Psycholinguistics &
Foreign language teaching
Presented by Group 4
Members of Group 4
1, Nguyễn Ngọc Phương Anh
2, Bùi Thị Mai Hương
3, Đào Hồng Hà
4, Trần Xuân Hào
5, Bùi Văn Điệp
Content
1, Definitions of linguistics
2, Key concepts of psycholinguistics
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
4, Second language learning ( SLL)
5, The similarities & differences between FLA &
SLL
1, Definitions of Psycholinguistic
1, Definitions of Psycholinguistic
• The field of Psycholinguistics, or the psychology of language,
is concerned with discovering the psychological processes that
make it possible for humans to acquire and use language.
Jean Berko Gleason, Psycholinguistics, 1993
• Psycholinguistics is the branch of cognitive psychology that
studies the psychological basis of linguistic competence and
performance.
WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. Princeton University, Farlex Inc, 20032012
• Psycholinguistics is defined traditionally as the study of
human language, language, language comprehension,
language production and language acquisition.
Evelyn Marcussen Hatch, Psycholinguistics (1983:1)
1, Definitions of Psycholinguistic
2, Key concepts of psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics is the branch of cognitive psychology that
studies the psychological basis of linguistic competence and
performance
 In “Beginning Concepts, 15” according to Eva Fernández and Helen Cairns:
Linguistic competence
Linguistic performance
The
knowledge
about
language that is in a person’s
brain or mind. (Grammar and
Lexicon).
It provides a system for
pairing sound and meaning.
(The linguists are concerned
with this)
The use of such knowledge in
the actual processing of
sentences, by which we mean
their
production
and
comprehension.
(The
psycholinguists
concerned with this)
are
2, Key concepts of psycholinguistics
• Psycholinguistics is defined traditionally as the study of
human language, language, language comprehension,
language production and language acquisition.
Evelyn Marcussen Hatch Psycholinguistics (1983:1)
psycholinguistics
psycholinguistics
2.1.Language Processing:
psycholinguistics
2.2.Language Acquisition:
psycholinguistics
2.2.Neurolinguistics
Neurolinguistics is the study of how language is
represented in the brain: that is,
- how and where our brains store our knowledge of the
language that we speak, understand, read, and write,
- what happens in our brains as we acquire that
knowledge,
- what happens as we use it in our everyday lives.
http://www.linguisticsociety.org
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.1. Definition:
Language acquisition is the process by which humans
acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language,
as well as to produce and use words to communicate. The
capacity to successfully use language requires one to acquire
a range of tools including syntax, phonetics, and an
extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocalized as
with speech or manual as in sign. Language acquisition
usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies
infants’ acquisition of their native language during the first 6
or 7 years of one's life (roughly from birth to the time one
starts school).
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.2. Characteristics:
-It is an instinct.
-It is very rapid.
-It is very complete.
-It does not require instruction.
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.3. Stages:
3.3.1. Pre-speech/Pre-linguistic stages
a. Cooing stage:
-During first 4 months
-Cry = produce some sounds
b. Babbling stage:
-Begins at about the 5th months of age.
-Indiscriminate utterance of speech sounds.
-Many native speech sounds may be absent, some are
naturally harder to pronounce like /r/, /th/.
-Very few consonant clusters and repeated syllables are
common.
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.3. Stages:
3.3.2. Linguistic stages
a.One-word stage:
-From about nine months of age
-The production of actual speech signs.
-The first 50 words tend to be names of important persons,
greetings, foods, highlights of the daily routine such as
baths, ability to change their environment-give, take, go, up,
down, open. There are two patterns in child word learning:
- Referential: names of objects.
- Expressive: personal desires and social interactions (byebye, hi, good, etc.)
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.3. Stages:
3.3.2. Linguistic stages
b. Two-word stage:
-From about 20 months of age
-Different combinations of word order:
+ S-V: Mary go.
+ V-modifier: Push truck.
