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Language Aptitude Theory and Practice
  • Edited by Zhisheng (Edward) Wen, Peter Skehan, Richard L. Sparks
  • Published online:
    27 May 2023
    Print publication:
    27 April 2023
  • The last few years have witnessed exponential growth in research output within the field of language aptitude. With contributions from an international team of leading experts, this volume provides the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date overview of developments in language aptitude theory and practice. It addresses central and newly emerging methodological and theoretical issues, and revisits and re-examines the most popular language aptitude tests, including the most durable and innovative batteries. It also provides in-depth demonstrations of language aptitude research paradigms, including well-established and emerging ones, scrutinizing them from multidisciplinary perspectives. Aptitude treatment interactions studies are reported and discussed, and pedagogical implications are provided, to illuminate theory construction, test development, policymaking, curriculum design and classroom practice. Seamlessly integrating theory, research, assessment and practice, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to learn more about language learning, training and teaching, and will further advance the research in this exciting, fast-paced field.

  • 1 - Language Aptitude Research

  • Edited by Zhisheng (Edward) Wen, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Peter Skehan, Institute of Education, University of London, Richard L. Sparks, Mount St Joseph University
  • Book:
    Language Aptitude Theory and Practice
    Published online:
    27 May 2023
    Print publication:
    27 April 2023, pp 1-22

  • Summary

    In this introductory chapter, we first provide a brief overview of research paradigms of language aptitude testing and theory construction in the past six decades, summarizing the major achievements and innovations in research methodologies. Following this, we discuss the background and rationale of the current volume, highlighting the key contents of each chapter and evaluating their potential contributions to enhancing our understanding of language aptitude theory and practice. We conclude the introduction by calling upon scholars to work concertedly towards building an integrated language aptitude theory that will allow us to diagnose, predict, and explain the second language learning process and outcomes. Overall, the current volume calls for a paradigm shift of language aptitude research from its previous focus on aptitude testing to theory construction and practical applications.

  • Scale-dependent pop-ins in nanoindentation and scale-free plastic fluctuations in microcompression

  • John Shimanek, Quentin Rizzardi, Gregory Sparks, Peter M. Derlet, Robert Maaß
  • Journal:
    Journal of Materials Research / Volume 35 / Issue 2 / 28 January 2020
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    10 January 2020, pp. 196-205
    Print publication:
    28 January 2020

  • Nanoindentation and microcrystal deformation are two methods that allow probing size effects in crystal plasticity. In many cases of microcrystal deformation, scale-free and potentially universal intermittency of event sizes during plastic flow has been revealed, whereas nanoindentation has been mainly used to assess the stress statistics of the first pop-in. Here, we show that both methods of deformation exhibit fundamentally different event-size statistics obtained from plastic instabilities. Nanoindentation results in scale-dependent intermittent microplasticity best described by Weibull statistics (stress and magnitude of the first pop-in) and lognormal statistics (magnitude of higher-order pop-ins). In contrast, finite-volume microcrystal deformation of the same material exhibits microplastic event-size intermittency of truncated power-law type even when the same plastic volume as in nanoindentation is probed. Furthermore, we successfully test a previously proposed extreme-value statistics model that relates the average first critical stress to the shape and scale parameter of the underlying Weibull distribution.

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