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INTRODUCTION
Foreignlanguageaptitudeisapowerfulfactorwhichaccountsforthelargestamongall
individualvariablesproportionofindividual-differencevariationintheoutcomesof
learningaforeignlanguage.Thisconstructisrelatedtothedomainofhumancognitive
abilitiesandsimilartothepsychologicalconstructofintelligence,inthatitconcerns
awidevarietyofcognitively-basedlearnerdifferencesandremainsaneffectivepredic-
torofsuccessindifferentlearningsituations(Dörnyei,2005,p.34).Thesourcesofre-
searchonforeignlanguageaptitudecanbetracedbacktodifferentialpsychologywhich
triedtoinvestigatethecognitiveuniquenessofindividualsresponsibleforalargepor-
tionofeducationaloutcomes.Thedisciplinetermedasindividualdifferenceresearch
whichemergedasaresultofthosestudieshasgainedgrowingpopularityamongsecond
languageacquisition(SLA)
1researchersinthelastdecades(Dörnyei,2005).Owingto
newdiscoveriesinthefieldsofcognitivepsychology,geneticsandneurologyinthelast
twodecades,whichaffordedscientistsnewpossibilitiesofresearch,theconstructof
foreignlanguageaptitudehasbeengraduallyupdatedandreconceptualised.
Althoughforeignlanguageaptitudeistraditionallyassociatedwithlinguistictalentor
giftedness,empiricalresearchonexceptionallygiftedforeignlanguagelearnersissur-
prisinglyscarceandvirtuallynon-existinginPoland.Amongvariousreasonsforthis
situationterminologicalproblemscometothefore.Sincethepublicationofthewell-
-knownreviewofliteratureoncognitiveaspectsofSLAbySkehanin1998,nocontem-
porarydefinitionoflinguisticgiftednesstakingintoaccountadvancesinsuchscientific
disciplinesasneurolinguistics,psycholinguisticsandcognitivepsychologyhasbeen
offered.AnotableexceptionisabreakthroughstudybyAbrahamssonandHyltenstam
(2008,2009),whichcastnewlightontheproblemofexceptionallinguisticgiftedness;
however,itonlyinitiatedadebateontheprobleminquestion,which,undoubtedly,
needsfurtherempiricalinvestigation.Duetothecomplexityofthephenomenon,it
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1Thetermssecondandforeignlanguagelearning,aswellasacquisitionandlearningareusedinter-
changeablyinthisbook.
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