Individual differences in resource availability, and the patterns of cognitive
abilities they contribute to, are important to:
• explaining variation between learners in the effectiveness of second
language (L2) instructional treatments;
• describing differences in implicit, incidental and explicit L2 learning
processes; and
• explaining child-adult differences in acquisition processes, and therefore
to any general theory of second language acquisition (SLA).
In this article I describe a framework for research into the effects of cognitive
abilities on SLA which is based on four interlocking hypotheses. These hypotheses
are drawn from research in psychology, education and SLA and, where possible, I
present evidence to support each of them. The hypotheses are:
1) the Aptitude Complex Hypothesis;
2) the Ability Differentiation Hypothesis;
3) the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis; and
4) the Fundamental Similarity Hypothesis.
The hypotheses, and the relationships between them, define an Aptitude
Complex/Ability Differentiation framework for further examining the influence of
individual differences in cognitive abilities on SLA, and for developing a
theoretically motivated measure of language learning aptitude. I argue that such
research should adopt the interactionist approach described by Snow (1994) to
identifying individual difference/learning condition interactions at a number of
levels. I illustrate some of these interactions.
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