Cognitive Factors that Language Learning

Cognitive Factors that Effect Language Learning include

Intelligence
Intelligence simply refers to a person's intelligence. Classically intelligence is a one dimensional value indicated by one's IQ.

There have been studies [Ganesee 1976] in which it has been shown that there is a corrolation between intelligence and the formal leaning of an additional language.

However more recently, Howard Gardener proposed a Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which draws attention to the diversity of intelligences that can be found in people, and how a good teacher would try to find Teaching Activities that cater to this diversity of intelligences.

Aptitude
Aptitude is a quality of language learning that is demonstrated by an above-average rate of langauage learning.

Aptitude in turn refers to the following aspects:
 * Inductive Language Learning Ability refers to the ability to infer the underlying syntactic rules of a language from language data.
 * Grammartical Sensitivity is the the ability to understand how words function. In other words, it has to do with the recognition of word class and the importance of the distinction between different word types.
 * Memory, is plain and simply the ability to learn new words.
 * Phonetic Coding Ability is the ability to recognise and remember new sounds.

Learning Styles
Learning Styles  refers to the learning preferences or style of interacting with a new language.

See the main article on Learning Styles for more details about the distinction between field-dependent and field-indepentent learners.

Learning Strategies
Learning Strategies are the ways in which students engage with the langauge learning process.

(Please see the main article on Learning Strategies for more information.)