Psycholinguistics - L2 Acquisition - Implicit and Explicit Learning
In the lectures, Prof. Chan has come across different aspects of second language acquisition with us. We started from the architectures of second language acquisition, which explain how knowledge of language is perceived and organised in human brains. There are 9 cognitive aspects suggested by Hulstijn (2002) and as the teaching and learning and transformation between explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge play a crucial role in second language acquisition, this paper will look into the cognitive aspect of implicit and explicit learning of a second language.
Language Processing Architectures
To begin with, in terms of the cognitive architectures, Hulstijn (2002) suggests combining the two models as a hybrid form neither of the two models alone could explain well the facts how people acquire a language.
Symbolic models explain the process of language acquisition as symbols and the rules of symbol relations (Hulstijn, 2002). It is a representation of knowledge which is independent of context. Whereas connectionist models, on the other hand, suggest people learn and organise knowledge in the form of neural networks where units (symbols) are interconnected and interrelated with one another and they are to be understood in context.
For example, the definite article ‘the’ is perceived as a symbol in symbolic model. Whereas there are, however, some other cases that the verbal form ‘the’ is used to form various words like ‘theme’ and ‘sympathetic’ which carry no similarity or relation as in the definite article ‘the’. This letter combination as a symbol conveys different sense in different contexts. Only by the context-independent symbolic models is not sufficient t...
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...memory.
Like students in HK learning English as an L2, one is exposed to and explicitly taught with rules and through considerable amount of practice with the working memory, the target rules as declarative knowledge becomes internalised and enable learners to further infer implicit knowledge. It hints that after symbolic rules are taught in the L2 curriculum, several repeated trials, drills and training are somehow necessarily required as a proceduralisation in order to have the target explicit rules (symbols) incorporated with the existing accumulated implicit knowledge as consolidation and evaluation.
Furthermore, after certain amount of monitoring and several times of repetitions (e.g. practice of certain rules and word usage), one is expected to have learnt considerable skill to spot and handle some regularities and differences of the target symbols or rules.
not the basic rules of spelling. A rule based strategy must be taught to learning
The first of these statements offers parameters as the solution to the question of how children are able to learn any language after birth. Baker argues that by simply identifying which parameters are present within a given language, children are able to rapidly acquire an understanding of how to construct and interpret its constituents (Baker 23). While this explanation is accessible to unexperienced readers, it is by no means complete. In his justification for this statement, Baker cites no studies or concrete facts to augment its validity, asking instead for the reader to take his assertion for granted based off of logical reasoning. The presence of parameters is a possible explanation for the process of learning language; however, it is by no means the only explanation and by not addressing and/or disproving the others, the overall strength of his argument is diminished. Another technique employed by Baker to support his thesis is example sentences from different languages that he translates in order to prove the existence of particular parameters. One specific instance of this is when Baker contrasts Mohawk and Japanese phrases in order to illustrate the presence of a fundamental parameter related to possessive and possessed nouns within noun phrases.
emergence of hierarchical mental construction skills. In, “Language” and Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes: Comparative Developmental Perspectives, ed. S. T. Parker & K. R. Gibson, pp. 97–128. New York: Cambridge University Press.
The analysis of Chomsky’s argument in Christiansen & Chater’s (2008) article suggests that there may be an innate universal grammar (UG), meaning that humans are born with the biological ability obtain...
There are three main theories of child language acquisition; Cognitive Theory, Imitation and Positive Reinforcement, and Innateness of Certain Linguistic Features (Linguistics 201). All three theories offer a substantial amount of proof and experiments, but none of them have been proven entirely correct. The search for how children acquire their native language in such a short period of time has been studied for many centuries. In a changing world, it is difficult to pinpoint any definite specifics of language because of the diversity and modification throughout thousands of millions of years.
The study of the mental lexicon deals with how words are acquired, comprehended, organized, stored, retrieved, and produces. The term “mental lexicon” is used interchangeably with what some scholars refer to as “internal lexicon” (Bonin, 2004). It involves the different processes and activations done in the brain in order to store the words and form an internal memory which functions as a mental dictionary. Psychologist and linguists who are concerned with this study believe that words are stored in relation to their phonological, semantic, syntactic and even orthographical features.
Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. M. (2006). How languages are learned (3rd ed.). Oxford [england: Oxford University Press.
"[H]uman knowledge is organized de facto by linguistic competence through language performance, and our exploration of reality is always mediated by language" (Danchin 29). Most higher vertebrates possess ‘intuitive knowledge’ which occurs as the result of slow evolution of species. However, the ability to create knowledge through language is unique to humans. According to Benjamin Whorf, "language…. is not merely a reproducing instrument from voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas…. We dissect nature along lines laid down by language" (Joseph 249). In addition, the development and acquisition of language seems to be related to "complex sequential processing, and the ability to form concepts and to classify a single stimulus in a multiple manner" (Joseph 178). Antione Danchin suggests that the knowledge we create through language allows us distinguish ourselves from the rest of the world to produce models of reality, which become more and more adequate due to the "self-referent loop" which enables us to understand ourselves as objects under study. This "path from subject to object," which is common to all humans, Danchin claims, suggests the existence of a universal feature of language (29).
