The audio‐lingual habit theory relates more closely to a mechanistic theory of learning while the cognitive code‐learning theory corresponds more nearly to a mentalistic interpretation. Although both researchers and teachers have tended toward an insistence upon one approach or the other as being the better method, the findings of this study indicated that the student ability factors which affect achievement in language learning are not the same under both methods of instruction. Furthermore, the results of the analyses suggested that, on the basis of information available to the counselor, it would be possible to assign a student to the type of class which would be most suitable to his particular capabilit