+ Possessor-possessed: Mommy sock.
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.3. Stages:
3.3.2. Linguistic stages
c. Multiple-word stage:
-From two and a half years
-Sentences of several words.
-Overextension of a pattern: go--goed; good--gooder.
-Between about two years and two and a half years of age, a
child’s expressions become more complex. Utterances
contain several words representing single clauses.
-By the age of 4, most children are able to:
+ Ask questions
+ Give commands
+ Report real events
+ Create stories
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.4. First language acquisition theories:
3.4.1. Behaviourism
•Main figure: B. F. Skinner, Verbal Behavior (1957)
- An effective language behavior = production of correct responses to
stimuli
- Two types of verbal responses:
+ Verbal behavior that is reinforced by the child receiving something it
wants: Language is a “conditioned behavior”: the stimulus response
process:
Stimulus -> Response -> Feedback -> Reinforcement
E.g.: If a child says “want milk” and a parent gives his some milk, the
response is reinforced and over repeated instances is conditioned.
+ Verbal behavior caused by imitating others: Traditional behaviorists
believe that language learning is the result of imitation, practice,
feedback on success and habit formation.
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.4. First language acquisition theories:
3.4.1. Behaviourism
•Counter Arguments
- Children often make grammatical mistakes that they couldn't possibly
have heard: Cookies are gooder than bread. Bill taked the toy. We goed
to the store.
- Children behave as efficient linguists: they form linguistic rules and
apply them by generalization. The over-generalization process does not
occur in adult’s speech and this is another proof against the hypothesis
of imitation.
- If children could only learn a language by imitating sounds, they were
only able to use words and sentences that they have heard before.
However, babies and toddlers use real words and structures to create
new words. As a result of this, researchers came to the conclusion that
babies have the ability to acquire language from birth on.
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.4. First language acquisition theories:
3.4.2. Innatism
•Main figure: Noam Chomsky
- Children are biologically programmed for language.
- Language acquisition device (LAD) = principles which are universal
to all human languages - Universal Grammar (UG): If children are preequipped with UG, what they have to learn is the ways in which their
own language make use of those principles
- Language develops in a similar way, on similar schedule
- All children exposed to language, regardless of environmental factors
and differences in intelligence, are able to acquire very complex
grammars at a very early age.
- Certain aspects of language structure seem to be preordained by the
cognitive structure of the human mind.
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.4. First language acquisition theories:
3.4.2. Innatism
•Counter Arguments: It is clear that children don’t learn language
through imitation alone, this does not prove that they must have an
LAD – language learning could merely be through general learning and
understanding abilities and interactions with other people.
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.4. First language acquisition theories:
3.4.3. Interactionism
•Main figure: Jerome Bruner
-The role of linguistic environment in interaction with the child innate
capacities in determining language development.
-Language develops as a result of interplay between the human
characteristic of the child and the environment.
-Language acquisition supporting system (LASS)
-Child-directed speech (CDS): modified interaction
3, First language acquisition (FLA)
3.4. First language acquisition theories:
3.4.3. Interactionism
•Limitations: These theories serve as a useful corrective to Chomsky's
early position and it seems likely that a child will learn more quickly
with frequent interaction. However, it has already been noted that
children in all cultures pass through the same stages in acquiring
language. We have also seen that there are cultures in which adults do
not adopt special ways of talking to children, so CDS may be useful but
seems not to be essential.
4. Basic psychological factors affecting L2 learning
• Intellectual processing, memory, and motor skills are
the basic psychological factors affecting L2 learning.
Intellectual processing
• Explication
• Induction
• Usually in our common teacher practice, we observe that
the rules and structures of L2 are explained to a learner. It
is done either in his/her (learner’s) L1 or L2 and he/she
has to apply these rules in the L2. The explanation in the
target language (L2) is usually given to more advanced L2
learners.
