Coventry, William L

Anton-Mendez, Ines

Ellis, Elizabeth M

Levisen, Christina

Byrne, Brian J

van Daal, Victor H P

Ellis, Nick C

2012

We present one of the first behavior-genetic studies of individual differences in school students' levels of achievement in instructed second language acquisition (ISLA). We assessed these language abilities in Australian twin pairs (maximum N pairs = 251) by means of teacher ratings, class rankings, and self-ratings of proficiency, and used the classic twin design to estimate the relative influences of genes, shared (family/school) environment, and unique environment. Achievement in ISLA was more influenced by additive genetic effects (72%, 68%, and 38% for teacher ratings, class rankings, and twin self-ratings, respectively) than by shared environment effects, which were generally not substantial (20%, 07%, and 13%). Genetic effects distinct to speaking and listening, on the one hand, and reading and writing, on the other, were evident for the twin self-ratings. We discuss the limitations and implications of these findings and point to research questions that could profitably be addressed in future studies.

Language Learning, 62(3), p. 880-901

1467-9922

0023-8333

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/11198

en

John Wiley & Sons, Inc

The Etiology of Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition in Australian School Students: A Behavior-Genetic Study

Journal Article

Publication