Exploring The Relationship Between Language Aptitude And College-Level EFL Learners’ L2 Writing Performance

One of the basic questions in second language acquisition(SLA)research is what accounts for students’differential success in language learning.The role of individual differences,especially cognitive variables such as language aptitude(LA)in the ultimate attainment of second language(L2)learning has been extensively studied.However,empirical research on the role of LA and its sub-components in L2 writing performance is quite limited,most of which only investigated the predictive power of LA in writing as measured by a holistic score within larger individual difference studies,and yielded partial and mixed findings.While theoretical hypotheses claimed that components of a cognitive variable may play a differential role in each dimension of language,most empirical evidence found a weak or non-significant role of LA in L2 writing performance,while a few studies identified a moderate relationship between LLAMA E(sound-symbol correspondence and inductive learning)between overall writing quality.The inconsistent findings motivated this research on the potentially unique and comparative effects of traditional LA and its components on different aspects of L2 written performance.As writing is a complex process that requires the skillful coordination of various cognitive and linguistic processes and resources,this study intended to advance previous discussions on the role of cognitive variables in L2 writing among college-level EFL learners with intermediate-to-advanced English proficiency and their performance in a cognitively complex genre,argumentative writing.A correlational design was employed to explore the relationship between the four components of LA(as measured by LLAMA tests)and fine-grained dimensions of L2 writing quality,including lexical complexity,syntactic complexity,accuracy and discourse coherence.The results demonstrated that multiple aptitude components were important in several elements of writing performance,in contrast to most prior findings that revealed the poor or non-significant significance of LA in L2 writing.LLAMA B and LLAMA E were moderately correlated with the grammatical accuracy,while only LLAMA E could significantly predict the accuracy performance.Another pair of relationship was manifested in LLAMA B and lexical density as an indicator of lexical complexity.However,syntactic complexity and coherence did not appear to have a strong relationship with LA.The correlations were interpreted based on a cognition-based view of L2 writing and the abilities captured by the LLAMA test.The non-correlations were discussed in relation to several factors,including participants’ high proficiency level,the typical"non-salient" errors,the relatively abundant time of take-home writing,the availability of online resources and the complex nature of argumentative writing in this task.This study contributes to filling the research gap in previous research by revealing more intricate links between LA components and the specific aspects of L2 writing and shedding light on the componential feature and detailed role of LA in L2 writing.The discussion also suggests several future research directions and offers valuable implications for educational and assessment practices.