Abstract
This study seeks to empirically explore the relation between multilingual learning experiences and language aptitude. Through employing LLAMA aptitude test battery (Meara, 2005) and a probabilistic version of the serial reaction time (SRT) task (Kaufman et al., 2010), scores from 24 Chinese-English bilinguals and 24 Tibetan-Chinese-English trilinguals were analyzed with One-way Analyses of Variance (ANOVA). LLAMA-B, E, and F sub-tests measured explicit language aptitude, while LLAMA-D sub-test and SRT task measured implicit language aptitude, a cutting-edge that has gained sway in aptitude research. Qualitative and quantitative results showed that trilingual group performed better on the LLAMA-E sub-test than bilingual group, whereas bilingual group outperformed trilingual group on the SRT task. These findings suggested that trilinguals might possess higher explicit aptitude but lower implicit aptitude than bilinguals. Thus, prior language learning experiences might be positively (for explicit aptitude) or negatively (for implicit aptitude) correlated with language aptitude. Additionally, explicit aptitude and implicit aptitude might have a competitive relationship. Possible implications were discussed in this article.
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Data Available Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.
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Funding
This study was supported by Two Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Item No. 21lzujbkyjh001 and Item No. 21lzujbkyxs023) and The Education and Teaching Research Project of Lanzhou University (Item No. 2020009).
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Ci Jiang: Conceptualization; Methodology; Software; Validation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Resources; Data curation; Visualization; Writing-Original Draft; Writing-Review & Editing;
Fang Liu: Methodology; Software; Validation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Resources; Data curation;
Yi Cao: Investigation; Resources; Data curation;
Jianlin Chen: Methodology; Validation; Investigation; Resources; Writing-Review & Editing; Supervision; Project administration; Funding acquisition.
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Jiang, C., Liu, F., Gong, Y. et al. How do Chinese-English Bilinguals and Tibetan-Chinese-English Trilinguals Differ in Explicit and Implicit Aptitude?. J Psycholinguist Res 52, 869–885 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-022-09914-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-022-09914-3