Chapter 5:

The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition

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Learning Outcomes

At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

Explain the relationship between language and the brain

Explain their understanding on how language is learnt and variations in language learning

Plan lessons using insights from the learnt knowledge to make their lesson more stimulating and learner-friendly.

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Language and the Brain Core linguistic processes are

typically housed in the left hemisphere. Lateralization Plasticity Critical Period Hypothesis

Obler & Gjerlow (1999)…we no longer expect

that there are language areas that are entirely ‘responsible’ for language, or even ‘dominant’ for language

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Left Vs. Right Hemisphere

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Principal hemispheric specializationsLeft hemisphere Right hemispherePhonology Nonverbal (as babies’

cries)

Morphology Visuospatial informationSyntax IntonationFunction words & Inflections

Non-literal meaning & ambiguity

Tone systems Many pragmatic abilitiesMuch lexical knowledge Some lexical knowledge

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Language and the Brain (3) How about those bilinguals or multilinguals?

Most individuals lose or recover multiple languages equally, but some recover one before the other, and some never recover use of one, after brain damage.

Methods for gathering data Correlations of location of brain damage where

languages are affected differentially. Presentation of stimuli from different languages

to the right vs the left visual or auditory fields to investigate which side of the brain is most involved in processing each language.

Mapping the brain surface during surgery by using electrical stimulation at precise points and recording which area are involved in each language.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET-scan) and other non-invasive imaging techniques

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Language and the Brain (4) How independent are the languages of multilingual speakers?

It seems reasonable that multiple language system are neither completely separate nor completely fused.

Coordinate bilingualism (2 semantic systems, 2 linguistic codes, two languages learned in distinctively separate contexts)

Compound bilingualism (one semantic system, two linguistics codes, two languages learned at the same time & context)

Subordinate bilingualism (the weaker language is interpreted through the stronger one)

How are multiple language structures organized in relation to one another in the brain? Are both languages stored in the same areas? L1 and L2 are stored in somewhat different areas of the brain, but

both are predominantly in (probably overlapping) areas of the left hemisphere.

The right hemisphere might be more involved in L2 than in L1.

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Language and the Brain (5) Does the organization of the brain for L2 in relation

to L1 differ with age of acquisition, how it is learned, or level of proficiency? Age

Individuals who acquire L2 later in life show more right-hemisphere involvement.

How it is learnt Second languages may be learnt by many means

rather than the single means found in L1 acquisition and, consequently, may have a greater apparent hemispheric spread.

Proficiency level: It appears probable that the organization of L2

knowledge is more diffuse for lower levels of proficiency and more compact for highly fluent L2 users.

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Language and the Brain (6) Do two or more languages show the same sort of

loss or disruption after brain damage? When there is differential impairment or recovery, which language recovers first? Loss or damage

First to come, last to go Recovery

Not only can different languages be affected differentially by brain damage, but different abilities in the same language may be differentially impaired.

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Language and the Brain (7) Conclusion

What is being added in the brain when a second language is acquired is not very different from, nor usually entirely separate from what is already there for the first.

There are some intriguing differences with regards to: Level of L2 proficiency Circumstances of L2 learning The fact that our brains are not ‘wired’ in exactly the

same way.

How are second languages learnt? Why are some people more successful than others?

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Learning Process Two major framework

Information Processing (IP) Learning language is essentially like

learning other domains of knowledge, which employ the same kind of mental activity.

Three approaches: Multidimensional Model, Processability, and Competition Model.

Connectionism Learning process is a matter of increasing

strength of associations rather than as the abstraction of rules or principles.

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LP: Information Processing Concerned with the mental processes

involved in language learning and use. perception and the input of new

information the formation, organization, and

regulation of internal (mental) representation

retrieval and output strategies

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LP: Information Processing (2) Assumptions under IP (McLaughlin, 1987)

Second language learning is the acquisition of a complex cognitive skill.

Complex skills can be reduced to sets of simpler component skills, which are hierarchically organized.

Learning of a skill initially demands learners’ attention, and thus involves controlled processing.

Controlled processing requires considerable mental ‘space,’ or attentional effort.

Humans are limited-capacity processors. They can attend to a limited number of controlled processing demands at one time.

Learners go from controlled to automatic processing with practice. Automatic processing requires less mental ‘space’ and attentional effort.

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LP: Information Processing (3) Assumptions under IP (McLaughlin, 1987)

Learning essentially involves development from controlled to automatic processing of component skills, freeing learners’ controlled processing capacity for new information and higher-order skills.

Along with development from controlled to automatic processing, learning also essentially involves restructuring or reorganization of mental representations.

Reorganizing mental representations as part of learning makes structures more coordinated, integrated, and efficient, including a faster response time when they are activated.

In SLA, restructuring of internal L2 representations, along with larger stores in memory, accounts for increasing levels of L2 proficiency.

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LP: Information Processing (4)M

enta

l cap

acity

re

quire

men

tLower-order

skillsHigher-order

skills• Controlled

processing• Attention to

comprehension or production of basic vocabulary and syntactic structures

• Attention to feature and content

Automatized

throughPRACTICE

Fossilization

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LP: Information Processing (5) Stages in IP (Skehan, 1998)

INPUT CENTRAL PROCESSING OUTPUT

Perception Controlled-automatic processing

Production

Declarative-procedural knowledgeRestructuring

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LP: Information Processing (6)

Input Intake

Whatever sample of L2 that learners are exposed to

The subset of all input that actually get assigned to our long-term memory store (inferred competence)

ATTENTIONS

• Frequency of encounter with items

• Perceptual saliency of items

• Instructional strategies that can structure learner attention

• Individuals’ processing ability

• Readiness to notice particular item

• Task demands, or the nature of activity the learner is engaged in

• Developing & testing strategies

through

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LP: Information Processing (7) OUTPUTS

The language that learners produce, either in speech/sign or writing.

