This research project is concerned with the prediction of foreign language learning success. Previous research into the importance of language aptitude for foreign language learning is surveyed, and the two areas of memory and motivation are proposed as worth further study. A number of memory tests and motivation measures, devised for the present study, are described. These measures are used with Armed Forces personnel, university students, and schoolchildren, in order to examine the relationships between these "predictor" tests, and the achievement (criterion) tests used to evaluate learning in the different settings. The results are analysed using correlational, factor, regression, and cluster analysis. The results indicate that the ability to integrate and learn material of unfamiliar structure, and the ability to extract and remember the propositional meaning of sentences both have significant and marked correlations with foreign language learning success. Associative memory is found to have significant but lower correlations with achievement scores, while primary memory measures appear to have little importance. Intelligence and grammatical sensitivity are also found to have marked relationships with achievement scores. The motivational measures only had weak correlations with the criterion test scores. Several aspects of foreign language learning prediction are discussed. There is consideration of the general role of aptitude in foreign language learning, and recent attempts proposing that such an aptitude is only of limited significance are rejected. There is also discussion of the Importance of aptitude for language teaching methodology. Finally, the componens of aptitude are described as they are currently understood, and suggestions for further research are provided.

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<p> This dissertation examines how college students' participation in a Spanish service-learning course affected their perceptions of language culture and community. Findings demonstrate that students will potentially experience connections, disconnections, and reconnections when they interact with others in a Spanish service-learning experience. The connections that they form may motivate them to improve their skills and knowledge related to the subject matter. In this qualitative, practitioner action research study, I interviewed four students who were enrolled in my service-learning course. The narratives were analyzed using the Listening Guide (Gilligan et al., 2003) a feminist relational methodology. </p><p> When the students spoke of their experiences with language, culture, and community in interviews prior to taking the course, they used voices of powerlessness, rejection, observation, and separation. In the interviews that occurred after the service-learning experience, their voices spoke of empowerment, acceptance, participation, and inclusion. Cross-case analysis revealed that students formed relationships with the community, other students, and the instructor during the service-learning experience. Even if these relationships were short-term and limited, they often experienced the cycle of connection, disconnection, and connection of long-term relationships. Prior to the course, students spoke of previous experiences with language-exclusion and disconnections that they experienced because of their relational images of observation and separation. When they spoke of their service-learning experiences, they described multiple relational triangles (Hawkins, 1974; Raider-Roth &amp; Holzer, 2009) and revealed their developed sense of empathy. This empathy demonstrates the connections they formed with other students and with the community members. Two students spoke of disconnections that occurred during the course, but these disconnections were outweighed by connections. These connections led them to desire more meaningful connections, which they realized could only happen by improving their language skills. </p><p> The implications of this study suggest that in a relational service-learning course, instructors no longer are only part of the relational triangle between the instructor, the student, and the subject matter; they also facilitate relationships between students, community partner organizations, community members, other volunteers, and the subject matter. The multiple relational triangles that they facilitate combine to form a relational hexagon. This relational understanding of service-learning has implications for instructors, the discipline, and the university.</p>