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Título:
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An exploratory study of the role of age and language learning aptitude in a short stay abroad
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Autor/a:
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Serrano, Raquel; Llanes, Àngels
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Notas:
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The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of age and aptitude on the
second language (L2) gains made in English by a group of Catalan/Spanish bilinguals
who spent three weeks in the United Kingdom. The participants included 39 learners
aged between 12 and 17 years old. Aptitude was measured through a vocabulary test
(LLAMA B, Meara, 2005), which examines rote memory. Participants’ L2 skills were
analyzed through a grammaticality judgment test (GJT) and a formulaic sequences test
(FST). The results indicate that the L2 learners made significant gains in the two tests
after a three-week stay abroad. Additionally, both age and aptitude had a significant
impact on the type of language gains the learners made: older learners outperformed
younger learners in the two tasks, and high aptitude learners outperformed low
aptitude learners in the FST. Nevertheless, no interactions were observed between L2
gains and age or aptitude.
This research was supported by Grant FFI2010-18006 and Grant 2009SGR137. |
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Materia(s):
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-Stay abroad
-Young learners
-Aptitude
-Grammar
-Formulaic sequences |
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Derechos:
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(c) Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2015
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Tipo de documento:
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article
publishedVersion |
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Editor:
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University of Vigo
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Compartir:
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