Psycholinguistic Aspects of L2 Learning

Psycholinguistics: the study of the mental structures and processes involved in the acquisition and use of language

· Investigation of the cognitive processing of language

· A look inside the “black box” of linguistic knowledge and use

Psycholinguistic issues in L2 Acquisition:

I. L1 Transfer (review)

· Negative Transfer

· Positive Transfer

· Avoidance (relative clauses)

· Overuse

Behaviorist View: Interference

Habits of the L1 prevent acquisition of L2 habits

Cognitivist View: L1 as “input”

Learners use L1 knowledge in forming hypotheses about the L2 structure/rules.

Effect of Transfer is not Mechanistic

(against Behaviorism)

· Errors do not occur just because the L1 and L2 differ

· Learners have some idea about what L1 features are “transferable”

· Learner’s stage of development influences transfer

o Speech acts (requests, apologies, refusals) are not transferred in the early stages

o Some Grammatical Features not transferred in early stages. e.g. post-verbal negation.

I no go. NOT I go no(t).

§ Even in languages with post-verbal negation e.g., German

§ Even though English has instances of post-verbal negation

e.g., ‘They will not go’ ‘I am not here’

Kellerman (1979) proposed that learners take the following into account when “deciding” whether or not to transfer L1 properties

· Similarity of L1 and L2 (relatedness)

· The corness of the L1 property

o Frequency

o Literalness

o Concreteness

o Order listed in dictionary

insert figure here

II. The role of Consciousness

Stephen Krashen:

Acquired system

· Product of application of the same language-learning abilities as children use

· Consists of subconscious knowledge of the L2 grammar

· The system used in ‘on-line’ speech

Learned system

· Product of formal instruction (classroom)

· Consists of conscious knowledge of L2 grammatical rules (tend to be the “easy”, teachable ones)

· System only accessible in unspeeded, form focused tasks (e.g. tests)

Krashen felt that the two systems operated separately. There could be no ‘cross-over’ or ‘interface’, e.g. through some ‘consciousness-raising’ process.

Schmidt (1990)

· Importance of noticing the input in acquisition

· Instruction served as a sort of ‘consciousness-raising’

III. Second Language Processing

· What are the actual mechanisms involved in second language acquisition?

· How do they relate to processing and memory constraints?

Not all theories suppose a separation between acquired and learned knowledge

· Continuum ranging from explicit to implicit knowledge or controlled to automatic processing

o Explicit knowledge can become implicit through practice exposure, drills

o Controlled processes become automatic with time, experience and practice

o (e.g. Bialystok and Sharwood Smith 1985 and McLaughlin 1990)

· In your native language the use of greetings is automatic:

speaker 1: Hi, how are you doing?

speaker 2: Fine, and you?

· It is not automatic in your second language at first:

speaker 1: Genkideska? (‘How are you?’ in Japanese)

speaker 2: Anatawa

· It has been proposed that all linguistic knowledge is part of routinization

o “be going to” becomes a future tense marker and loses its sense of direction

o “ne…pas” in French used to mean “not a step” now is regular negation

Linguistic knowledge can change through a process of restructuring

o Discontinuous or qualitative change

o Each new stage is new internal organization

§ The interlanguage is restructured

o Not just addition of new information

Time1	Time 2	Time3	Time4
I am no go.	I am no go.	I am no go.	I am no go.
No look.	No look.	Don’t look.	Don’t go.
I am no run.	I am don’t run.	I am don’t run.	I am no run.
No run.	Don’t run.	Don’t run.	Don’t run.

from Ellis (1985)

o Time 1: no used for all negation

o Time 2: no or don’t used in any case

o Time 3: don’t only used for imperatives, don’t and no used for statements.

o Time 4: don’t only used for imperative, no only used for statements

· Restructuring often associated with a U-shaped curve

o As the restructuring takes place the accuracy for a previously correct form drops

o After time, the accuracy may regain its pre-restructuring level

o e.g. Lightbown (1983) for use of –ing in progressive forms of French learners of English

STAGE I -ing Used for all present and progressive

STAGE 3 -ing Used only for progressive

STAGE 2

-ing and present tense

Used for progressive