Schmidt argues for the role of consciousness

in language acquisition

Schmidt & Frota (1986)

· Importance of noticing the input

It seems that if [R] was to learn and use a particular type of verbal forms, it was not enough for it to have been taught and drilled in class. It was also not enough for it to occur in input, but [R] had to notice the input…[R] subjectively felt as [he] was going through the learning process that conscious awareness of what was present in the input was causal. (p. 281)

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

Journal entry, Week 6

This week we were introduced to and drilled on the imperfect. Very useful! The basic contrast seems to be straightforward enough…[using the imperfect] L says is a common way of making excuses…Wednesday night A came over to play cards, and the first thing he said was [I was going to call you (imp form)], exactly the kind of excuse L had said we could expect. I noticed his speech was full of the imperfect, which I never heard (or understood) before, and during the evening I managed to produce quite a few myself, without hesitating much. Very satisfying! (p. 279)

Schmidt (1990) The Role of consciousness in second language learning, Applied Linguistics 11, 129-158

Intake: Part of the input that the learner notices.

Noticing: A necessary condition for storage (aka learning)

· It seems that all input makes it into short term memory

o e.g. results from shadowing study—good recall of unattended material of shadowing is discontinued immediately after target word presentation

· However, only attended material is a candidate for long-term storage.

· Unattended material is simply lost

Noticing is constrained by a number of factors:

· Expectations

o Events are not noticed if they are either

§ uninterpretable in the current context

§ so stable as to be part of the context

· Frequency

o More frequent items are more likely to be noticed

· Perceptual Salience

o Phonologically reduced morphemes are less likely to be noticed

§ contracted

§ unstressed

· Skill level

o Acquisition of new structure required the routinization of previously learned skills

o Issues in ‘dividing attention’

· Task demands

o Information that must be heeded in order to carry out a task will be committed to memory

Incidental learning is possible

· If task demands focus attention on relevant features of the input

Implicit second language learning

· The jury is still out

· Do learners need to have explicit knowledge of ‘rules’?

· Implicit learning seems to be possible in a connectionist model

o Gradual accumulation of associations of co-occurring features (e.g. implicit knowledge of gender in French)

o Associations are strengthened by frequency