Explaining Second Language

Learning
 Contexts for Language Learning
 Behaviorism (see Learning a First
Language ppt)
 Innatism (see Learning a First Language
ppt)
 Cognitive/developmental perspective
 Information Processing

 The Sociocultural Perspective

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Contexts for Language Learning

 A child or adult learning a second language

is different from a child acquiring a first
language in terms of both
1) learner characteristics
and
2) learning conditions

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Differences in Learning L1 & L2

Learner Characteristics

1. Knowledge of another
language
2. Cognitive maturity
3. Metalinguistic awareness
4. World Knowledge
5. Anxiety about speaking

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Differences in Learning L1 & L2

Learning Conditions

6. Freedom to be silent
7. Large time & contact
8. Corrective feedback:
(grammar and
pronunciation)
9. Corrective feedback:
(meaning, word choice,
politeness)
10. Modified input
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Differences in Learning L1 & L2

 Summary:

SLA (Second Language Acquisition) theories

need to account for language acquisition by
learners with a variety of characteristics and
learning in a variety of contexts.

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Information processing

 Cognitive psychologists working in this model

 compare language acquisition to the capacities of
computers for storing, integrating, and retrieving
information.
 do not think that humans have a language-specific module
(i.e. LAD) in the brain.
 do not assume that ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’ are distinct
mental processes.

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Information processing

1. Attention-processing

2. Skill learning

3. Restructuring

4. Transfer appropriate processing

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Information processing

 Attention-processing:
 This model suggests that learners have to pay attention at first
to any aspect of the language that they are trying to
understand or produce.
 Gradually, through experience and practice, information that
was new becomes easier to process, and learners become
able to access it quickly and even automatically.
 This can explain why L2 readers need more time to understand
a text, even if they eventually do fully comprehend it.

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 Information processing

 Skill Learning:
 Some researchers regard SLA as ‘skill learning’. They suggest
that most learning, including language learning, starts with
declarative knowledge (knowledge that) and becoming
procedural knowledge.
 In SLA, the path from declarative to procedural knowledge is
often like classroom learning where rule learning is followed by
practice.

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Information processing

 Restructuring:
 Restructuring may account for what appear to be
sudden bursts of progress and apparent
backsliding.
 It may result from the interaction of knowledge we
already have and the acquisition of new
knowledge (without extensive practice).
e.g. “I saw” → “I seed” or “I sawed” –
overapplying the general rule.

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Information processing
 Transfer appropriate processing:
 This hypothesizes that Information is best retrieved in
situations that are similar to those in which it was acquired.
This is because when we learn something our memories also
record something about the context and the way in which it
was learned.
 This can explain why knowledge that is acquired mainly in
rule learning or drill activities may be easier to access on tests
that resemble the learning activities than in communicative
situation.
 On the other hand, if learners’ cognitive resources are
occupied with a focus on meaning in communicative activities,
they may find grammar tests very difficult.
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Connectionism (I)

 Connectionists attribute greater importance to the role of the

environment than to any specific innate knowledge.
 They argue that what is innate is simply the ability to learn, not
any specifically linguistic principles.
 They emphasize the frequency with which learners encounter
specific linguistic features in the input and the frequency with
which features occur together.

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L2 Applications

 The interaction hypothesis (see Learning

a First Language ppt)

 Input processing

 Processability theory

 The Sociocultural Perspective

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 Input Processing

 Input processing (VanPatten, 2004)

- Learners have limited processing capacity and cannot
pay attention to form and meaning at the same time.
- They tend to give priority to meaning. When the
context in which they hear a sentence helps them
make sense of it, they do not notice details of the
language form.

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 Processability Theory

 Processability theory (Pienemann, 1999, 2003)

- The research showed that the sequence of development
for features of syntax and morphology was affected by
how easy these were to process.
- It integrates developmental sequences with L1 influence.
- Learners do not simply transfer features from their L1
at early stages of acquisition.
- They have to develop a certain level of processing
capacity in the L2 before they can use their knowledge
of the features that already exist in their L1.
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The Sociocultural Perspective
 The difference between Vygotsky’s socialcultural
theory and the interaction hypothesis:

Vygotsky Interaction hypothesis

- Language acquisition takes - Interaction needs to be
place in the interactions of modified and through
learner and interlocutor. negotiation for meaning.
- Greater importance is attached - Emphasis is on the individual
to the conversations, with cognitive processes in the
learning occurring through the mind of the learner.
social interaction.

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Summary
 There is no agreement on a “complete” theory of
second language acquisition yet.
 Each theoretical framework has a different focus and its
limitations.
1. Behaviorism: emphasizing stimuli and responses, but
ignoring the mental processes that are involved in learning.
2. Innatism: innate LAD, based on intuitions
3. Information processing and connectionism: involving
controlled laboratory experiments where human learning is
similar to computer processing.
4. Interactionist position: modification of interaction promotes
language acquisition and development.
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