This paper discusses the notion of language aptitude as a factor contributing to successful language acquisition achievements in polyglots. The difficulty in distinguishing between what is, indeed, language aptitude and what is language awareness is the main focus of the paper. A polyglot is operationalized here as a person who, after puberty, (a) acquired/learned at least six new languages (L2s), (b) commands at least six L2s at an intermediate or advanced proficiency level, and (c) presently uses these languages relatively unimpededly in oral interaction. The article draws specifically on a controlled investigation of ten polyglots who were extensively interviewed and tested for language aptitude, motivation, language awareness, and use of language learning strategies. Results show well above average, often outstanding, aptitude scores and an immediate preference for explicit learning. It appears that the combination of strong motivation and high levels of language aptitude and language awareness is what makes polyglots unusually successful second language learners. This paper suggests that language aptitude is both a prerequisite for developing high levels of language awareness and (since the two concepts are partially overlapping), much of the dynamism sometimes ascribed to aptitude is indeed awareness.

中文翻译：

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语言能力和语言意识：多语种观点

本文讨论了语言能力的概念，它是促成多语者成功语言习得的一个因素。区分什么是语言能力和什么是语言意识的困难是本文的主要焦点。多语言在这里被操作化为一个人，在青春期后，（a）获得/学习了至少六种新语言（L2s），（b）在中级或高级熟练度水平上至少掌握六种 L2s，并且（c）目前使用这些语言在口语互动中相对畅通无阻。这篇文章特别借鉴了对 10 名多语者的对照调查，这些人接受了广泛的采访，并测试了他们的语言能力、动机、语言意识和语言学习策略的使用。结果显示远高于平均水平，通常非常出色，能力得分和对显式学习的直接偏好。似乎强烈的动机和高水平的语言能力和语言意识相结合，是使多语者成为异常成功的第二语言学习者的原因。本文认为，语言能力既是发展高水平语言意识的先决条件，而且（由于这两个概念部分重叠），有时归因于能力的大部分动力确实是意识。