Innovation in Language Learning

The capacities for foreign language learning is a complex structural formation of learner’s personality characterized by successful acquisition of all kinds of speech activity. Knowing the main components of the structure of the capacities for foreign language learning can enhance foreign language teaching and learners’ achievement.

Foreign language education in Belarus has been mainly taught in the formal classroom settings. The author of the article has made some attempts to examine the structural relationships among individual factors affecting foreign language achievement. The experiment resulted in determining the components of the structure of foreign language learning capacities in the general structure of personality; in identifying the interaction between success in performance and level of mental processes development, phonematic and musical hearing, the sense of rhythm, motivation, diligence, verbal creativity and verbal anticipation; in adopting technology of foreign languages learning capacities development for language and non-language learners in educational process, in defining the effectiveness of technology; in designing, standardizing and validating procedures battery for foreign languages learning capacities testing.

The sample consisted of 649 students learning English. The main empirical methods were psychological and language testing, survey methods (questionnaire and interview), content-analysis, the method of expert evaluation, the analysis of learners’ products of speech activity. The results of the study were processed mathematically and statistically with calculation of key indicators (M±; ±σ); correlation and intercorrelation. The significance of differences was determined by t-test.

The correlation and intercorrelation analyses have demonstrated the strong relationships between experts’ evaluation of successfulness of foreign language acquisition by students and their rates of auditory short-term memory (r=0,54-0,55) and working memory (r=0,63-0,72), verbal creativity (r=0,59-0,62), verbal anticipation (r=0,73-0,74), musical hearing (r=0,33-0,40) and the sense of rhythm (r=0,41-0,43). The comparison of variables of “high-successful” and “low-successful” students demonstrated significant differences between the groups on the following indicators of phonemic hearing (р<0,05-0,001), auditory short-term memory (р<0,01), auditory working memory (р<0,001) in Russian and English languages, musical hearing and the sense of rhythm (р<0,05), verbal creativity and verbal anticipation (р<0,001), motivation and dignity (р<0,001). The research results allowed including the above-mentioned components in the structure of capacities for foreign language learning.