Purpose: The extant literature suggests that individual differences in speech perception can be linked to broad receptive language phenotype. For example, a recent study found that individuals with a smaller receptive vocabulary showed diminished lexically guided perceptual learning compared to individuals with a larger receptive vocabulary. Here,…

There have been many studies exploring the advantages that bilingualism confers to individuals' working memory and metacognition (see Ransdell, 2006; Del Missier et al., 2010). The hypothesis of language critical period states that if no language learning and teaching happen during the critical period, an individual will never be able to fully…

Repeated viewing of the same video is a common strategy among autonomous language learners as well as a much used pedagogical strategy among foreign language (FL) teachers. Learners may watch the same video more than once, to increase global comprehension of the target language or to focus their attention on linguistic aspects, such as new…

We investigated the potential influence of implicit learning mechanisms on L2 morphosyntactic attainment by examining the relationship between age of onset (AoO), two cognitive abilities hypothesized to underlie implicit learning (phonological short-term memory and implicit statistical learning), and performance on an auditory grammaticality…

Stratified teaching is an effective method and means to implement teaching students per their aptitude. Domestic and foreign scholars have carried out many experimental and quasiexperimental studies to observe the impact of stratified teaching on students' academic performance, but the results are quite different. So, can stratified teaching…

Video viewing can be a valuable resource to expose students to large quantities of input so they can improve their vocabulary and content comprehension. Most studies so far have used short clips and have not explored in much detail the effects of individual differences (IDs) such as aptitude, listening skills and vocabulary size. This paper aims…

This paper examines and critiques several learning style inventories (LSI) in an effort to find the optimal research instrument for a proposed empirical study of both the quality of courseware and the impact of courseware characteristics on variations of learning effectiveness due to learner characteristics. Five LSIs are examined: (1) Dunn LSI;…

Describes study that compared the achievement of high and low ability eighth-grade students working cooperatively during computer-based instruction. Homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping based on ability are explained, posttest results are analyzed, and implications for instructional design are discussed. (23 references) (Author/LRW)

Examines relationships between student interests and aptitude in selected academic fields and their success in intensive courses on these subjects. Discusses a two-year study of 33 mathematics students and 32 literature students in the eighth and ninth grades in the Soviet Union. Shows that differentiated, intensive study did not strengthen…