The Effect of Aptitude on Iranian EFL Learners’ Attainment Scores: An Investigation into Meara’s (2005) LLAMA Aptitude Tests

Although the various aptitude measures have widely been explored in the literature, the LLAMA Aptitude Tests have rarely been examined in an Iranian context to-date. Thus, this study was carried out drawing on Meara’s (2005) LLAMA Aptitude Tests to investigate the contribution of aptitude construct on Iranian EFL learners’ attainment scores. By conducting a quantitative study, this research attempted to examine to what extent aptitude was a good indicator of Iranian EFL learners’ attainment scores. To this end, 284 pre-intermediate EFL learners with age range 18-25 studying in IAU East Tehran Branch participated in the study. They were asked to take the LLAMA Aptitude Tests at the given time. The predictive power of aptitude was analyzed through multiple linear regression. The findings showed aptitude could purely predict 5% of variance in students’ attainment scores. Among the LLAMA Aptitude subtests, LLAMA E had the greatest impact. It can be said that sound-symbol correspondence did predict 29% of variance of EFL learners’ attainment scores. The implications and suggestions for future studies were also postulated