Instructor: Pr.

Mohamed Daoud ISLT Master’s Program

Student: Eya Dahmen & Insaf Sellami Course: Applied Linguistics
Date: October 29th, 2009

Second- Language Learning

Barry McLaughling and John Zemblidge

In William Grabe and Robert B. Kaplan. (1992). Introduction to Applied Linguistics.

Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. PP 32-40

 General outline

Different attempts/ perspectives in developing a typical process of learning a second

language:

 Factors influencing Language Learning fail to develop the model of a good

language learner
 Influence of the First Language Acquisition on SLA debated
 Comparing the process of learning L 1 and L 2
 The interlanguage approach
 The cognitive approach:
 Automacity
 The Restructuring process
 Summary

Part 1:

I- Fifteen years of second-language research

1. Factors Influencing Language Learning

Failure to provide a sufficiently complex profile of a good language learner.

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2. The influence of L 1 on Second Language Acquisition
 Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis view
 The Morpheme Order studies’ view

3. L 1 and L 2 compared
 L 1 = L2: The Morpheme Order Studies (Roger Brown, 1973)
 L 1 ≠ L2: Fossilization (Selinker, 1972) and the Critical Period Hypothesis
 L 1 Vs L2: LAD / UG; the Cognitive Explanation
 Language uniqueness and the Contemporay Chomskyan Theory
► It is no longer a question of L1 and L2 relationship but a question of how
learners could set new patterns for the process of L2 learning.

4. The Interlanguage Approach/ the Acculturation Approach

 The Interlanguage Approach: review
 Acculturation : review
 Pidginization/ Fossilization: review

Part 2:
II- The Cognitive approach:

1. Review:

Thinking

Information Negociation of
sharing meaning
learning

Problem solving Interaction

2
 Edited by Foxit Reader
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2. Second language learning:

 The cognitive approach to SLA seeks for explanations of second language learning in
terms of mental representations and information processing (language as a process ≠
product).

 Learning is a cognitive process because it is thought to involve the internal

representations that regulate and guide performance = selecting appropriate
vocabulary, grammatical rules, and pragmatic conventions governing language
use.

 The automatization and restructuring of the acquired information improve

second language learner's performance.

 Two interdependent and central notions to the cognitive perspective:

Automaticity not automacity
2.1 The Routinization of skills: Automacity:

 The routinization of skills through practice to built a set of automatic procedures.

 Long term vs. short term memory (Shiffrin & Schneider 1977).

2.2 Restructuring:

 When acquiring complex skills, the learner devices new structures for interpreting
new information and for imposing a new organization on information already
stored (S.V.O V.S.O)

The second language learner restructures the acquired linguistic data.

 3 phases of restructuring:

The Restructuring Process (Karmiloff-Smith 1986)

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  Summary:

 The cognitive approach focuses on how learners accumulate and automatize rules
and how they restructure their internal representation to match the target
language.

 The cognitive approach to SLA is a fruitful area of investigation a tendency

towards exploring language as a process ≠ product.

 The purpose of SLA studies is to draw the profile of a good language learner
sufficiently complex to include all variables.

If we want to understand the second language learning phenomena, we need to

consider the linguistic, the socio-psychological and the cognitive perspectives (e.g.
language transfer).

Web site links for further readings:

http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Learning-Theory-Behavorism/43615

http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/113

http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/54/4/398

http://books.google.com/books?id=Yzdl3pW0Yf4C&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=cognitiv
e+approach+to+SLA&source=bl&ots=U4i5H4VivI&sig=dCVd-
4UxNDVwm6PCoqf2g5LnMLA&hl=fr&ei=lNbmStbuIs75_Aar_dCQCA&sa=X&oi=bo
ok_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDEQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=cognitive%20ap
proach%20to%20SLA&f=false

http://cwp60.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej32/r8.html