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Testing aptitude

Vivienne Rogers Orcid Logo, Paul Meara, Rachel Aspinall, Louise Fallon, Thomas Goss, Emily Keey, Rosa Thomas

EUROSLA Yearbook, Volume: 16, Pages: 179 - 210

Swansea University Author: Vivienne Rogers Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1075/eurosla.16.07rog

Abstract

Meara (2005) developed the LLAMA tests as a free, language-neutral, user-friendly suite of aptitude tests incorporating four separate elements: vocabulary learning (LLAMA_B), phonetic (implicit) memory (LLAMA_D), sound-symbol correspondence (LLAMA_E) and grammatical inferencing (LLAMA_F) based on th...

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Published in: EUROSLA Yearbook
ISSN: 1568-1491 1569-9749
Published: 2016
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa21872
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spelling 2019-05-13T11:25:08.0457304 v2 21872 2015-06-01 Testing aptitude 7685a0d18ca86058903345ccc1b2f89d 0000-0002-6871-6860 Vivienne Rogers Vivienne Rogers true false 2015-06-01 APLI Meara (2005) developed the LLAMA tests as a free, language-neutral, user-friendly suite of aptitude tests incorporating four separate elements: vocabulary learning (LLAMA_B), phonetic (implicit) memory (LLAMA_D), sound-symbol correspondence (LLAMA_E) and grammatical inferencing (LLAMA_F) based on the standardised MLAT tests (Carroll & Sapon, 1959). Recently, they have become increasingly popular in L2 acquisition research (Grañena & Long, 2013b). However, Meara has expressed concern about the wide use of these tests without validity testing (cf. Grañena 2013a). We investigated several areas relating to the LLAMA tests.1. What is the role of gender in LLAMA test performance?2. Are the LLAMA tests language neutral?3. What is the role of age?4. What is the role of formal education qualifications?5. Does playing logic puzzles affect LLAMA scores?6. What difference would changing the test timings make to scores?229 participants from a range of language backgrounds, aged 10-75 with various education levels, typologically distinct L1s, and varying levels of multilingualism were tested. A subset of participants was also tested with varying timings for the tests. The results showed that the LLAMA tests are gender and language neutral. The younger learners (10-11s) performed significantly worse than the adults in the sound/symbol correspondence task (LLAMA_E). Formal education qualifications show a significant advantage in 3 of the LLAMA subcomponents (B, E, F) but not the implicit measure (LLAMA_D). Playing logic puzzles did not improve LLAMA test scores. The timings appear to be optimal apart from LLAMA_F, which could be shortened. Journal Article EUROSLA Yearbook 16 179 210 1568-1491 1569-9749 aptitude, second language acquisition 31 8 2016 2016-08-31 10.1075/eurosla.16.07rog https://benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/eurosla/main This article was co-authored with my UG dissertation students who collected the data, which I then re-analysed. Paul Meara contributed a section on the history of the LLAMA tests. COLLEGE NANME Applied Linguistics COLLEGE CODE APLI Swansea University 2019-05-13T11:25:08.0457304 2015-06-01T15:36:39.9988456 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics Vivienne Rogers 0000-0002-6871-6860 1 Paul Meara 2 Rachel Aspinall 3 Louise Fallon 4 Thomas Goss 5 Emily Keey 6 Rosa Thomas 7 0021872-26052016100436.pdf Final_proof_author_Testing_Aptitude_final_accepted_clean_3.pdf 2016-05-26T10:04:36.0400000 Output 5731949 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true 2016-05-26T00:00:00.0000000 true
title Testing aptitude
spellingShingle Testing aptitude
Vivienne Rogers
title_short Testing aptitude
title_full Testing aptitude
title_fullStr Testing aptitude
title_full_unstemmed Testing aptitude
title_sort Testing aptitude
author_id_str_mv 7685a0d18ca86058903345ccc1b2f89d
author_id_fullname_str_mv 7685a0d18ca86058903345ccc1b2f89d_***_Vivienne Rogers
author Vivienne Rogers
author2 Vivienne Rogers
Paul Meara
Rachel Aspinall
Louise Fallon
Thomas Goss
Emily Keey
Rosa Thomas
format Journal article
container_title EUROSLA Yearbook
container_volume 16
container_start_page 179
publishDate 2016
institution Swansea University
issn 1568-1491
1569-9749
doi_str_mv 10.1075/eurosla.16.07rog
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics
url https://benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/eurosla/main
document_store_str 1
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description Meara (2005) developed the LLAMA tests as a free, language-neutral, user-friendly suite of aptitude tests incorporating four separate elements: vocabulary learning (LLAMA_B), phonetic (implicit) memory (LLAMA_D), sound-symbol correspondence (LLAMA_E) and grammatical inferencing (LLAMA_F) based on the standardised MLAT tests (Carroll & Sapon, 1959). Recently, they have become increasingly popular in L2 acquisition research (Grañena & Long, 2013b). However, Meara has expressed concern about the wide use of these tests without validity testing (cf. Grañena 2013a). We investigated several areas relating to the LLAMA tests.1. What is the role of gender in LLAMA test performance?2. Are the LLAMA tests language neutral?3. What is the role of age?4. What is the role of formal education qualifications?5. Does playing logic puzzles affect LLAMA scores?6. What difference would changing the test timings make to scores?229 participants from a range of language backgrounds, aged 10-75 with various education levels, typologically distinct L1s, and varying levels of multilingualism were tested. A subset of participants was also tested with varying timings for the tests. The results showed that the LLAMA tests are gender and language neutral. The younger learners (10-11s) performed significantly worse than the adults in the sound/symbol correspondence task (LLAMA_E). Formal education qualifications show a significant advantage in 3 of the LLAMA subcomponents (B, E, F) but not the implicit measure (LLAMA_D). Playing logic puzzles did not improve LLAMA test scores. The timings appear to be optimal apart from LLAMA_F, which could be shortened.
published_date 2016-08-31T03:25:59Z
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