V. L2 acquisition. Research methodologies. Qualitative and quantitative research paradigms in the study of L2.
5.1. On-line interactive models of sentence processing.
Does syntactic (grammatic ) parcer function autonomously from the semantic one?
Autonomous model of sentence processing - an autonomous syntactic processor, a rapid parser which may be slown down only if it has always to cross-check its operations.
I was going to take a train to New York ...
Take a train
Interactive model of language processing previews the possibility of a free interaction of the information from all levels of analysis.
(Marsler-Wilson, W.D. & Tyler, L.K. 1987. Against modularity. In Garfield,J. (Ed.)
Modularity in knowledge representation and natural language understanding.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. )
For instance,
Dafuer brauchen Sie noch ein ... Erlaubnis.
Wo soll ich das kriegen?
Bottom-up processing illustrates the speech perception and refers to the way in which the listener's sensory apparatusdetects and analyzes the acoustic speech signal: acoustic wave-form - recognition of phonemes, words, sentence structure and semantic relations between the sentence elements.
Top-down processing refers to the potential use of different expectations that listeners have and use for speeding, clarifying and facilitating emerging the information from bottom-up sources.
The natural process goes in both directions.
5.2. Gating . How much time do we need to understand a word?
Grosjean, F.(1980) Spoken words recognition process and the gating paradigm.
Perception and Psychophysics. 28, 267-283.
A sentence with a non-accomplished final word (first 50 milliseconds, then 100 etc).
175 to200 msec (550-830 mls the whole duration) = the half of the real acoustic signal. (English)
Homonymy: 100 mlsec 43 words, 200 mlsec 11 words, 300 -5 words (Wayland,
Wingfield& Goodglass 1989.
5.3. Priming - the effect of activation, or facilitation of the word's processing by having just seen or heard another word which is semantically related to it.
(maybe this helps to make an appropriate hierarchy of homonyms. )
The researches under discussion are aimed to describe sentence processing in a monolingual context. What happens if a person is bilingual?
1) the mechanisms of recognition are partly deactivated, since 1) the system of associations inside every given language is not formed, 2) the system of associations from the native language interferes the process.

5.4. Bellin, W. 1997. Children and languages: past and future. Language acquisition in preschool children in Brittany, Ireland, Scotland and
Wales. Work-in Progress N 1.
Univ. of Wales Inst. Cardif.
Epstein, I. 1916. La pensee et la polyglossie. Lausanne.
Knowing many languages might lead to a mental confusion.
"Linguistic savants" (Smith & Tsimpli 1991) - Christofer.
5.5. An experimental study of concept formation by L. S. Vygotsky.
(1896 - 1934). Experiment.
22 wooden blocks varying in colour(5), shape(6), height (tall-flat), and size (largesmall). Nonsence words: LAG - tall & large, BIK - flat & large, MUR - tall and small, CEV - flat and small. The examiner turns out one of the blocks, shows it and proposes to pick up all the blocks of the same kind.
At first a child does not have any idea of concept - "heap" - unorganized congeries, syncretic conglomeration of individual objects.
1 stage of thinking in complexes - associative type - any factually present connection, forming of a family name (= individual use of words: every word is a name for one concrete object).
2 stage - collections: grouping on the base of one different trait in which the objects complement each other – the future functional organisation (overgeneralisations).
3 stage - chain complex - first triangles, then, starting from the blue one - everything that is blue etc. (simplified concepts).
4 stage - diffuse complex - first takes triangles, then trapezoids, because they are triangles without one top etc.
5 stage - pseudo-complexes - the collection is based on a real difference (f.i. shape), but the correction of the experimenter turns out that a subject insists on his wrong interpretation: they still belong together because they are red.
L.S. Vygotsky. 1962. Thought and language. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Mass
5.5. Experiments in L2.
Qualitative paradigm (longitudinal)
Qualitative methods
Phenomenologism and "verstehen"; concerned with understanding human behavior from the actor's own frame of reference
Quantitative paradigm (cross-sectional)
Quantitative methods
Logical positivism: 'seeks the facts of causes of social phenomena with little regard for the subjective states or individuals'
Naturalistic and uncontrolled observation Obtrusive and controlled measurement
Subjective Objective
Close to the data, the 'insider' perspective Removed from the data; the 'outsider perspective
Grounded, discovery-oriented, exploratory, expansionist, descriptive, and inductive
Process-oriented
Ungrounded, verification-oriented, confirmatory, reductionism, inferential, and hypothetico-deductive
Outcome-oriented
Valid, 'real', 'rich' and 'deep' data
Ungeneralisable; single case studies
Holistic
Assumes a dynamic reality
Reliable, 'hard' and replicable data
Generalisable, multiple-case studies
Particularistic
Assumes a stable reality

Introspection, participant observation, non-participant observation, focused description, pre-experiment, quasi-experiment, experiment.
5.6. True experiments.
Goal - to predict and explain.
True experiment: 1) experimental & control groups, 2) subjects must be randomly assigned to these groups.
One group pretest-posttest design.
Quasi experiments - 2 groups, time-series design; multiple observation of a group.
Larsen-Freeman, D. & Long, M. 1994 (8). An Introduction to Second Language
Acquisition Research. pp.12ff.