EXPLAINING SECOND
LANGUAGE LEARNING I
by Lisa Kaci, Josephin Oberhokamp, Hendrik Fitzner & Camilla Honerlage
Table of content
Questions
Behaviourism
1.
2.

The innatist perspective
3.


Universal Grammar
“Monitor Model”
Psychological theories
4.




5.
Mimicry and memorization
Cognitivist/developmental perspective
Information processing
Connectionism
The competition model
Discussion
Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What are the steps with which Behaviorism explains language?
Name them and give an example.
What are the two different theories about the nature of Universal
Grammar?
What are the 5 hypotheses of Krashen’s “Monitor Model? Explain
two of them briefly.
To what refer “declarative knowledge” and “procedural
knowledge”?
What does the Competition Model explain?
Behaviourism

Theory of learning

Very influential between the 1940s and 1970s

Nurture  Environment has great importance
Behaviourism

Explains learning in terms of:
 Imitation
 Practice
(mimicry)
 Reinforcement
 Formation of habit = language development
Behaviourism

Video: Learning English, Spanglish

Video: Some funny guy learning English
Behaviourism

Influence on development of audiolingual teaching
and material
 great emphasis on mimicry and
memorization
Behaviourism

Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis assumes:
First and target language
similar
Target language is learned
with ease
First and target language
different
Target language is learned
with difficulty
Behaviourism


But: learners did not do the predicted errors
All learners made nearly the same errors
Influence of first language is the process of finding
similarities
Criticism on Behaviourism and CAH

Behaviourism + Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis are
inadequate explanations for second language
acquisition
Universal Grammar



Noam Chomsky
Innate linguistic
knowledge which
consists of a set of
principles common to all
languages
Explanation for second
language acquisition?
Universal Grammar

Lydia White:
 best
perspective for second language acquisition; but
nature of Universal Grammar is altered

Robert Bley-Vroman/Jacquelyn Schachter:
 Not
a good explanation for second language
acquisition: critical period is passed

Vivian Cook
 Learners
them
have more knowledge than input could give
Universal Grammar



Different theories about its nature
Nature and availability of Universal Grammar are
the same in first language acquisition and second
language acquisition
Universal Grammar that is present to second
language learners has been altered in its nature by
acquisition of other languages
Monitor Model



Stephen Krashen
Model of second
language acquisition
Influenced by
Chomsky‘s theory of
first language
acquisition
Monitor Model
Based on 5 hypotheses:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
Monitor Hypothesis
Natural Order Hypothesis
Input Hypothesis
Affective Filter Hypothesis
Monitor Model
Psychological theories:
cognitivist/developmental perspective


Since 1990 central role in second language
acquisition
Computer as metaphor for mind
 Capacities


for storage, integration and retrieval
No specific module in brain for acquisition/learning
UG as explanation for first language acquisition
 Less successful for second language acquisition
Psychological theories:
cognitivist/developmental perspective

Theories:
 Information
processing
 Connectionism
 The
competition model
Information processing

Norman Segalowitz:
 Second
language acquisition as the building up of
knowledge for automatic use of speaking and
understanding
 Learner first pays attention to any aspect of language
for understanding/production
 controlled processing
 Experience/practice  easier process of information
 quicker automatic access
Information processing
Controlled processing



Slow access
Under control of
attention
Limited in capacity
Automatic processing



Quick access
Requires little attention
Needs little capacity
to perform
Information processing

Robert DeKeyser:
 Second
language acquisition as “skill learning”
 Learning starts with declarative knowledge
 Becomes procedural knowledge through practice
 Processes become proceduralized/automized like other
skills
 Parallel to development from controlled to automatic
processing
Information processing
Declarative knowledge


Involves acquisition of
isolated facts and rules
 knowing that
e.g. knowing that a car can
be driven
Procedural knowledge



Requires practice
Involves processing of
longer units and increasing
automization
knowing how
e.g. knowing how to drive a
car
Information processing

Example: car driving
 Begin
learning to drive a car
 Close
attention to every action/decision
 Aware that performances can easily be disturbed (e.g.
talking)
 Practice
 skill improves
 Automization
 Experienced
 Able
driver
to pay attention to previously disturbing events
Information processing

Restructuring
 Changes
in language behavior
 Quality changes in learner‘s knowledge
 New
forms are not just added to old
 Regular systematic reorganization and reformulation
 Sudden
burst of knowledge or backsliding
 Systematic
aspect of learner‘s language incorporates too
much or wrong things
 saw + ed
Connectionism

Innate: only the simple ability to learn

Very important: the role of the environment
Connectionism

Emphasis is on the frequency
 Encountering
 How
of specific linguistic features in the input
often features occur together
Connectionism

Knowledge of language built up through exposure

“connections” build up

Stronger connections the more often something is
heard
 chunks
The competition model


Explains first language and second language
acquisition
Hypothesis:
“language acquisition occurs without the necessity of a
learner‘s focused attention or the need for any innate
brain module that is specifically for language“
The competition model

Language use and language meaning important

Learners understand how to use “cues”
 word order, grammatical markers and
animacy of nouns
The competition model
Two/three year old
Uses cues of animacy and their
knowledge of the way things work in the
world.


Four year old
Children will give a SVO interpretation to
strings of the words.
Example: „Box push boy“
Depends on the mother tongue, how second languages
are learned

Example: “Il giocattolo guardail il bambino”
Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What are the steps with which Behaviorism explains language?
Name them and give an example.
What are the two different theories about the nature of Universal
Grammar?
What are the 5 hypotheses of Krashen’s “Monitor Model? Explain
two of them briefly.
To what refer “declarative knowledge” and “procedural
knowledge”?
What does the Competition Model explain?
Bibliography
Doughty, C. J. & Long, M.H. (eds.) (2003). The Handbook of Second Language
Acquisition. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Gramley, S. & Gramley, V. (eds.) (2008). Bielefeld Introduction to Applied Linguistics.
Bielefeld: Aithesis.
Lightbown, P. M. & Spada, N. (2006). How Languages are Learned. 3rd Edition. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. (1998). Second Language Learning Theories. London: Arnold.
Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.
2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.