Explication
• It’s important to state that not all the language features can be
learned entirely by explication. Language is always undergoing
changes and not all the rules have been written down or have
been completely explained in grammar books. (Also some
common topics as English tenses or articles, prepositions, etc.
are still topics for discussion in linguistic journals.)
•
When you are using the method of explication, you
should be aware that it’s a method that is rarely applicable to
young children. (Some of you, who are already parents, or
teachers of small children, will probably know that.) Young
children learn language (their L1) by the process of induction,
mostly. Parents, who will try to use the method of explication,
will probably fail, as in the following example:
Example
• “ Parents do not even attempt to explain a relatively
simple rule morpheme rule, like that one of the plural.
You do not hear a parent saying: ‘Now, Mary, to
make the plural of “dog” you add a “z” sound to the
end of the word, while with “duck” you add an “s”
sound. You do this, Mary, because the last sound of
“dog” has a voiced consonant and the last sound of
“duck” has an unvoiced one!’” (Steinberg, 2001, p.
170).
Do you find the previous example amusing?
• There are many syntactic rules, some are simple, others
complex. Some of them may be so complex and abstract that
few people other than students of linguistics (and sometimes
not even them) can understand them (or use them correctly).
Studies done by various researchers (Hammerly, 1975;
Robinson, 1996; both in Steinberg, 2001,p. 171) proved that
explication seemed to work better for simple rules, whereas
induction (implicit instruction) was better for complex rules.
Learning rules by self-discovery is the essence of the process of
induction.
• What do you think?
What do you think?
The learner remembers what he/she heard, must analyze
the information and figures out the rule that underlines
that speech. Once that person discovered “the rule”,
he/she tries to see how or if this rule applies in other cases.
Memory
Crucial for language learning
If the person has suffered from memory impairment, he/she
won’t be able to learn his/her L1 (and much less L2) because
learning of L2 words requires memory. The learner of L2 has
to be able to link the sound /written representation of the word
with its meaning. Such connection between the form and
meaning is absolutely arbitrary (with the exception of
onomatopoeic words); thus the word for the man’s best friend
is “dog” in English, “perro” in Spanish, “Hund” in German,
“chien” in French, “pes” in Czech, “sabaka” in Russian, etc.
Memory
Memory is crucial for learning grammatical structure and
rules, and it is only through the memory that a learner can
accumulate the vast amount of speech and relevant
information.
For some of this linguistic information, the learner needs
time to process it, and further on, to use it independently.
When does the decline in memory start?
• According to some researchers, around 8 years of age some
decline in memory begins, and progressing with more
decline from about 12 years of age. Thus we can say children
under 7 have better memory than children 7-12. Young
children (under 7) tend to rely more on memory than older
children but older children began to apply their cognitive
abilities in analyzing the syntactic rules of L2. One possible
suggestion, or interpretation of the phenomenon could be
the presumption that older children in L2 perform syntactic
analyses relatively soon because they have realized that they
have problems memorizing all the sentences they have
heard; in that way their mental processing in L2 is being
speeded.
Short term memory, some interesting
investigations
• Some interesting findings, results of the research on short-
term memory, seem to prove that this type of memory
increases up to the age of 15 (Hunter, in Steinberg, 2001,
p. 174) Other interesting research (Cook, in LarsenFreeman, 1992, p. 202) found that adults were able to
apply their memory better than children in many
classroom learning situations but this was not valid all the
time.
Adults/children (investigations)
• They outperform children on language tasks because they can develop certain
language learning strategies that children cannot.
• Memory seems to begin its sharpest decline around the age of puberty (due to
some changes in the brain). L2 learning becomes more difficult for 15-20year-old than for 5-10-year-old (for the short-term memory). However,
previously acquired long-term memories remain intact. It’s in the L2 (new
learning) where a problem with older adult begins. Nevertheless, such
problems cannot be attributed exclusively to the decline in memory ability, it
goes together with the question whether the adults continue to engage in
higher thinking and analysis or not. If they remain intellectually active, there
is no reason to think they would not be able to master L2 structures. Yet, there
are indicators that L2 learning in a classroom situation becomes more difficult
with age.
