Explaining Second Language
Learning I
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Behaviourism
Universal Grammar- an innatist perspective
Krashen‘s „monitor model“
Cognitivist/developmental perspective
– Information processing
– Connectionism
– The competition model
Behaviourism
Second language applications:
Mimicry and memorization
·Audiolingual methods
·Transfer of habits
Audiolingual methods
• -Based on behaviour psychology
• -New material presented in form of dialogue:
How are you? I’m fine, thank you.
• -Language learning is habit formation
Audiolingual methods
• -Students are dependent on mimicry,
memorization of set phrases and overlearning
• -Structural patterns are taught by using
repetitive drills: the student repeats the
utterance adding a few words. I used to know.
I use to know him. I use to know him years ago
when we were in school…
Audiolingual methods
• -Little or no grammatical explanations
• -Vocabulary strictly limited and learned in
context
• -Successful responses are reinforced (praise,…)
• -Great care is taken to prevent learner errors
Transfer of habits
• similarities of vocabulary that can influence
the second language
• Transfer structures of the first language to the
second language
• Translate word by word from the first
language
Universal Grammar
• Innate linguistic knowledge, which consists of
a set of principles common to all languages
• Chomsky: children can acquire every language
during a critical period of their development
>mainly used for first language acquisition
Hypothesis of the critical period
• Learning a language after the adolescence is
more difficult
• Adults that learn a second language show
some type of deficit (coverall in phonetics and
phonology)
How do you say “speak”?
Universal Grammar in L2
• Lydia White: cannot acquire full mastery, but
there is still a „logical problem“
• “logical problem“: knowledge which cannot be
acquired by the input
• Conditions for checking:
– No acquisition by simple observation of L2 input
– Phenomenon should work differently in L1 and L2
Universal Grammar in L2
• Effect of formal instructions on acquisition:
-change only in superficial appearance
• Language acquisition based on availability of
natural language in learner‘s environment
• L2 learners need sometimes explicit
grammatical information >errors of L1
transfer
• Grammaticality judgements
Krashen’s “monitor model”
Based in five hypoteses:
• Acquisition-learning hypothesis:
ACQUISITION: it is an automatic process (like the
assimilation process of maternal language)
Example: immigrants, who arrive at a different
country, acquire the local language only with
errors.
LEARNING: the individual is able to explain the
existing rules in the language (conscious process)
Krashen’s “monitor model”
• The monitor hypothesis:
The creative production is corrected by the
learner
It is possible with these conditions:
a) the speaker needs to want to correct
himself.
b) the speaker must know the rules.
Krashen’s “monitor model”
• Natural order hypothesis:
Directly related to the acquisition and not to
the learning.
Order of the acquisition of rules in the second
language
Some rules are assimilated before others
Order is not necessarily the same in the first
and second language
Krashen’s “monitor model”
• Input hypothesis:
The acquisition only occurs when there is a
linguistical challenge
• Affective filter hypothesis:
Affect refers to feelings, motives, needs,
attitudes and emotinal states
If these states affect the learner the input will
be unavailable for acquisition
• Influenced teaching ideas that focus on
meaning of language, rather than on simple
memorization
– Communicative Language Teaching, including
Immersion Programs with content-based
instructions
• Emphasis on meaning, rather than on grammar or
pronunciation
• Learning to communicate through interaction in target
language
• Progress without direct instructions possible
• Students can get to a point where guided
instructions are necessary for further progress
Cognitivist/developmental
perspective
• Central role in research in second language
acquisition since 1990s
• Computer as metaphor for the mind
• No specific module for language acquisition
>contradict the innate perspective
• UG for L1 acquisition, but not for L2
>no provable success for innate perspective
Information processing
• Building up of knowledge, which is accessable
when necessary
• Beginning of learning process: have to pay
attention to every aspect of language
• “pay attention“: use cognitive resources to
process information
• Attention limit
Information processing
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Aspects become automatic through practice
Proficient learners: context
Non-proficient learners: single words
“practice“: production, exposure to,
comprehension of language
Information processing
• “skill learning“ (J.R. Anderson, Robert
DeKeyser)
• Declarative Knowledge: knowledge that
– Factual information stored in memory
– Example: knowledge that Washington D.C. is
the capital of America
Information processing
• Procedural Knowledge: knowledge how
– Knowledge of how to perform, how to operate
– Example: Knowledge how to drive a car
>comparable to kind of learning in class room
Information processing
• „restructuring“: changes in language
behaviour > sudden burst of progress or
backsliding
• Example: saw + -ed > sawed
Transfer appropriate processing
• Information best retrieved in situation similar
to the one during acquisition
• Memories record context and way of how
something was learned
• Example: knowledge from drill/rule learning
easier to access in non-communicative
situations
Connectionism
• Based on stimulus- answer
• Mental processing depends on developing and
using the connections in the mind.
• Learning is a way to modify the behaviour
(reinforcement of the wanted conduct)
The wanted conduct cannot be modified using
the basic principles of modification of conduct.
Connectionism
• Technical to eliminate conducts not wanted in the student:
• 1. Reinforcement of the wanted conducts
2. Debilitate the wanted conducts
3. the technique of " saturation" : repetitive way until the
individual feels indifferent of the behavior.
4. Changing the stimulus that influences the individual to take
another answer to this stimulus.
5. Using punishments to debilitate the conduct not wanted
The competition model
• Elizabeth Bates and Brian MacWhinney
developed an explanation how monolingual
speakers interpret the sentences
• Languages emphasize speech: intonation,
vocabulary, word order or inflections
• If the speaker cannot consider some of these
factors he will have problems with the
understanding of the language
The competition model
• Languages have their own signals
• English has strict structures like SVO
English: She is going to the beach this afternoon.
Spanish: Ella se va a la playa esta tarde.
Italian: Lei va alla spiaga questo pomeriggio.
The competition model
• Italian or Spanish have flexible grammar
• Subject can be omitted
• Order of the words can change (VO/ VOS)
Spanish: Se va a la playa esta tarde. Esta tarde se
va a la playa ella.
(is going to the beach this afternoon/ This afternoon
is going to beach she)
Italian: Va alla spiaga questo pomeriggio. Questo
pomeriggio va alla spiaga.
The competition model
• Natives recognize the subject of the sentence
• Natives conclude with the reasonable
interpretation
Spanish: El cerdo quiere al campesino. El
campesino quiere el cerdo.
(The pig wants the farmer/ The farmer wants
the pig.)
• For non-native speakers this sentence is
confusing.
The competition model
• Four clues that help us to know the true subject
Word order: English SVO/ Spanish SVO/ VO/VOS.
Agreement: subject agrees with the verb: English
“He lives”
Case: the noun is the most important clue to the
subject: German “Ich liebe Bier”.
Animacy: subject has to be someone or something
that is alive.
Question
• Krashen‘s Monitor Hypothesis:
Do you think that a learner can correct himself while
he is learning a new language?