in follow up research to Wells' Bristol Project. In this research aptitude was
defined as a 'hybrid', 'combining both a language processing ability as well as
the capacity to handle decontextualised material' with both these components
regarded as important for language learning success (Skehan, 1988: 52).
The results ofthe study suggested a correlation between children's first
language development at the age of three and a half and language aptitude at
secondary school at the age of 13 and 14:
"...children who make more rapid development learning their own language
seem, according to conventional tests, to do better learning foreign languages
in schools." (Skehan, 1988: 29)
Results ofthis research were not totally conclusive but suggested that
first language development was significantly related to foreign language
aptitude with the clearest relationship being between a child's rate in first
language syntactical development and in the use of auxiliary verbs. In other
words, those children whose syntactical first language development was most
rapid tended to be those with higher foreign language aptitude. Results also
suggested that foreign language aptitude was significantly related to foreign
language achievement but that the correlation between first language
development and foreign language achievement was fairly low, possibly as a
result of the many intervening variables at work.
Hawkins (1981) had suggested that the concept of 'ability* could not be
separated from children's background and Wells' Bristol Study had already
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