Usage-Based Dynamics in Second Language Development

Wander Lowie, Marije Michel, Audrey Rousse-Malpat, Merel Keijzer, Rasmus Steinkrauss

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781788925235
• eBook ISBN: 9781788925266
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Psycolinguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book honours the contribution of Marjolijn Verspoor to the development and implementation of dynamic usage-based (DUB) approaches in second language (L2) research and pedagogy. With chapters written by renowned experts in the field, the book addresses the dynamics of language, language learning and language teaching from a usage-based perspective. The book contains both theory and empirical work: the initial theoretical chapters present cutting-edge thinking in relation to both the scope of DUB theory and its applications, providing conceptual perspectives from cognitive grammar and linguistics, thinking-for-speaking (TFS), and Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) approaches, united by their shared underpinnings of language as a dynamic system of conventionalized routines. The second half of the volume showcases state-of-the-art methodologies to study dynamic trajectories of language learning, empirical investigations into the above-mentioned theoretical concepts, and innovative classroom implementations of DUB language pedagogy.

1 Thinking for Speaking in an L2: From Research Findings to Pedagogical Implications

Teresa Cadierno

Since its formulation in the 1990s, Slobin’s thinking-for-speaking (TFS) hypothesis has gained increasing attention in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) (e.g. Cadierno, 2008a; Han & Cadierno, 2010; Pavlenko, 2011). Under this perspective, learning a second/foreign language (L2) entails learning alternative ways of thinking for speaking (Cadierno, 2004) or learning to re-think for speaking (Robinson & Ellis, 2008), i.e. learning the particular vebalized orientation to experience encoded in the lexico-grammatical resources of the L2.

This chapter is divided into two main parts. The first part discusses the implications of TFS for the process of L2 learning, and outlines some of the main findings in this research area, with particular emphasis on the domain that has received most attention in the literature, i.e. that of motion. L2 studies that examine language-specific effects on linguistic encoding and that deal with both voluntary/spontaneous and caused motion are considered. The second part discusses the pedagogical implications of these findings, and reviews some recent intervention studies that have combined insights from TFS research and different L2 pedagogical approaches.

Introduction1

In the last decade and a half there has been an increased interest in applying usage-based/cognitive linguistics accounts of language and language learning to the field of second/foreign language acquisition and teaching (e.g. Achard & Niemeier, 2004; Boers & Lindstromberg, 2008; Cadierno & Eskildsen, 2015; De Knop & De Rycker, 2008; Ellis & Cadierno, 2009; Littlemore, 2009; Ortega & Tyler, 2016; Piquer-Píriz & Alejo-González, 2018; Robinson & Ellis, 2008; Tyler et al., 2018a, 2018b). In addition to the dynamic usage-based (DUB) account pioneered by Marjolijn Verspoor, Kees de Bot and Wander Lowie, another theoretical framework that has attracted a great deal of attention in this field is Slobin’s thinking for speaking (TFS) hypothesis (e.g. Cadierno, 2008a; Han & Cadierno, 2010; Pavlenko, 2011). Under this perspective, learning a second/foreign language (L2) entails learning alternative ways of TFS (Cadierno, 2004) or learning to re-think for speaking (Robinson & Ellis, 2008), i.e. learning the particular verbalised orientation to experience encoded in the lexico-grammatical resources of the L2.

As stated in the introduction to the present volume, the DUB account of language development and the TFS hypothesis share a common understanding of language as a dynamic system of conventionalized units. More specifically, both share a common view of language and language acquisition that is grounded in usage-based/cognitive linguistics perspectives (e.g. Langacker, 1987; Tomasello, 2003). Regarding the former, both approaches view language as consisting of conventionalized units or form-meaning pairings used for communication purposes. An important implication of this language view is the centrality of meaning in linguistic descriptions, which is at the heart of DUB- and TFS-inspired research. Regarding the latter, both approaches view language learning as usage based, i.e. as emerging from language usage in particular contexts. Furthermore, both approaches view language development as dynamic in nature, even though this aspect of language acquisition has had a more central and visible role in the DUB approach. As suggested by its name, L2 DUB-inspired research has focused on examining learners’ language development systems over time by means of longitudinal studies, and has scrutinized the role of learner-internal (e.g. conceptual knowledge, motivational resources) and external (e.g. time invested in learning, the language used by the environment) resources in language development, and the variability that characterizes it (e.g. De Bot et al., 2007). L2 TFS-inspired research also assumes that the process of learning L2-appropriate TFS patterns is dynamic and influenced by learner-internal and external factors; however, the cross-sectional design of most research conducted under this approach has not allowed for a detailed documentation of the dynamic nature of TFS developmental patterns within single individuals (but see e.g. Li et al., 2014; Stam, 2010).

This chapter is divided into two main parts. The first part provides a brief account of the TFS hypothesis and its empirical basis, discusses the implications of TFS for the process of L2 learning and outlines some of the main findings in this research area, with particular emphasis on the domain that has received most attention in the literature, i.e. that of motion. L2 studies that examine language-specific effects on linguistic encoding, and that deal with both voluntary/spontaneous and caused motion are considered. The second part of the chapter discusses the pedagogical implications of these findings, and reviews recent intervention studies that have examined the effects of instruction on second/foreign (L2) learners’ development of appropriate L2 TFS patterns. These studies have combined insights from TFS-inspired research and different L2 pedagogical approaches.

