This article discusses the conceptualization, measurement, and validity of a recently emerged construct in the field of second language acquisition (SLA)—implicit language aptitude (alternatively “implicit aptitude”). Implicit aptitude is a set of cognitive abilities that enable learners to make unconscious computations of the distributional and transitional probabilities of linguistic input. Implicit aptitude is key to an accurate understanding of the cognitive foundation of language learning and contributes significantly to the advancement of SLA theory and pedagogy. The article starts by clarifying the concept and components of implicit aptitude, elaborating its role in SLA theories, identifying its attributes, and discussing its measurement. It then synthesizes the empirical evidence on its divergent, convergent, and predictive validity, which refers to whether it is distinct or separable from explicit aptitude, whether measures of implicit aptitude are correlated, and whether it is predictive of learning outcomes, respectively. Next, the article provides an overview of the seven empirical studies included in this special issue that examined implicit aptitude from various perspectives. The article concludes by identifying future directions.

中文翻译：

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隐式语言能力：对结构进行概念化、验证措施和检查证据

本文讨论了第二语言习得 (SLA) 领域中最近出现的一个概念的概念化、测量和有效性——隐式语言能力（或“隐式能力”）。内隐能力是一组认知能力，使学习者能够无意识地计算语言输入的分布和过渡概率。内隐能力是准确理解语言学习的认知基础的关键，并且对 SLA 理论和教学法的进步做出了重大贡献。本文首先阐明了内隐能力的概念和组成部分，阐述了它在 SLA 理论中的作用，确定了它的属性，并讨论了它的测量方法。然后，它综合了关于其发散、收敛和预测有效性的经验证据，这分别指的是它是否与外显能力不同或可分离，内隐能力的测量是否相关，以及它是否可以预测学习成果。接下来，本文概述了本期特刊中包含的七项实证研究，这些研究从不同的角度审视了内隐能力。文章最后确定了未来的方向。