Effect of

Aptitude in
Learning
Behaviour of
Students

Aptitude means
early 15c., "tendency, likelihood," from Middle Frenchaptitude (14
c.) or directly from Late Latin aptitudo(genitive aptitudinis) "fitnes
s," noun of quality fromLatin aptus "joined, fitted" (see apt ). Mea
ning "naturalcapacity to learn" is 1540s; that of "quality of being fi
t(for a purpose or position)" is from 1640s.
Online Etymology Dictionary, 2010 Douglas Harper
[1400-50;

late Middle English (< Middle French) < Late Latin aptit

d.]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, 2010
K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House,
Inc.
Acquired or natural ability (usually measurable with aptitude
tests), for learning and proficiency in a specific area or discipline
is called aptitude. Aptitude is expressed in interest, and is
reflected in current performance which is expected to improve
over
time
with
training.

Read
(http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/aptitude.html)

more:

An aptitude is a component of a competency to do a certain kind

of work at a certain level. Outstanding aptitude can be considered
"talent". Aptitudes may be physical or mental. Aptitude is inborn

potential to do certain kinds of work whether developed or

undeveloped. Ability is developed knowledge, understanding,
learned or acquired abilities (skills) or attitude. The innate nature
of aptitude is in contrast to skills and achievement, which
represent knowledge or ability that is gained through learning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude#References

What is Learning
Meaning and Nature:
Learning is a key process in human behaviour. All living is
learning. If we compare the simple, crude ways in which a child
feels and behaves, with the complex modes of adult behaviour,
his skills, habits, thought, sentiments and the like- we will know
what difference learning has made to the individual.
The individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the
environment. This experience makes him to change or modify his
behaviour in order to deal effectively with it. Therefore, learning is
a change in behaviour, influenced by previous behaviour. As
stated above the skills, knowledge, habits, attitudes, interests and
other personality characteristics are all the result of learning.
Learning is defined as any relatively permanent change in
behaviour that occurs as a result of practice and experience. This
definition has three important elements.
a. Learning is a change in behaviourbetter or worse.
b. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience,
but changes due to growth or maturation are not learning.

c. This change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it

must last a fairly long time.
All learning involves activities. These activities involve either
physical or mental activities. They may be simple mental
activities or complex, involving various muscles, bones, etc. So
also the mental activities may be very simple involving one or two
activities of mind or complex which involve higher mental
activities.
What activities are learned by the individual refer to types of
learning. For example, habits, skills, facts, etc. There are different
types of learning. Some of the important and common learning
activities are explained here.

Types of Learning:
1. Motor learning:
Most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor
activities. The individual has to learn them in order to maintain his
regular life, for example walking, running, skating, driving,
climbing,

etc.

All

these

activities

involve

the

muscular

coordination.

2. Verbal learning:
This type of learning involves the language we speak, the
communication devices we use. Signs, pictures, symbols, words,
figures, sounds, etc, are the tools used in such activities. We use
words for communication.

3. Concept learning:
It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental
processes like thinking, reasoning, intelligence, etc. we learn
different concepts from childhood. For example, when we see a
dog and attach the term dog, we learn that the word dog refers
to a particular animal. Concept learning involves two processes,
viz. abstraction and generalisation. This learning is very useful in
recognising, identifying things.

4. Discrimination learning:
Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an
appropriate response to these stimuli is called discrimination
learning. Example, sound horns of different vehicles like bus, car,
ambulance, etc.

5. Learning of principles:
Individuals

learn

certain

principles

related

to

science,

mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to manage their work

effectively. These principles always show the relationship between
two or more concepts. Example: formulae, laws, associations,
correlations, etc.

6. Problem solving:
This is a higher order learning process. This learning requires the
use of cognitive abilities-such as thinking, reasoning, observation,
imagination, generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome
difficult problems encountered by the people.

7. Attitude learning:
Attitude is a predisposition which determines and directs our
behaviour. We develop different attitudes from our childhood
about the people, objects and everything we know. Our behaviour
may be positive or negative depending upon our attitudes.
Example: attitudes of nurse towards her profession, patients, etc.

LEARNING APTITUDE:
Aptitude refers to an individuals ability to learn or perform certain
skills. It is an inherent capacity, talent or ability to do something.
Having a high aptitude for something means you are good at
doing that something acquired or natural ability (usually
measurable with aptitude tests), for learning and proficiency in a
specific area or discipline. Aptitude is expressed in interest, and is
reflected in current performance which is expected to improve
over time with training. Aptitude tests refer to standardized tests
designed to measure an individuals ability to develop certain
skills. Studies have applied tests of psychomotor ability, cognitive
knowledge, and personality and attempted to relate them to
measures of surgical skill

Effects of APTITUDE on learning Behaviour:

Not very much research, because it is something Teachers
arepowerless
to
alter.
It consists of four sub-components (according to Carroll, 1991)

a. phonetic coding ability

(capacity for sound discrimination and to code foreign sounds

in such a way that they can be later recalled) it varies between
individuals, but this variation does not correlate with language
learning
success.

b. Associative memory
(ability to make links or connections between stimuli and
responses, for example native language words and foreign
language equivalents, and to develop the strength of such bonds).
Nowadays associative memory is not so important, and the
capacity to memorize more auditorily complex material and the
capacity to impose organization and structure on the material are
more powerful predictors of lag learning success

c. Grammatical sensitivity
(ability to understand the contribution that words make in
sentences. It emphasizes recognition of function, rather than
explicit representation)

d. Inductive language analytic ability

(ability to examine a corpus of language material and from this to
notice and identify patterns of correspondence and relationships.
Ability to identify pattern, particularly in verbal material, whether
this involves implicit or explicit rule representation)

Three sub-components (according to Skehan, 1998)

a. auditory ability
b. linguistic ability
c. memory ability

a. Phonemic coding ability

Important at beginning levels of language learning: converting
acoustic input into what might be termed processable input;
failure in this area may mean no input to deal with. GLA Factors
affecting
SLA
success.
The more phonemic coding abilities succeed with the acoustic
stimulus that the learner is presented with, the richer the corpus
of material that will be available for subsequent analysis.

b. Language analytic ability

Central stage of information processing: capacity to infer rules of
language and make linguistic generalizations or extrapolations.
Here it is where rules develop and restructuring occurs.

c. Memory
Concerned with acquisition of new information, with retrieval, and
with the way the elements are stored, probably redundantly and
formulaically.

General assumptions:
Aptitude is a specific talent for language, different from general
intelligence: Aptitude has a high correlation to language learning
success, while intelligence does not.
Everyone does not have an aptitude for languages: there are
exceptionally talented learners (very high aptitude). Outstanding

language learners are those who do not have a very high IQ, but
do have very high marks on the memory part of language
aptitude. They exceed at assimilating new material: capable of
dealing with large quantities of material to be memorized quickly
and easily. Exceptional learners do not seem to be exceptional in
two of the three areas which have emerged from aptitude
research (phonemic coding ability and language analytic ability),
but seem to confine their exceptional nature to the third.
However, very weak learners usually lack input skills

Pedagogical Implications:
Research study: students were categorized according to aptitude
profile. One group was identified as having particularly good
memory abilities (relative to other abilities), and another group
was identified as being high in verbal analytical abilities. Some
members of these groups were matched with appropriate
methodologies (for the strengths concerned), and others were
mismatched. Matched students did disproportionally better and
mismatched students worse. In addition, the mismatched
students were unhappy about the type of instruction they were
receiving.

Prepared by

Qurat-Ul-Ain Zafar