An Integrated View of SLA

Gass & Selinker Chapter 14

Review of chapter contents• Chapters 3, 5: Native language• Chapter 6: Language universals• Chapter 7: UG• Chapter 8: Monitor Model, Competition

Model, Connectionism• Chapter 9: Social and discoursal context• Chapter 10: Input, interaction, output• Chapter 11: Instruction• Chapter 12: Nonlinguistic factors• Chapter 13: Lexicon

Review of chapter contents• These approaches tell a part of the story

of SLA, but none can account for everything.

• The authors propose a five-step approach to SLA to detail how input becomes output:

a) Apperceived inputb) Comprehended inputc) Intaked) Integratione) Output

See diagrampage 401

1. Apperceived input• “Apperception” = the process of

understanding by which newly observed qualities of an object are related to past experiences.

• An internal cognitive act that involves identifying a linguistic form as being related to some prior knowledge.

• A priming device that prepares the input for further analysis.

Apperceived input• What makes input more noticeable?

– Frequency• Very frequent, very infrequent

– Affect• Social distance, motivation, attitude

– Prior knowledge• Anchor on which to ground new knowledge

– Attention• Allows a learner to notice a mismatch between what is

known and what is heard; become aware of changes needed

– Other factors…• Negotiation, modified input, etc. – not necessary but helpful

2. Comprehended input• Comprehended vs. comprehensible

– Comprehensible input is controlled by the input provider, while comprehended input is learner driven.

– Comprehended input is viewed along a continuum of multiple stages of comprehension.• Semantics, structural analysis, phonology,

pragmatics, etc.

Comprehended input• Comprehended vs. apperceived input

– Apperception is the priming device, preparing the learner for the possibility of subsequent analysis.

– Comprehended input allows the analysis to proceed.

• Input vs. Intake?– Not all input that is comprehended becomes intake.

• Some language is comprehended for communication purposes only, while other language is made available for analysis. (more next slide)

• What determines comprehension?– Prior linguistic knowledge (NL, SLs, universals).

3. Intake• The process of assimilating linguistic material.• The mental activity that mediates between

input and grammars.• Differs from apperception and comprehension

in that it leads to grammar formation.• Where psycholinguistic processing takes

place, where incoming information is matched against prior knowledge.

• Where overgeneralizations and fossilizations can happen…

Intake• What mediates between what is

comprehended and what is used for intake?– Quality of analysis– Knowledge of L1 and L2– Part of UG/language universal

• Intake processes– Hypothesis formation– Hypothesis testing– Hypothesis rejection– Hypothesis modification– Hypothesis confirmation

4. Integration• There are four possibilities for dealing

with input, although integration is not guaranteed:

– 1. Hypothesis confirmation/rejection: intake allows learner to confirm or reject hypotheses and thus integrate the input into the developing system.

– 2. Apparent nonuse: information from intake was already present in learner grammar, so it is used for rule strengthening or hypothesis reconfirmation.

Integration (cont’d.)– 3. Storage: input is put into storage because

even though it was understood it is not clear how it should be used in the developing system; will be integrated later.

– 4. Nonuse: input that is not comprehended at a useful level does not become intake and is not used in any way.

Integration• Integration is a reiterative process that occurs

on different levels at different times.• Integration is mediated by the native language

knowledge, existing L2 knowledge, language universals, attention to and noticing the mismatch, etc.

• Integration may be observed by changes is the output, but can also be marked by underlying changes that do not alter the output until a later stage.

5. Output• Comprehensible output is necessary for testing

hypotheses.• Output forces a syntactic rather than semantic-

only analysis of language.• Output completes the feedback loop to

comprehended input.• Output does not necessarily mirror the L2

grammar.– Individual differences– L2 variation– Mode– Strength of representation

Conclusion• Learning a second/foreign language

involves many complex processes in converting what is available in the input to output.

• A number of factors intervene in these processes, from individual differences to social and discoursal factors, to other linguistic information.

• Hopefully, though, you have a better idea now of how those processes work than you did 16 weeks ago…