Correlational Research On The Test Indexes Of Phonetic Coding Ability In Foreign Language Aptitude

Phonetic coding ability, as one of the four components of foreign language aptitude, is an important cognitive factor in foreign language learning. Though it was promoted greatly with the development of researches on foreign language aptitude in the west in the later part of the last century, the studies on it are still insufficient nowadays because all the language aptitude test batteries available are designed for learners whose native languages are of Indo-European language family. It may not be appropriate for these batteries to apply directly to Chinese learners of foreign language because the language differences may affect the performance of Chinese learners. But at present, there is no such a test designed specially for Chinese foreign language learners, and even researches on this issueare rarely found in China.Therefore, this thesis endeavors to explore a potential way of testing Chinese foreign language learners' phonetic coding ability through empirical approaches so as to promote the studies on foreign language aptitude. In Chapter One, the author gives the definitions of key terms in this thesis, and then introduces the historical studies on the foreign language aptitude and phonetic coding ability. ChapterTwo presents the test logic and test design on the basis of and in combination with the existing western theories and the reality of the difference between Chinese and western language system in details. Chapter Three is a presentation of the detailed process of the experiment. And the experiment results are elaborated and discussed in this chapter. Finally, Chapter Four is the conclusion derived by this experimental endeavor. In order to promote the further research on the foreign language aptitude, the implications for future research are also put forward at the end of this chapter.Specially, the conclusions reached by this study are:1. The probability is high that foreign language aptitude does exist in Chinese foreign language learners and phonetic coding ability is found to be a part of this aptitude.2. So far, the study identifies two factors as potential predictors of the phonetic coding ability for Chinese foreign learners. For details, the two factors are the two subtests of Phonetic Coding Ability Test for Chinese Foreign Language Learners (especially for the learners of English) Dictation and Difficult Word Reading.a) Subtest 3 (Dictation) can be a strong predictor of the achievements of English Speaking.b) Subtest 3 (Dictation) and subtest 5 (Difficult Word Reading) can predict the achievements of Comprehensive English together.3. There are two factors in the five tests designed that have strong variance explanatory power. Statistically, the two subtest Part 3 and Part 5 can jointly explain 93%of the whole variances in extractionmethod. And applied with the verimax rotation method, the subtest Part 3 and Part 5 can jointly explain 60% of the whole variances.Being original and objectively obtained from experiment conducted in this study, the conclusions presented in this thesis are findings scientifically well-grounded, with little research bias or contamination by random errors, because the research approach is reasonable, the experiment design reliable and the data processing tool appropriate for the purpose. These significant findings are of academic values for promoting the researches on psycholinguistics, applied linguistics and foreign language teaching.