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Exploring Language Aptitude: Views from Psychology, the Language Sciences, and Cognitive Neuroscience pp 1–15Cite as

Introduction: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Language Aptitude

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Part of the book series: English Language Education ((ELED,volume 16))

Abstract

This book represents a collection of quantitative studies on language aptitude in the context of psychology, the language sciences, and cognitive neuroscience. Throughout this book the authors bring together interdisciplinary approaches to language aptitude and its constituents in order to both inspire researchers and contribute to the testing of a new language aptitude test. This is because the authors are part of a teaching and research initiative by the editor, Susanne Maria Reiterer, embedded into the unit of language learning and teaching research (Sprachlehr- und –Lernforschung, SLLF), an interdisciplinary sub-unit affiliated with the linguistics department and the centre for teacher education at the University of Vienna. This research initiative uses a heuristic, exploratory bottom-up approach, as the ideas of the mixed group of young and senior investigators regarding new approaches on language aptitude research form the basis of this book. Some of the authors are part of the “aptitude and multilinguality” group which is currently initiating and exploring a new multilingual aptitude (MULT/AP) test that was developed by Markus Christiner and Susanne Reiterer at the University of Vienna (Christiner & Reiterer, 2017). The MULT/AP test measures phonetic aptitude and aims at identifying factors influencing it, such as cognitive abilities, musicality, gender, and age. Hence, this book is a product of the joint effort of language aptitude researchers who aim at exploring language aptitude’s multiple components, inspire Europe-wide research, and support the development of a novel language aptitude test.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics & Department of English and American Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Victoria Ameringer

  2. Department of English and American Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Luke Green

  3. Department of Linguistics and Centre for Teacher Education, Unit for Language Learning and Teaching Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Daniel Leisser & Sabrina Turker

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  1. Victoria Ameringer
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  2. Luke Green
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  4. Sabrina Turker
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Correspondence to Victoria Ameringer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics and Centre for Teacher Education, University of Vienna, Vienna, Wien, Austria

    Susanne M. Reiterer

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Ameringer, V., Green, L., Leisser, D., Turker, S. (2018). Introduction: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Language Aptitude. In: Reiterer, S. (eds) Exploring Language Aptitude: Views from Psychology, the Language Sciences, and Cognitive Neuroscience. English Language Education, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91917-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91917-1_1

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