Meaningful production practice helps learners by enhancing fluency by furthering development

of automaticity through practice noticing gaps in their own knowledge as they

are forced to move from semantic to syntactic processing, which may lead learners to give more attention to relevant information

testing hypotheses based on developing interlanguage, allowing for monitoring and revision

talking about language, including eliciting relevant input and (collaboratively) solving problems

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LP: Information Processing (8) CENTRAL PROCESSING

Attention to Formal Properties of Language

INFORMATION PROCESSING

Controlled Automatic

FocalPerformance based on formal rule learning

Performance in a test situation

PeripheralPerformance based on implicit learning or analogic learning

Performance in communication situations

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LP: Information Processing (9) CENTRAL PROCESSING

Declarative stage

Procedural stage

It involves the acquisition of isolated facts and rules.

Processing is relatively slow and often under attentional control.

Processing of longer associated units Increasing level of automatization PRACTICE

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LP: Theories regarding order of acquisition MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODEL

This model includes the following claims: Learners acquire certain grammatical structures

in a developmental sequence. Developmental sequences reflect how learners

overcome processing limitations. Language instruction which targets

developmental features will be successful only if learners have already mastered the processing operations which are associated with the previous stage of acquisition.

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…order of acquisition (cont’) MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODEL

Clahen (1984)Which syntactic structures require more

processing capacity is determined by the extent to which their underlying relations are preserved in output, and by the perceptual salience of any

reordering that does occur. Processing hierarchy

Canonical Order Strategy There is no reordering from ‘basic’ word

order. Structures which can be processed with

this strategy will be acquired first.e.g. cats and dogs, safe and sound, etc.

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…order of acquisition (cont’) MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODEL

Processing hierarchy Initialization/Finalization Strategy

Reordering which moves underlying elements into the first or last position in a grammatical string are perceptually more salient, and thus easier to process than processing several different forms.

e.g. He later went to France. Subordinate Clause Strategy

Reordering in subordinate clauses in not allowed.

e.g. As far as … is concerned,

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…order of acquisition (cont’) PROCESSABILITY THOERY

Aims at determining and explaining the sequences in which processing skills develop in relation to language learning.

Hierarchy of processing skills Lemma/word access

Words are processed, but do not carry any grammatical information or is associated with any ordering rules.

Category procedure Lexical items are categorized, and

grammatical information may be added. Phrasal procedure

Operations within the phrase level occur, such as agreement for number or gender between adjective and noun within the noun phrase.

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…order of acquisition (cont’) PROCESSABILITY THOERY

Hierarchy of processing skills S-procedure

Grammatical information may be exchanged across phrase boundaries, such as number agreement between subject and verb.

Clause boundary Main and subordinate clause structures may

be handled differently. Processing skills at Level 1 is a prerequisite for processing

skill at Level 2, and so forth.

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…order of acquisition (cont’) COMPETITION MODEL

It assumes that all linguistic performance involves ‘mapping’ between external form and internal function.

e.g. They are having breakfast.

Form Functions

Lexical item its auditory properties

its semantic properties

Strings of lexical items

word-order patterns & morphological inflections

grammatical

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…order of acquisition (cont’) COMPETITION MODEL

SLA involves adjusting the internalized system of mapping that exists in the learner’s L1 to one that is appropriate for the target language, accomplished by

Detecting cues in language input (particular function)

Recognizing weight to assign each possible cue (cue strength)

Multiple cues are available simultaneously in input; language processing essentially involves ‘competition’ among the various cues.

e.g. What determines certain constituents to be the subjects in the sentences?

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…order of acquisition (cont’) COMPETITION MODEL

e.g. What determines certain constituents to be the subjects in the sentences? The horse kicks the cow. On the stage comes the President. Dara is working at his desk. John was killed by a robber.

How reliable is the cue that enable you to make such decision?

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…order of acquisition (cont’) COMPETITION MODEL

Acquisition of appropriate form-function mappings is driven primarily by the probability that a particular functional interpretation should be chosen in the presence of a particular cue.

Determinants of cue strength Task frequency

how often the form-function mapping occurs Contrastive availability

when the cue is present, whether or not it has any contrastive effect

Conflict reliability how often the cue lead to a correct

interpretation when it is used in comparison to other potential cues.

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LP: Connectionism It focuses on the increasing strength of associations

between stimuli and responses, a change in which causes learning to occur.

Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) As learners are exposed to repeated patterns of

units in input, they extract regularities in the patterns; and probabilistic associations are formed and

strengthened (connection strengths or patterns of activation).

The strengths of associations changes with the frequency of input and the nature of feedback.

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LP: Connectionism (2) Different assumptions between IP and PDP

Attention is not viewed as a central mechanism that directs information between separate memory stores, which IP claims are available for controlled processing versus automatic processing. Rather, attention is a mechanism that is distributed throughout the processing system in local patterns.

Information processing is not serial in nature: i.e. it is not a ‘pipeline… in which information is conveyed in a fixed serial order from one storage structure to the next.’ Instead, processing is parallel: many connections are activated at the same time.

Knowledge is not stored in memory or retrieved as patterns, but as ‘connection strengths’ between units which account for the patterns being recreated.

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LP: Connectionism (3) Many connections in the brain must be activated all at

once to account for successful production and interpretation of language and not processed in sequence.

Proponents of PDP claims that …(although) frequency is an all-pervasive causal

factor, it interacts with other determinants, including how noticeable the language patterns are in the input learners receive, and whether the patterns are regular or occur with many variations and exceptions.