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Article published In:
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 174:2 (2023) ► pp.291–315

Young learners’ bilingual status and cognitive development in foreign language aptitude testing

ORCID logo | Universitat de Barcelona
| Language Learning and Testing Foundation

Young learners’ L1s preference, cognitive development and bilingual status might influence their performance on language aptitude tests, particularly if these are language-dependent. The objective of this study was to test the validity, reliability and consistency across populations of two such tests: the Modern Language Aptitude Test-Elementary in Catalan (MLAT-EC) and in Spanish (MLAT-ES). 629 bilingual students from grades 3 to 7 took the MLAT-ES and the MLAT-EC for test comparison in a counterbalanced order. The results show that their performance on both tests presented hardly any significant differences considering students’ L1 preference (Catalan, Spanish or no preference). In addition, these bilingual examinees outperformed the predominantly monolingual samples in the MLAT-ES norming study. The same score patterns related to young learner cognitive development stages were found across test versions. These results reinforce the confidence in the validity of the MLAT-E adaptations and support the hypothesis that bilingualism results in greater aptitude.

Keywords: language aptitude, bilingualism, language aptitude testing, test validity, young learners
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1L1 and cognitive development, formal education, and foreign language aptitude
    • 2.2FL aptitude and sociocultural factors
    • 2.3Bilingualism, language learning experience and FL aptitude
  • 3.The present study
    • 3.1Aims and research questions
    • 3.2Participants and procedure
    • 3.3Instruments and procedure
      • 3.3.1The MLAT-ES
      • 3.3.2The MLAT-EC
  • 4.Analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1MLAT-ES depending on L1s preference per grade
    • 5.2MLAT-EC depending on L1s preference per grade
    • 5.3MLAT-EC and MLAT-ES across grades depending on participants’ L1 preference
    • 5.4MLAT-ES and MLAT-EC distributed among bilinguals compared to monolinguals
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusions and limitations
  • References
Published online: 7 April 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.22017.sua
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