Foreign Language Learning Aptitude Construct: Its Measurement and Application for Intensive Foreign Language Training Candidate Selection Process at Uzbekistan Ministry of Defence

Information-communication technology development and significant reductions in the amount of time and money required for a transfer of an individual from one location to another entail the exponential growth in the number of personal and professional contacts among individuals and contribute to the growth of importance of foreign language learning. Based on some estimates [1], more than half of the world population speaks at least one foreign language.

In some cases, an individual acquires one or several languages within the framework of his or her bi-/multilingual family or bi-/multilingual community. In others, an individual is provided with a formalized foreign language training as a part of his or her academic training (be it school, college, or university). Formalized foreign language training, it its turn, can be organized in non-intensive or intensive training formats.

Non-intensive foreign language training presupposes that an individual learns a foreign language as one of many elements comprising curriculum of the educational institution in which her or she is enrolled for formal academic training purposes. Non-intensive foreign language training is provided to school and university students, as well as to cadets and trainees of both military and civilian educational institutions of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Intensive foreign language training in the Republic of Uzbekistan is provided by a limited number of specialized centers, among which is “Partnership for Peace” Training Center of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan (hereinafter referred to as Uzbekistan PfP). Intensive foreign language training format, it should be emphasize, significantly complicates already complex and multicomponent foreign language learning process [2].

Uzbekistan PfP intensive foreign language training system is based on its United States counterpart initially created in order to deal with the issue of the lack of military specialists sufficiently proficient in foreign languages in 1940s.

One of the most important characteristics of any intensive foreign language training course is its duration (at least six months). During this time all the trainees are virtually separated from their places of service. Yet, “there has been found no way of training program duration reduction beyond a certain critical point that would still guarantee attainment of satisfactory results” [3]

Due to the duration of such “separation” of the trainees from their military service duties, it is important to do our best to make sure that the greatest number of trainees achieve the most desirable of the results upon their completion of the intensive foreign language training. Among possible ways that can be used to such an end are application of valid candidate selection procedures followed by high quality training proper provided by appropriately qualified instructors.

Uzbekistan PfP seemingly solved the problem of intensive foreign language training candidate selection in 2011, when a specialized aptitude test battery was designed for precisely this purpose. However, over the past decade we have managed to accumulate significant amounts of data that make it possible for us to suggest that this battery can and must be improved.

It behooves us to acknowledge the fact the most significant attention to the issues of intensive foreign language training candidate selection was paid between 1953 and 1958 when at Harvard University there was conducted a specialized research into this very issue. The results of the research would be published by John Bissel Carrol in the article format titled “The prediction of success in intensive foreign language training” in 1962.

The author pays a special attention to the fact that IQ cannot be used as a valid predictor of intensive foreign language training success, since above a certain threshold level the variability in foreign language learning aptitude become too significant. This idea of foreign language aptitude being an independent construct underlies the entire body of research conducted after the publication of this seminal article.

In terms of the practical application of the results of the research, Carrol designed a specialized instrument that he thought made it possible to measure certain cognitive capabilities required for quick enough foreign language training success attainment. It was Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT), a test battery whose application still yields results considered valid for intensive foreign language training selection process by various organizations (including International Monetary Fund and Foreign Service Institute.

Carrol conceptualized the foreign language aptitude as a multicomponent construct comprising four core elements: phonetic coding ability (the ability to encode aurally perceived materials in such a way as to have an opportunity to decode, identify and reproduce it within a short period), grammatical sensitivity (the ability to work with linguistic forms and their application in natural utterances), rote memory for foreign language materials (the ability to remember associations between lexical units in native and foreign language within a short period), inductive language learning ability (the ability to make educated guesses about the possible linguistic forms, rules and models based on the novel linguistic material with which an individual is provided with minimal supervision). Each of those components either directly or indirectly is reflected in the five sections of MLAT: Number Learning, Phonetic Script, Spelling Cues, Words in Sentences, Paired Associates. It should be noted that MLAT at the moment does not comprise any tasks that would directly assess the inductive language learning ability, since the developers thought that its measurement would require a significant amount of time.

Some of Carroll's theories on FLA have been incorporated into the test battery used by the Uzbekistan MoD to identify intensive foreign language training candidates. The creation of the battery demonstrates acknowledgement of the fact that some Uzbekistan MoD service members possess a specialized aptitude or collection of talents for learning foreign languages. This acceptance, however, should not be interpreted as indicating that the test taker is (un)able to learn a foreign language per se; rather, it should be seen as indicating that the test taker is (un)able to produce satisfactory results while adhering to the limitations imposed by the entire intensive foreign language training system.

Unfortunately, as we have already demonstrated [4], for the purpose of choosing candidates for the intensive foreign language training, the Uzbekistan MoD currently uses a foreign language test battery that has four subtests, three of which are primarily used to measure IQ. Since foreign language aptitude is a construct linked to but different from the test taker's general intelligence, the results of IQ tests shouldn’t be used for the purposes for which the test battery is intended.

A new foreign language aptitude test may be developed to supplement the current one rather than replace it in order to identify the best candidates for rigorous foreign language training, taking into consideration the expanding demand for service personnel who are fluent in foreign languages.

The test will need to be developed using best practices followed by creators of tests of a similar nature around the world, the findings of previous research, and scientific consensus regarding the FLA construct's structure.

 

 [1] F. Grosjean, Bilingual: Life and Reality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010. 

[2] L. Ortega, Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London: Hodder Education, 2009. 

[3] J. B. Carroll, “The Prediction of Success in Intensive Foreign Language Training.,” Train.
Res. Educ., vol. 64, pp. 87–136, 1962. 

[4] I. Zverev, “Uzbekistan MoD Foreign Language Aptitude Test: A Critical Evaluation,” Filol.
Masal., vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 138–151, 2019.