Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics vol. 44 (4), 2008

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MEASURING FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE. POLISH ADAPTATION OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE APTITUDE TEST BY CARROLL AND SAPON
(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Rysiewicz, Jacek
This article sets itself two main aims. The first is to describe the rationale behind the decision to adapt for Polish learners the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) by Carroll and Sapon (1959), rather than to develop a new measure. The reasons behind the decision are discussed in the context of the relevant individual differences (ID) research in Poland and the need for a reli- able and theoretically valid measure of foreign language (FL) aptitude for L1 Polish is articu- lated. The other aim is to describe the development, piloting and initial validation of the Polish MLAT-based adaptation of a new measure of FL aptitude. Two methods of test adaptation (trans- lation and paraphrase) are discussed and justified with relation to the current project. It was de- cided that all four components of FL aptitude, as proposed by Carroll (1981), would be repre- sented in the Polish adaptation of the MLAT. The piloting was done on approximately 200 sec- ondary school learners aged 19, while the data for the initial validation study, in the form of sec- ond language (L2) English proficiency test results as well as simple measures of motivation, length of study, social background and others, came from ca. 250 subjects, aged 18–22.