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Language aptitude tests | ||
Tags: Placement Test | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Immersion, Schools & Certificates |  | |
| ExRN Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3392 days ago 61 posts - 75 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 10 21 August 2015 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is anyone on the forum aware of language aptitude tests and there overall accuracy at determining an
individual's ability to grasp a foreign tongue? I have taken one before in 2010 that was conducted in a constructed language that I had never heard before. I am not going to disclose what I scored until I find out the actual value of this test. It was done in the military and was to initiate training in Middle Eastern tongues. Surely everyone that can speak has an aptitude for learning language though? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4049 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 10 21 August 2015 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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I took a Language Aptitude Test many years ago whilst serving in the RCN in Halifax, N.S. Although I had not requested language training, the objective was to predict my potential for learning a foreign language, should I be posted to Europe or elsewhere. Interestingly, the test language was Kurdish. The test results placed me fairly high on a percentile basis, but nothing ever came of the matter. As far as I understand, the DLI assesses candidates language aptitude before accepting them into their language-training programmes.
As to the usefulness of pre-training aptitude testing, whether for language courses, or any other type of instruction, it is quite understandable that an institution that pays for the student's schooling would want to ensure the highest number of graduates from their programme; hence the testing. As to aptitudes, we all have greater or lesser natural aptitudes, affinities, or potentials for numerous activities and this includes the aptitude for language learning. However, individual aptitudes can vary widely and, in any event, if they are not developed a critical stage, the true potential may never be realised. For instance, there have been many recorded cases where children, who have been deprived of learning any language at all in their early years, will have extreme difficulty learning even what-should-have-been their "mother tongue" later in life and that they may very well never master any language at all. I recall that, many years ago, a series of introductory self-study language-learning books published by Berlitz began with a statement that was meant to reassure the novice language-learner. I am working from memory and could easily have the specifics wrong, however, there is one phrase that sticks in my mind: "So, you want to learn a foreign language, it's easy, even a moron speaks one"! One can appreciate why subsequent editions of these books, that are still published by the way, no longer contain the "reassuring statement". The notion of political correctness -- or taboos -- existed at the time, as it always has, but the parameters have evolved. In any event, the (now) statement includes the "unstated assumption" that even those with a lower-than-average aptitude for learning their mother-tongue must be exposed to it at a critical stage in their development. Edited by Speakeasy on 21 August 2015 at 2:50pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6700 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 10 21 August 2015 at 2:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have read about aptitude tests and seen some examples some time ago, and it struck me that they focused on the ability to make inferences about meaning based on combinatorical arguments - like: if XYZ means goble di gobble and XYQ means gobble di pyy, then Q means pyy. And I suppose that's very important if you study totally incomprehensible languages in the field among the savages where you don't have dictionaries or grammars around. I didn't see aptitude tests which tested the ability to use dictionaries creatively, but with a suitable degree of basic mistrust. Or the ability to forget about the general meaning while you study the grammatical structure and vice-versa (maybe mostly vice-versa). Or the ability to formulate operational, simple rules in your mind while kicking out counter examples until you are ready to tackle them. Or the ability to find a couple of hours every day for your studies... Language learning can't be reduced to pattern recognition. Edited by Iversen on 21 August 2015 at 11:15pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4049 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 10 21 August 2015 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Iversen,
Yes, I recall that the Language Aptitude Test that I sat for -- ahem, some 40 years ago -- "focused on the ability to make inferences about meaning based on combinatorical arguments - like: if XYZ means gobble di gobble and XYQ means gobble di pyy, then Q means pyy." I was told that Kurdish had been chosen as the test language as it was, at the time, highly unlikely that a native-English-speaker would have been exposed to the language, but that the test subject's ability to infer meaning from Kurdish was a good predictor of his aptitude for learning foreign languages. No testing procedure is ever going to be perfect; however, the idea of aptitude testing was to categorize the potential candidates into "relative" groups of learners. It is highly likely that a candidate who scored, relatively speaking, very low on the scale, would still be able to learn a foreign language, particularly if he was highly motivated and he was accorded the time, the materials, the teaching method, etcetera, to meet his needs. The objective of the RCN's aptitude testing was merely "to hedge their bets" on the likely success of candidates entering their language-training programmes, it was not a generalized statement on what it takes to learn a language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6617 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 5 of 10 21 August 2015 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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"The ability to find a couple of hours every day for study" = the most important aptitude of all.
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| ExRN Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3392 days ago 61 posts - 75 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch | Message 6 of 10 21 August 2015 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
Come to think of it, part of the test I did was in Kurdish but not all of it. I remember working out number sequences with the numbers "mül" "rüd" and "imp" or something to that effect. The Kurdish part was a vocab exercise I believe where we were given a list of words and had to recall them without looking. At the time I was very confused with the logic of the test and failed to see how it would gage my capacity to learm a language. Anyone can remember vocab I think. Mastering grammar is another story and I don't recall any grammar exercises being involved. In the end I scored 95 percentile and was strongly recommended for the training but to me it seemed like only a working memory test that held no true value. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4049 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 7 of 10 21 August 2015 at 3:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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@ExRN
My goodness, you're right! It must have been the same test ... and you beat me by 1 percentile point. Ciao for now! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExRN Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3392 days ago 61 posts - 75 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch | Message 8 of 10 21 August 2015 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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It did nothing to further my career but the university I'm going to looked very favorably on it. Hence why I
asked for clarification on its actual value. It seems a twenty minute test that is only for memory is all you need these days :-O 1 person has voted this message useful |
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