must be produced to meet these changes. Moreover, since FLA is related to native language ability, the Chinese version of FLA test should be designed on the basis of the features of Chinese language, which is disparate from Romance Languages, to better reflect Chinese learners'cognitive abilities of learning a second language. On top of that, constructing a SLA model with Chinese characteristics is equally important because L2 learning in China has great dissimilarity with that in other countries due to the unique characteristics of Chinese language, Chinese learner, and Chinese learning context though individual differences including FLA and WM are found to have some effects on SLA. Finally, instructors should pedagogically pay attention to the diversity of the learner type and perform the individualized instruction accordingly in combination with designing proper tasks to maximize the benefits to each learner type.
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