The article is devoted to discursive and linguistic abilities which are essential components of human intelligence that have influence upon adequate and correct understanding of the «flow of speech». The authors invent a new concept of «discursive abilities» and prove the reasonableness of its existence at the theoretical and empirical levels. The development of the discursive abilities and their positioning within a structure of intelligence are examined in the domain of foreign language acquisition. For all that an original measure of linguistic and discursive abilities is used in the research along with well-established tests of general, verbal and social intelligence.