Sight translation has been widely used in aptitude testing to screen prospective trainee interpreters at leading interpreter training schools, including ESIT, ISIT, and EMCI. However, it has also been criticised for its lack of validity and reliability. No empirical study has thus far been conducted to explore its power to predict interpreting…

Developing effective aptitude test batteries for conference interpreting is highly relevant for China given its large and fast-growing interpreting trainee population. This paper reports on the aptitude tests implemented to 23 first-year students at a CIUTI member and UN MOU university in China. We compared the validity of recall, a test commonly…

Since Gisela Granena's influential work, LLAMA D v2, a sound recognition subtest of LLAMA aptitude tests, has been used as a measure of implicit learning aptitude in second language acquisition research. The validity of this test, however, is little known and the results of studies with this instrument have been somewhat inconsistent. In this…

"Tests of Aptitude for Language Learning" (TALL) is an openly accessible internet-based battery to measure the multifaceted construct of foreign language aptitude, using language domain-specific instruments and L1-sensitive instructions and stimuli. This brief report introduces the components of this theory-informed battery and…

Foreign language aptitude is defined as one's potential to learn a second language. A language learner with higher aptitude is predicted to learn more, faster, and reach a higher level of proficiency. If this is the case, one way to validate the construct of aptitude and its measure is to conduct a validation study in which measures of aptitude is…

This paper probes into implicit language aptitude (LA), a set of cognitive abilities that showcase learners' unconscious, automatic second language (L2) attainment. Implicit LA is becoming an important part of aptitude research, and advances the understanding of L2 learning mechanism. This paper critiques the construct of implicit LA and proposes…

As a replication in the Chinese context of previous aptitude testing validation studies, this research aims at exploring the validity of an interpreting aptitude test battery, composed of the Logical Memory Test (LMT), the Scale of Language Anxiety (SLA) and the Achievement Motivation Test (AMT), in the prediction of consecutive interpreting…

The Modern Language Aptitude Test (Paper-and-Pencil Version, henceforth, the MLAT) measures "an individual's ability to learn a foreign language." It targets English-speaking adults (over Grade 9) who are literate. The test has only one form, which has not changed since it was first published by the Psychological Corporation in 1959. The test can…

In this interview, JD Brown reflects on language testing/assessment. He suggests that language testing can be seen as a continuum with hard core positivist approaches at one end and post modernist interpretive perspectives at the other, and also argues that norm referencing (be it proficiency, placement, or aptitude testing) and criterion…

This study examined the second language (L2) development of adult learners of Spanish at three levels of proficiency during and after a semester of instruction. A fundamental goal was to identify cognitive and psychosocial individual differences (IDs) that can explain between-learner variation over time in order to expand our understanding of the…

This paper presents evidence that supports the valid use of scores from fully automatic tests of spoken language ability to indicate a person's effectiveness in spoken communication. The paper reviews the constructs, scoring, and the concurrent validity evidence of "facility-in-L2" tests, a family of automated spoken language tests in Spanish,…

A former whites-only South African university's journalism department employs a dual-medium language policy in which Afrikaans and English alternate in classrooms, and students may use either. Admissions processes include a test of linguistic ability (general/cultural knowledge and writing skills). Citing Bourdieu, this article disputes the…

This collection of papers assesses the validity of the MLAT. It is not self-evident that a test designed for English speaking university students in America and validated there is necessarily valid in an English university. The differences between American English and British English are evident, and American universities admit a greater…

This address to school counselors discusses the role of aptitude and attitudes in learning French as a second language with attention to the senior elementary and high school levels. The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) and the Attitude Motivation Inventory (ATI) were administered to students. The MLAT and abilities it is designed to assess…

"Linguistic ability" is a widely misused term in foreign language literature. This confusion prompted an investigation into language aptitude testing, the specific goals of which included determining: the distribution of language aptitude across ability range; the validity of Pimsleur's suggestions of combined verbal and auditory scores;…