The Relationships Among Language Aptitude, Listening Proficiency And Listening Attrition

Language aptitude refers to the natural ability to learn a language, and it has been proved by many studies to be an important factor in explaining differential success in second language learning. Gardner and McIntyre (1992) divide individual variables responsible for SLA into two broad classes-cognitive variables and affective variables, classify aptitude as cognitive variable and claim that language aptitude is consistently the most successful predictor of language learning success. Carroll (1990) holds that different language learning tasks require different sets, or combinations, of abilities to be successfully performed. Robinson (2002) further proposes that patterns of abilities need to be matched to learning tasks and conditions in order to be effective.Language attrition is the inverse process of language learning. It refers to the gradual forgetting of language by language learners due to the cease or reduction of language use. The study of language attrition has become a separate and formal discipline since the conference at the University of Pennsylvania titled Loss of Language Skills in 1980. Until now some factors have been identified as variables to govern or influence language attrition, but research on the role of language aptitude in language attrition is always ignored. de Bot and Stoessel (2000) propose that future studies need to control for individual differences such as language aptitude, learning strategies, etc. in the field of language attrition.Even though language aptitude is clearly of crucial importance in language learning, it has not received much attention, and empirical studies are limited in this field. In view of the importance of listening in language learning, this thesis focuses on listening proficiency. The research attempts to explore the relationship between language aptitude and listening proficiency.The subjects involved in this study are chosen from non-English major juniors at college in China, who have finished their formal English study. The empirical research is designed to measure the subjects'language aptitude and explore the relationship between language aptitude and English listening proficiency, the relationship between language aptitude and the attrited English listening proficiency five months'after the termination of the subjects'formal English study, as well as the relationship between language aptitude and the rate of listening attrition in Chinese context.Three major findings could be obtained from this thesis: First, the subjects do differ in their language aptitude and their aptitude component abilities, and their language aptitude is significantly correlated with their listening proficiency. Among the four component abilities of language aptitude, Phonemic Coding ability and Inductive Learning ability have closer relationship with listening proficiency. Second, attrition did take place among the subjects five months after the termination of their formal English study. Moreover, both receptive skill and productive skill are involved to test subjects'listening proficiency, and it is proved that productive skills are more susceptible to attrition than receptive skills. Third, a significant correlation between language aptitude and the attrited listening proficiency is also confirmed. Similarly Phonemic coding ability and Inductive Learning ability are significantly correlated with the listening proficiency after attrition. However, no significant correlation between language aptitude and the rate of listening attrition is found in this thesis.