A Study Of The Correlation Between The High School Students' Language Aptitude And Their English Academic Achievements

There are different Chinese expressions for English "aptitude","Aptitude,simply put,refers to one's potential for learning new knowledge or new skills.With regard to language aptitude,it refers to one's ability to learn another language"(Gass,et al,2013:444).Language aptitude,is regarded as one of the most significant factors:in the process of foreign language learning;there has been an increasing amount of attention towards it among educators worldwide.It is widely acknowledged that language aptitude is elosely related to students' English academic achievements,which is a hidden but stable influence on students' foreign language learning;none of the teachers of foreign languages who aim to improve English performance of the whole class will underestimate this aspect.Therefore,the writer conducted the language aptitude research among the students of an international high school.This research aims to find out the characteristics of the high school students' language aptitude,the relationships between language aptitudes and English academic achievements as well as the students' opinions about language aptitude so as to provide helpful and useful suggestions to English teaching.The study centers on the following research questions:(1)What are the characteristics of the high school students' language aptitude?(2)Are there any differences of the students' language aptitude between the higher English achievers and the lower English achievers?If yes,what are the differences?(3)Are there any correlations between the high school students' language aptitude and their English academic achievements?If yes,what are the correlations?(4)What are the views of the high school students on the relationship between language aptitude and English academic achievements?The test for aptitude,English test and interview were used as research methods so as to answer the questions above.Afler the quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis,the findings of the study are summarized as follows:Firstly,the findings of the study reveal that the language aptitude of the high school students show normal distribution,which indicates their reasonable situation of language aptitude.The participants of the study mainly stay in an above-medium level of language aptitude,and there is no extremely high or low statistics existing,nor is the extreme difference.Secondly,a significant difference of the students' language aptitude exists between the higher English achievers and the lower English achievers.More specifically,the two groups have significant differences on every part of the five components of MLAT.Thirdly,the students' language aptitude presents a significantly positive correlation with English language achievement.All the five types learning abilities of language aptitude have significantly positive correlation with the students' English achievements;however,the influence of each part of the five varies from one student to another.Moreover,the correlation between English listening,speaking and reading with the students' language aptitude is significantly positive.Finally,47.64%of the students agree that language aptitude is one important factor influencing their English academic achievements.67.18%of the students claim that their English academic achievements have a close relation with their language aptitude.