This study explores the relationship between aptitude, phonological memory (PM), and second language (L2) proficiency in nonnovice adult learners of English as an L2. Native speakers of French (N = 77) enrolled in a university Teaching English as a Second Language program were the participants in the study. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three main factors corresponding to the variables examined: L2 proficiency, aptitude, and PM. Multiple regression analyses revealed aptitude subtests and PM together predicted 29% of the variance in L2 proficiency. Additional regression analyses carried out on lower and higher proficiency subgroups, created by a median split on proficiency scores, revealed that none of the variables predicted L2 proficiency in the higher proficiency subgroup. PM remained as a significant predictor for the lower proficiency subgroup, extending the pattern of results found elsewhere in younger populations to adult nonnovice L2 learners.Individuals differ remarkably in their ability to master a second language (L2). A number of variables have been studied in view of determining whether they play a role in L2 learning ability. Such variables include age, personality, aptitude, motivation, attitude, cognitive, and learning style. Of these, language-learning aptitude has been cited as playing a particularly important role (e.g., Gardner & MacIntyre, 1992;Skehan, 1989) and has been described as "one of the most promising areas of SLA [second language acquisition] research" (Dornyei, 2005, p. 63). The traditional concept of aptitude allowed for its global measurement by means of a battery of tests, but it is likely that additional cognitive abilities not specifically measured by such tests also differentiate talented language learners. An aspect of working memory (WM) known as phonological memory (PM) can be considered as one such distinct aspect of cognitive functioning that may play a role in L2 proficiency. The objective of this study was to examine traditional aptitude test components and PM and the relationship these variables might have with L2 proficiency in nonnovice learners.

We investigated the emergence of orientations and their relation to motivation in a predominantly monolingual context. In this context (Quebec City), a previous study (Kruidenier & Clément, 1986) revealed that students' orientations toward learning English as a second language (ESL) were: friendship, travel, prestige, and knowledge/ respect. The present study's participants consisted of 93 francophone Grade 11 high school students learning ESL. We used an adapted form of Kruidenier and Clément's Likerttype scale questionnaire. We ran factor analyses and a multiple regression analysis on the data. Results indicated that students' orientations were: travel, understanding/ school (instrumental), friendship, understanding, and career (instrumental); they also demonstrated that orientations were predictors of their motivation. However, the absence of an integrative orientation here does not justify its exclusion in the assessment of motivation, because it could emerge in other contexts.

This study addresses the role that active translation may have in second language (L2) vocabulary learning. Some research suggests that translation might be an effective cognitive strategy for L2 vocabulary learning. Participants were 191 native French-speaking students enrolled in a TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) program.The study compared results across three different tasks: (1) L1 to L2 translation; (2) L2 to L1 translation; and (3) a rote-copying task. Results indicated significant short-term lexical recall following all three conditions, with no difference between the two translation conditions. However, a significant advantage was found for the rote-copying condition compared to the two translation conditions.

There is mounting evidence that phonological memory (PM), a sub-component of working memory, is closely related to various aspects of second language (L2) learning in a variety of populations, suggesting that PM may be an essential cognitive mechanism underlying successful L2 acquisition. This article provides a brief critical review of the role of PM in the L2 context, examines the issue of trainability associated with PM, and discusses pedagogical techniques that may facilitate or enhance PM function in the L2 classroom. Communicative classrooms, as a result of their emphasis on oral input, place heavy processing demands on PM. The authors argue that more recourse to audio-lingual activities and reliance on written and visual support, including text-supported oral input, may help to offset the burden on PM and enhance L2 learning, particularly for individuals with low PM capacity.Keywords: phonological memory (PM), second language learning, individual differences Résumé : Il est de plus en plus manifeste que la mémoire phonologique (MP), une sous-composante de la mémoire de travail, est étroitement liée à différents aspects de l'apprentissage d'une langue seconde (L2) chez diverses populations, ce qui suggère que la MP peut être un mécanisme cognitif essentiel à la réussite de l'apprentissage d'une langue seconde. Le présent article offre un résumé critique du rô le de la MP dans le contexte L2, examine la question de l'aptitude à la formation associée à la MP, et discute des méthodes pédagogiques pouvant faciliter ou améliorer la fonction MP dans une classe L2. En particulier, les auteurs font valoir que les classes communicatives, parce qu'elles sont axées sur la communication orale, imposent une charge intensive à la MP lors du traitement, et que le fait d'avoir davantage recours à des activités audio-orales et de se fier plus globalement à un support visuel et écrit, y compris la communication orale à l'aide d'un texte, peut aider à réduire la pression sur la MP et permettre alors d'améliorer l'apprentissage de la langue seconde, en particulier pour les personnes ayant une faible mémoire phonologique. # 2010 The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 66, 3 (March/mars), 371 -391

French native-speaking students (N = 20) enrolled in a university TESL program were asked to participate in a community service-learning project in an English-speaking minority community in Québec. Results from this qualitative study indicated that active community involvement led to strong perceptions of positive effects. The principal effects reported by participants included greater linguistic self-confidence along with the perception of having improved their second language (L2) skills, increased knowledge about their field of study (L2 teaching), and confirmation of their professional goals, personal satisfaction from helping young children and other community members, and to some extent, greater knowledge about the local English-speaking community. The results suggest that community service learning may have been an effective way to enhance L2 learning for the participants in this study, with particular effects on linguistic self-confidence, and might be appropriate in similar contexts in which opportunities for intergroup contact are not readily available.

Within the same learning context, learners’ outcomes in terms of oral fluency vary greatly. This study tracked the relative contributions that first language (L1) and initial second language (L2) fluency skill and working memory (WM) made to L2 fluency development. We assessed the performance of French-speaking Grade 6 learners’ ( n = 47, mean age: 11) in a 10-month intensive English program in Quebec, Canada using a picture-cue monologic task based on The Suitcase Story and a semi-structured interview based on the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). Working memory was assessed using a backward digit span task and phonological memory (PM) via non-word repetition and serial non-word recognition tasks. Overall, results suggest that L1 fluency, WM and PM played only a minor role in learners’ L2 fluency outcomes, whereas learners’ pre-program levels of L2 fluency constituted an important predictor of L2 fluency development regardless of the speech task used to index fluency.

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This paper examines the useful role that translation may have in L2 learning. Most language teaching approaches discourage any appreciable recourse to translation. Nevertheless, translation serves to focus attention on structural differences between the first and second languages that composing directly in the L2 cannot do in the same explicit manner. In addition, there exists psycholinguistic evidence for certain cognitive advantages associated with the translation process. Experiments carried out with subtitling and concurrent exposure to an audio track reveal the particular effectiveness of pairing LI dialogue with L2 script. Translation may have a similar effect. It is proposed that the "elaborateness of processing" view in memory research supports the suggestion that translation may lead to a more elaborate and therefore more durable memory encoding.