Cognition (Ch. 5)

Understanding SLA

Lourdes Ortega (2009)

www.routledge.com/cw/ortega Published by Routledge © 2009 Mark Sawyer

Some contextualization

 Positive evidence vs. negative feedback  Why not negative evidence ?

  A simple example: Put the adverb

often

into the sentence

I drink coffee

The logical problem of language acquisition:   Language seems logically unlearnable How can we explain the fact that all children learn it?

 UG, (skill learning), emergentist answers

5.1 Information processing in psychology & SLA

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  Representation/access Knowledge/processing Symbols/computation   Controlled vs automatic processing Effortful vs. effortless Serial vs parallel Attention & memory are limited

5.2 The power of practice:

Proceduralization & automaticity  Proceduralization / Automatization: Knowledge “that” (declarative/explicit)  Knowledge “how” (procedural/implicit)  Involves speed-up + restructuring

5.3 An exemplary study of skill acquisition theory: DeKeyser (1997)  6 sessions (3 weeks) to learn Autopractan grammar, vocab  15 sessions to practice  Conditions: (a) single or dual task; (b) comprehension, production, mixed  Results: (1)reduction of practice effect (2) mode-specific automatization

5.4 Long-term memory

 Declarative/propositional (explicit)  Procedural (implicit)  Semantic: decontextualized  Episodic: based on experienced events

5.5 Long-term memory & L2 vocabulary knowledge

    Strength (procedural) Size (declarative) Depth (both)     multiple meanings (polysemy) morpho-syntactic behavior relations to other words contextual/usage constraints Nonselectivity: Simultaneous activation of both L1 & L2 information in language use

5.6 Working memory

 Manages 同時  storage & processing capacity limitations can be severe  activation is temporary  Site for executive control  Site of consciousness  Also induction, hypothesizing, analogizing, prioritizing, deciding

Working Memory: Components  Central executive  Phonological loop  Visuo-spatial sketchpad

5.7 Memory as storage:

Passive working memory tasks   Passive WTM = STM (depending…) Limitations measured by span of recall of…  Digits  Words  Non-words  Sentences

STM Limitations: Explanations

 Capacity (size)  Time passage  Increasing interference  LTM shortcomings

5.8 Memory as dynamic processing:

Active working memory tasks

  Simultaneous processing/storage Limitations in span measured by…  Reading span task  Listening span task  L2 WM capacity predicts L2 proficiency (  Capacity reflects control of processing rather than size of storage (Engle, 2002)

5.9 Attention & L2 learning

 Characteristics of attention  Limited  Selective  Voluntary  Controls access to consciousness

Attentional conditions used in research 1.

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3.

 Incidental Implicit Explicit How do these conditions influence learning?

5.10 Learning without intention = Incidental learning , IS possible   e.g. vocabulary thru extensive reading But…intention seems to work better (for specific purposes)

5.11 Learning without attention  Noticing vs. detection only , or… Inside or outside focal/selective attention  Focal attention entails consciousness (subjective experience)  Fleeting recognition of tree while doing other things can be detection-only , but evoked intuition, inference, feeling entails noticing

5.12 Learning without awareness  Immediate think-aloud research has shown strong effect of awareness on learning (more so for understanding)  Indirect measures --uptake of recasts, note-taking--have shown no effect .

5.13 Disentangling Attention from Awareness?

Different Measurements  Awareness  Self-reports (of subjective experience)  Attention  Dual task (learning from unattended task)  Memory tests  Direct: recognize item later  Indirect: show bias to prefer old items

5.14 Learning without rules

= learning rules without…  looking for them (process)  awareness of learning (product)  Such implicit learning can be shown by   Memorizing artificial language strings: aabcd abbce abeec… (*acbbe) Later distinguishing “(un)grammatical” ones (to some extent) w/o awareness

An exemplary study of symbolic vs. associative learning: Robinson (1997)   Dative alternation rule: mono-syllabicity  Mitt gave his delegates to John  Mitt gave John his delegates  Mitt donated his delegates to John  *Mitt donated John his delegates What can be learned from brief training?

 John minided some hot coffee to Sue  *Sandy bivarded Patrick some Swiss cake

Robinson (1997): Learning conditions  Implicit: Memorize word positions  Incidental: Read for meaning  Explicit 1: Look for rules (with help)  Explicit 2: Receive rule, practice Post-test: Speed, accuracy of judgments Results: Explicit 2 fastest, most accurate All groups better on old than new instances

Robinson (1997): Conclusion  Low-level implicit learning is possible, allowing fast access of learned instances  Explicit learning leads to generalization with awareness.

An emergentist turn in SLA?

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3 important tenets of learning associative: based on co-occurrences probabilistic: not categorical, deterministic     rationally contingent: guesses based on… accumulated statistical (frequency) information most relevant recent evidence attention to cues contextual clues

Other emergentist tenets

 Usage-based: use & knowledge are inseparable; no competence/performance, representation/access distinctions  Grounded: language & thought are structured by human experience  Dynamic system: identifiable patterns emerge from a multiplicity of factors