Thinking for Speaking: What is It and What Empirical Evidence is There for It?

The TFS hypothesis proposed by Slobin (1991, 1996) is concerned with the possible effects of language on the kind of thinking that takes place online when engaged in language-mediated activities. The main idea underlying TFS is that the structure of a language channels the attention of its speakers to specific aspects of experience when talking about them. Each language thus ‘invites’ its speakers to adopt a given perspective on events and experiences when talking about them. As a result, speakers typically attend to and verbalize those characteristics of objects and events that are readily codable in their language, and, over time, this repeated attention leads to particular rhetorical styles. As expressed by Slobin (1996: 76), ‘In the evanescent time frame of constructing utterances in discourse, one fits one’s thoughts into available linguistic forms. Thinking for speaking involves picking those characteristics that (a) fit some conceptualization of the event, and (b) are readily encodable in the language’.

The TFS hypothesis has received empirical support from studies examining the expression of motion in discourse by native speakers (NSs) of different languages. Motion is a semantic domain that is important in all languages and one where differences in conceptual representations between languages can be found (Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2008). Most of this crosslinguistic work on motion has been based on Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) well-known typological framework, which involves the systematic relations in language between meaning and surface expression. According to Talmy, there are two main lexicalization patterns in the expression of motion events in different languages of the world. In satellite-framed languages (S-languages), which include all the Indo-European languages except for the Romance languages, the main verb tends to express Motion and Manner of motion, while Path tends to be encoded in the so-called satellites, which are defined as those elements that appear outside the verb and are not nominal or prepositional phrases, such as particles and affixes. The following expression illustrates this pattern of lexicalization: The bottle floated out of the cave, where the verb float expresses Motion and Manner of motion and the satellite out encodes Path. On the other hand, in verb-framed languages (V-languages), which include Romance and Semitic languages, the main verb tends to express Motion and Path while Manner of motion tends to be encoded in a separate constituent such as a gerund or prepositional clause. For example, La botella salió de la cueva flotando, where the verb salir expresses Motion and Path and the gerund flotando encodes Manner of motion.

However, in order to provide a more accurate description of the typological patterns of the two types of languages, we need to take into account the so-called boundary-crossing constraint (Aske, 1989; Slobin & Hoiting, 1994). This constraint refers to whether or not a given Path involves the crossing of a spatial boundary. Boundary-crossing situations are those where the initial and final points (locations) of movement take place in two different spaces. In S-languages, the main verb can express Manner of motion in both +/– BC situations (e.g. +BC: He ran into the house; –BC: He ran towards the house), while in V-languages, Manner of motion can only be expressed in the main verb in –BC situations (e.g. Corrió hasta la casa [He/she ran to the house (without entering)]). In +BC situations, Manner must be encoded outside the main verb, for instance in a gerund as in Entró en la casa corriendo [He/she entered the house running]. This is due to the fact that crossing a spatial boundary is conceived as a change of state, and this change in V-languages has to be encoded in the verb (e.g. subir ‘go up’, bajar ‘go down’ or cruzar ‘cross’) in contrast to S-languages in which the change of state can be expressed in a satellite (e.g. up, down, across) (Aske 1989).

Research conducted on the expression of motion has shown differences in how NSs of typologically different languages talk about motion (e.g. Berman & Slobin, 1994; Slobin, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006). Generally, this research has shown a greater degree of elaboration of the semantic component of Path by speakers of S-languages. Speakers of these languages tend to provide more elaborated and tightly packaged descriptions of paths within a clause than speakers of V-languages, who, in contrast, tend to provide static descriptions of the static scene in which the movement took place to serve as a backdrop for the Path and Manner information. In addition, speakers of S-languages provide more elaborated manner descriptions than speakers of V-languages, an elaboration that is r...

Table of contents

• Cover-Page
• Half-Title
• series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Prologue
• Introduction
• 1 Thinking for Speaking in an L2: From Research Findings to Pedagogical Implications
• 2 On the Sample Size Required to Identify the Longitudinal L2 Development of Complexity and Accuracy Indices
• 3 A DUB-Inspired Case Study of Multidimensional L2 Complexity Development: Competing or Connecting Growers?
• 4 A Holistic Person-Centred Approach to Mobile-Assisted Language Learning
• 5 Creativity and Routinisation in L2 English: Two Usage-Based Case Studies
• 6 Attractor States in the Development of Linguistic Complexity in Second Language Writing and the Role of Self-Regulation: A Longitudinal Case Study
• 7 Competence Appraisals: Dynamic Judgements of Communication Competence in Real Time
• 8 Dynamic Changes in Motivation and Willingness to Communicate in the Second Language Classroom: A Multiple Case Study
• 9 Nested Locatives: Conceptual Basis and Theoretical Import
• 10 Getting Out the Word on Phrasal Verbs: It Turns Out Phrasal Verb Construction Meanings are Systematic and Teachable
• 11 The Icing On the Cake? Effects of Explicit Form-Focused Instruction after Two Years of Implicit EFL Learning
• 12 Film Language Integrated Learning: A Usage-Inspired L2 Teaching Approach
• Epilogue
• Index