RESEARCH ARTICLE Stages of Acquisition and the P/E Model of Working Memory: Complementary or contrasting approaches to foreign language aptitude? Zhisheng (Edward) Wen 1 * and Peter Skehan 2 1 Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao and 2 Institute of Education, University College London, UK *Corresponding author. Email: edwardwen@ipm.edu.mo Abstract This paper explores the roles of both working memory (WM) and more traditional aptitude components, such as input processing and language analytic ability in the context of foreign language learning aptitude. More specifically, the paper compares two current perspectives on language aptitude: the Stages Approach (Skehan, 2016, 2019) and the P/E Model (Wen, 2016, 2019). Input processing and noticing, pattern identification and complexification, and feedback are examined as they relate to both perspectives and are then used to discuss exist- ing aptitude testing, recent research, and broader theoretical issues. It is argued that WM and language aptitude play different but complementary roles at each of these stages, reflect- ing the various linguistic and psycholinguistic processes that are most prominent in other aspects of language learning. Overall, though both perspectives posit that WM and language aptitude have equal importance at the input processing stage, they exert greater influence at each of the remaining stages. More traditional views of aptitude dominate at the pattern identification and complexification stage and WM with the feedback stage. Keywords: language aptitude; the Stages Approach; working memory; the P/E Model; language analytic ability; input processing; feedback Foreign language aptitude generally refers to a set of specific cognitive abilities that enable some individuals to learn additional languages more quickly and efficiently than their peers when all other language learning success factors (e.g., time, quality of instruction, motivation) are equal (cf., Carroll, 1990; Doughty, 2019). These cognitive abilities may relate to general intelligence but are seen as distinct from it and are spe- cifically relevant to second language learning (Skehan, 1989). Since its inception in the 1950s, foreign language aptitude has been a critical concept in applied linguistics and language education (Carroll, 1962; Wen, 2012a; Wen et al., 2019). Over the six decades of its development, research into foreign language aptitude has gone through fluctuating cycles of popularity and marginalization until witnessing exponential growth around the turn of the millennium (Vuong & Wong, 2019). As the multiple papers in this present thematic issue of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) amply indicate, foreign language aptitude is attracting greater interest among educational © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (2021), 41,6–24 doi:10.1017/S0267190521000015 terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190521000015 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 202.175.46.138, on 07 Jun 2021 at 12:54:50, subject to the Cambridge Core