Resumen de Cognitive Profiles of (Un)successful FL Learners: A Cluster Analytical Study
This article reports a study in which ability/aptitude profiles of 13-year-old foreign language (FL) learners are identified. A multivariate statistical procedure of cluster analysis proved to be particularly useful in this respect. The aim of cluster analysis is to identify, within a sample studied, certain subgroups (clusters) of participants who share similar combinations of characteristics and who are different from other groups of participants. In the present study, the performance of 137 FL learners on 6 different ability/aptitude measures provided input data for the analysis. The data came from earlier research (Rysiewicz, 2004) in which 4 variables had been broadly analyzed as aptitude and 2 as intelligence dimensions. The results of nonhierarchical clustering (k-means clustering) revealed 3 distinct cognitive learner profiles that lent themselves best to theoretical interpretation. Additionally, an external criterion variable was used to function as an independent indicator of the differences among the clusters (Alexander & Murphy, 1999). It was found that the identified learner types performed significantly differently on a second language proficiency criterion measure, which confirmed the validity of the 3-cluster solution.
