Precerpt from My 20th Language: Language Aptitude (Leaver)
Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from My 20th Language by Betty Lou Leaver, Ph.D. -- Language Aptitude As for my language aptitude, that is something impossible to accurately determine so late in my language learning journey. I’ve taken two major assessments of aptitude: the MLAT (Modern Language Aptitude Test), where I scored a 75 out of a possible 80, and the DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery), where I received a 153—well above the 110 threshold that qualifies someone for training in “difficult” languages. On paper, those scores suggest I have a strong natural ability to learn languages. But that conclusion would be misleading. By the time I took either test, I had already earned a degree in linguistics and studied over a dozen languages. I understood the structure of the tests and could deconstruct their constructs with ease. My academic training and hands-on experience gave me significant advantages in interpreting patterns and anticipating answer...