The Psychology

1
Chapter 4

• The Psychology
• of Second Language Acquisition

2
Languages and the brain(areas involved in
language activity)

• Paul Pierre Broca (1861, 1865) Brocas area
• Wernicke (1874) Wernickes area
• Sylvian fissure lateral sulcus lateral
  fissure
• a cleavage that separates lobes in the brain
• (one of the most prominent structures of the
  human brain)

3
Core linguistic functions for sign languages used
in deaf communities are also located in the left
hemisphere.
4.1 Principal communicative specializations of L and R hemisphere
Principal hemispheric specializations
Left hemisphere Right hemisphere
Phonology Nonverbal (as babies cries)
Morphology Visuospatial information
Syntax Intonation
Function words and inflections Nonliteral meaning and ambiguity
Tone systems Many pragmatic abilities
Much lexical knowledge Some lexical knowlege
4
1. How independent are the languages of
multiligual speakers?

• Ervin and Osgood (1954 following Weinreich 1953)
• three way possibility for how languages
  relate
• in an
  individuals mind
• a. coordinate bilingualism parallel
  linguistic systems
• 
  no ablity to translate between them
• b. compound bilingualism fused or unified
  sytem
• c. subordinate bilingualism one linguistic
  system accessed
• 
  through another
• Obler and Gjerlow (1999, 140)
• stress the interdependence of
  languages

5
1. How independent are the languages of
multiligual speakers?

• Ervin and Osgood (1954 following Weinreich 1953)
• three way possibility for how languages
  relate
• in an
  individuals mind
• a. coordinate bilingualism parallel
  linguistic systems
• 
  no ablity to translate between them
• b. compound bilingualism fused or unified
  sytem
• c. subordinate bilingualism one linguistic
  system accessed
• 
  through another
• Obler and Gjerlow (1999, 140)
• stress the interdependence of
  languages

6
2. How are multiple language structures organized
in relation to one another in the brain? Are
both languages stored in the same areas?

• 3. Does the organization of the brain for L2 in
  relation to L1 differ with age of acquisiton, how
  it is learned, or level of proficiency?
• ans probably yes
• Vaid (1983) concludes that individuals who
  acquire L2 later in life show more
  right-hemisphere involvement.
• Wuillemin Richards (1994) more
  right-hemisphere involvement for L2 acquisition
  between the ages 9 and 12 than for those who
  acquire L2 before age 4.

7
4. Do two or more languages show the same sort of
loss or disruption after brain damage?When there
is differential impairment or recovery, which
language recovers first?

• Same or very similar patterns of loss and
  recovery for both/all of most multilingual
  persons languages, but may exceptions have been
  reported.
• We may conclude that what is being added in the
  brain when a second language is acquired is not
  very different from, nor usually entirely
  separate from, what is already there for the
  first.

8
Learning Processes

• Information Processing (IP) John Anderson (1976,
  1983)
• Learning language is essentially
  like leaning other domains
• of knowledge.
• Connectionism learning is learning, but
• considers learning processes as a
  matter of increasing
• strength of assoiations rather
  than as the abstraction of
• rules or principles

9
Three stages of Information Processing
(Skehan, 1998)

• Research that measures the amount of time it
  takes multilinguals to call words and grammatical
  structures shows that the L2 of even fluent
  speakers of both languages is generally less
  automatized than their L1, and less proficient L2
  is less automatized than more fluent L2.
• U-shaped development correct form?incorrect
  form?correct form
• feet ?
  foots ? feet

Input Central processing Output
Perception Controlled-to-automatic processing Production
Declarative-procedural knowledge
Restructuring
10
Theories regarding order of acquisition

• Multidimensional Model
• Clahsen (1984, 221)
• linguistic structures which require
  a high degree of
• processing capacity will be
  acquired late
• hierarchy (1) Canonical Order Strategy
• (2) Initialization/Finali
  zation Strategy
• (3) Subordinate Clause
  Strategy
• Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998)
• processing and explaining the
  sequences in which processing
• skills develop in relation to
  language learning

11
Acquisitional hierarchy of processing skills
(Pienemann
Häkansson, 1999)

• Lemma/word access
• Category procedure
• Phrasal procedure
• S-procedure
• Clause boundary

12
Competition Model

• Bates MacWhinney (1981), MacWhinney (2001)
• Learning the system of
  form-function mapping is basic for L1
  acquisition. SLA involves adjusting the
  internalized system of mapping that exists in the
  learners L1 to one that is appropriate for the
  target language.
• MacWhinney (2001, 74-75)
• - Task frequency
• - Contrastive availability
• - Conflict reliability

13
Connectionist approaches

• Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)
• Processing takes place in a network of
  nodes (units) in the brain that are connected by
  pathways.
• As learners are exposed to repeated
  patterns of units in input, they extract
  regularities in the patterns probabilistic
  assoications are formed and strengthend.