Motor Skills
• Good pronunciation is clearly part of learning a foreign
language.
• The better our pronunciation, the better is our chance to
communicate with others.
• Motor skills is a term which psychologists use to describe the
use of muscles in performing certain skills. It applies to more
general skills, and for speech production, we utilize the
articulators of speech. These include: the mouth, lips, tongue,
vocal cords, hard and soft palates, etc., which are controlled by
muscles (and they are subsequently controlled by the brain).
The articulators of speech have to perform certain movements
and positions so that the sound is produced correctly.
When does the general decline of our motor
skills start?
Around the age of 12 years or so.
 The reason for such decline in fine control of muscles of
the body is yet unknown, but it could be caused by
changes in the brain, mainly by the loss of its plasticity. A
number of studies, and also our experience in teaching
practice, confirm that the earlier the age at which
acquisition of the L2 begins, the more native-like the
accent will be.
5, The similarities & differences between
FLA & SLL
5.1 Similarities:
In both First language acquisition & Second language
learning, universal grammar may influence learning.
In second language learning, universal grammar may
influence learning either independently or through the
first language.
In both First language acquisition & Second language
learning, there are predictable stages, and particular
structures are acquired in a set order. Individuals may
move more slowly or quickly through these stages, but
they cannot skip ahead.
In both FLA & SLA/SLL, making errors is a part of
learning. Learners need to make and test hypotheses
about language to build an internal representation of the
language. In the initial stages of learning, learners may
use chunks of language without breaking them down or
processing them as independent units. In later stages,
they may make new errors as they begin to process the
parts of each chunk according to the rules of their
language system. For example, a learner may start out
using the correct form of an irregular verb as part of a
language chunk, but later over generalize and place a
regular affix on that same verb.
In both FLA & SLL, the learner uses
context clues, prior knowledge, and
interaction to comprehend language.
In both FLA & SLL, age is an important
variable affecting proficiency.
In both FLA & SLL, learners can often
comprehend more complex language than
they are able to produce. In the initial stages
of learning, learners go through a silent period.
In both FLA & SLL, a learner's proficiency
can vary across situations.
In both FLA & SLL, learners may over
generalize vocabulary or rules, using them
in contexts broader than those in which
they should be used.
In both FLA & SLL, learners need
comprehensible input and opportunities to
learn language in context in order to
increase their proficiency.
Differences:
In first language acquisition, the basis for learning is
universal grammar alone.
In second language
acquisition, knowledge of the first language also
serves as a basis for learning the second language.
There may be both positive and negative transfer
between languages in second language learning.
In first language acquisition, children spend
several years listening to language, babbling, and
using telegraphic speech before they can form
sentences. In second language acquisition in older
learners, learning is more rapid and people are able to
form sentences within a shorter period of time.
In formal second language learning in older learners,
learners are able to use more met cognitive processes
in their learning. They can consciously analyze and
manipulate grammatical structures, and they can
explicitly describe how language works. This can
speed the learning process.
In second language learning in older learners,
learners bring more life experience and background
knowledge to their learning. They have more
schemata and more learning strategies to help them
learn the second language.
In second language learning in older learners, there
may be less access to universal grammar, and
sensitivity to phonological distinctions not present in
the native language will be reduced. Students learning
in a classroom setting may also have fewer
opportunities to learn language authentically. These
factors may reduce the likelihood that second
language learners will attain native-like proficiency.
First-language learners always attain native
proficiency, unless they have a disability that affects
language learning.
In first language acquisition, learners have many
chances to practice with native speakers (especially
caregivers). In second language acquisition, learners
may or may not have the opportunity to practice
extensively with native speakers.
Almost everyone acquires a first language, but not
everyone acquires a second language. Acquiring a
first language happens naturally, while acquiring a
second language often requires conscious effort on the
part of the learner.
Thank you for listening!