How do children acquire language? What are the processes of language acquisition? How do infants respond to speech? Language acquisition is the process of learning a native or a second language. Although how children learn to speak is not perfectly understood, most explanations involve both the observations that children copy what they hear and the inference that human beings have a natural aptitude for understanding grammar. Children usually learn the sounds and vocabulary of their native language through imitation, (which helps them learn to pronounce words correctly), and grammar is seldom taught to them, but instead that they rapidly acquire the ability to speak grammatically. Though, not all children learn by imitation alone. Children will produce forms of language that adults never say. For example, “I spilled milk on hisself” or “Debbie wants a cookie”. This demonstrates that children have the desire to speak correctly and have self-motivating traits to communicate. This supports the theory of Noam Chomsky (1972)-that children are able to learn grammar of a particular language because all intelligible languages are founded on a deep structure of universal grammatical rules that corresponds to an innate capacity of the human brain. Adults learning a second language pass through some of the same stages, as do children learning their native language. In the first part of this paper I will describe the process of language acquisition. The second part will review how infants respond to speech.
The study of language development, one of the most fascinating human achievements, has a long and rich history, extending over thousands of years (Chomsky, 2000). As the nature-versus-nurture argument is inevitable to arise whenever human behaviors are discussed, it is not surprising that language experts have debated the relative influences of genetics and the environment on language development (Hulit & Howard, 2002). Among the various proposals concerning the mechanisms involved in acquiring a language, two opposing theoretical positions, the behaviorist and the nativist, are the most prominent and influential ones (Ayoun, 2003; Garton & Pratt, 1998; Owens, 2001). Due to the indefinite explanation of the exact process, the continuous interest of the inquiring people, and the sheer significance of the precise result, the controversy remains ongoing and popular. In view of the more obvious limitations of the behaviorist interpretation and the prevailing contributions of the nativist interpretation, the latter one is more rational to accept.
In this part, the writer will point out the importance of the biological and neural foundation of language learning by discussing the following :First, the brain anatomy. Second, l...
Language acquisition is perhaps one of the most debated issues of human development. Various theories and approaches have emerged over the years to study and analyse this developmental process. One factor contributing to the differing theories is the debate between nature v’s nurture. A question commonly asked is: Do humans a...
Still today, it is the commonly held belief that children acquire their mother tongue through imitation of the parents, caregivers or the people in their environment. Linguists too had the same conviction until 1957, when a then relatively unknown man, A. Noam Chomsky, propounded his theory that the capacity to acquire language is in fact innate. This revolutionized the study of language acquisition, and after a brief period of controversy upon the publication of his book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, in 1964, his theories are now generally accepted as largely true. As a consequence, he was responsible for the emergence of a new field during the 1960s, Developmental Psycholinguistics, which deals with children’s first language acquisition. He was not the first to question our hitherto mute acceptance of a debatable concept – long before, Plato wondered how children could possibly acquire so complex a skill as language with so little experience of life. Experiments have clearly identified an ability to discern syntactical nuances in very young infants, although they are still at the pre-linguistic stage. Children of three, however, are able to manipulate very complicated syntactical sentences, although they are unable to tie their own shoelaces, for example. Indeed, language is not a skill such as many others, like learning to drive or perform mathematical operations – it cannot be taught as such in these early stages. Rather, it is the acquisition of language which fascinates linguists today, and how it is possible. Noam Chomsky turned the world’s eyes to this enigmatic question at a time when it was assumed to have a deceptively simple explanation.
As the global communities migrate from their native home lands to new countries and regions, the need to learn a new language becomes an imminent requirement. Learning second language for an individual with not back ground to the language can be a serious proposition which can results in seriously straining the individual. This makes it very important to select a learning strategy very carefully to prevent complicating the learning process and also one which will help speed up the entire learning process (Bitchener 2007). With this in mind there are three main approaches linked to learning a 2nd language namely the behaviourist, Halliday’s and Chomsky’s approaches. Each of these adopts different learning theories but that all promote
Language acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language with natural communication while children are acquiring the foreign language. Children usually concerned with message which they are conveying and understand not with the form of utterances. These utterances are initiated by the acquired systems and the fluency of language is based on what we have ‘picked up’ through active communication. Both formal knowledge and conscious learning of the second language learning may be alternate to the output of the system, sometimes before and sometimes after the