Abstract:
The present study addresses some cognitive aspects of individual differences that influence
foreign language learning. The research attempts to investigate the relationship between one
type of intelligence that is referred to as linguistic intelligence and language learning
achievement. Since linguistic intelligence is just a theoretical concept, we felt the need to look
for a set of cognitive abilities as its constituent factors. Language aptitude, working memory,
and verbal reasoning were, thus, elected to be the main factors of linguistic intelligence and
the major components of the test intended for that broad ability. Three measures of the three
aforementioned capacities (working memory measure, language aptitude measure, and verbal
reasoning measure) were, in effect, administered to a sample of seventy subjects from a
population of 300 first-year students at the department of Letters and English, University Des
Frères Mentouri, Constantine. Correlations were made between the obtained scores in these
measures, and factor analysis was conducted to determine the final factors of Linguistic
intelligence. The results confirm the existence of three factors, albeit with a precision in the
designation of the hypothesized abilities. Grammatical ability is substituted for language
aptitude, while working memory and verbal reasoning remain intact. On the basis of these
findings, a further correlational study was conducted between the overall Linguistic
intelligence score, as with the score of its final factors, and language learning achievement
score. Again, the results prove a significant relationship between the overall Linguistic
intelligence and language learning achievement. As for the relationship between this latter and
the final factors of Linguistic intelligence, two factors reveal a significant moderate
correlation (grammatical ability and verbal reasoning), while the third factor (working
memory) indicate a weak association. The study would, hence, encourage the implementation
of Linguistic intelligence test as the basis for selection in learning English as a foreign
language.
