Examining the LLAMA aptitude tests

Vivienne Rogers,Paul Meara,Clare Curry,Emma Davie,Thomas Barnett-Legh

doi:10.22599/jesla.24

Vivienne Rogers, Paul Meara + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.22599/jesla.24

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Abstract

This study assesses the reliability 1 of the LLAMA aptitude tests (Meara, 2005). The LLAMA tests were designed as shorter, free, language-neutral tests loosely based on the MLAT tests (Carroll & Sapon, 1959). They contain four sub-components: vocabulary acquisition, sound recognition, sound-symbol correspondence and grammatical inferencing. Granena (2013) and Rogers et al. (2016) provided initial results regarding factors which might influence LLAMA test scores. This paper develops this previous work by examining some of issues raised with a larger cohort and focuses on the following research questions. 1. Are the LLAMA tests language neutral? 2. What is the effect of bilingualism on LLAMA test scores? 3. What is the effect of age on LLAMA test scores? 4. How much variance can background factors account for in the LLAMA test results? Data were collected from 240 participants aged 10–75 for RQ1–3. We found no significant differences in terms of language background (RQ1) but instructed second language learners significantly outperformed monolinguals (RQ2). For RQ3 we found that the younger groups were outperformed by all the other groups. For RQ4, we investigated how much variance in LLAMA test results six individual background factors could explain. We combined data from Rogers et al. (2016) and this study giving 404 participants in total. Using a multiple regression analysis, we found that prior L2 instruction predicted more of the variance (6%) than any other factor. We suggest that when using the LLAMA tests, researchers should consider controlling for language learning experience. This study scrutinises the components of the LLAMA tests with a large set of data. We conclude that the results are robust across a range of individual differences but suggest that different norms may be needed for younger age groups and those who have received prior L2 instruction.

Highlights

Language-learning aptitude has seen a resurgence of interest in recent years with second language researchers increasingly turning towards aptitude as a factor in explaining individual differences (Wen, Biedroń & Skehan, 2017). Dörnyei and Skehan (2003) suggest a general working definition for aptitude: “there is a specific talent for learning foreign languages which exhibits considerable variation between individual learners” (Dörnyei & Skehan, 2003, p. 590)
If the LLAMA tests can be used across participants of different language backgrounds and language pairings, as these results suggest, this opens up aptitude testing to a much wider audience
Research Overall using a large sample, we have shown that the LLAMA aptitude tests are robust as they are not subject to external individual differences

Summary

Introduction

Language-learning aptitude has seen a resurgence of interest in recent years with second language researchers increasingly turning towards aptitude as a factor in explaining individual differences (Wen, Biedroń & Skehan, 2017). Dörnyei and Skehan (2003) suggest a general working definition for aptitude: “there is a specific talent for learning foreign languages which exhibits considerable variation between individual learners” (Dörnyei & Skehan, 2003, p. 590). Beyond this definition, there is considerable variation among researchers about what components make up language-learning aptitude they share many common elements This has given rise to a number of different aptitude tests (e.g. MLAT (Carroll & Sapon, 1959); Pimsleur Aptitude Battery (Pimsleur, 1966); DLAB (Petersen & Al-Haik, 1976); CANAL-FT (Grigornko, Sternberg & Ehrman, 2000); LLAMA (Meara, 2005); HiLAB (Linck et al, 2013)). For Carroll, aptitude was a relatively stable, unchanging characteristic comprising four sub-components: phonemic coding ability, grammatical sensitivity, inductive language learning ability and associative memory (Carroll, 1973).2 This approach is epitomised in the Modern Languages Aptitude Test (MLAT) (Carroll & Sapon, 1959). For a more in-depth look at the history of language learning aptitude research see Skehan (2016)

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