Linguistic abilities and its cognitive determinants: contemporary research perspectives

Abstract

The article presents contemporary studies of linguistic abilities in psychology. The different approaches to the linguistic abilities structure are discussed in relation to empirical results on peculiarities of the second language mastering. The special attention is paid to the cognitive determinants of linguistic abilities. So the empirical data concerning the interaction between language-aptitude test scores and different abilities, e.g. verbal intelligence and working memory, are analyzed in more details. In the conclusion the research perspectives in different cognitive processes which determine the efficiency of the second language mastery are discussed

Keywords

• linguistic abilities
• cognitive determinants
• the second language mastery