Mind and Context in Adult Second Language Acquisition

Methods, Theory, and Practice

Cristina Sanz

• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9781589010703
• eBook ISBN: 9781589013735
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

How do people learn nonnative languages? Is there one part or function of our brains solely dedicated to language processing, or do we apply our general information-processing abilities when learning a new language? In this book, an interdisciplinary collaboration of scholars and researchers presents an overview of the latter approach to adult second language acquisition and brings together, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the latest research on this subject.

Clearly organized into four distinct but integrated parts, Mind and Context in Adult Second Language Acquisition first provides an introduction to information-processing approaches and the tools for students to understand the data. The next sections explain factors that affect language learning, both internal (attention and awareness, individual differences, and the neural bases of language acquisition) and external (input, interaction, and pedagogical interventions). It concludes by looking at two pedagogical applications: processing instruction and content based instruction.

This important and timely volume is a must-read for students of language learning, second language acquisition, and linguists who want to better understand the information-processing approaches to learning a non-primary language. This book will also be of immense interest to language scholars, program directors, teachers, and administrators in both second language acquisition and cognitive psychology.

PART 1
Theory and Methodology

ONE
Adult SLA: The Interaction between External and Internal Factors

CRISTINA SANZ

KEY WORDS

External and internal factors

individual differences

interactive approach

interlanguage

level of ultimate attainment

nativism

neurolinguistics

rate of acquisition

universals

variation.

1. Introduction

Like their counterparts in the field of first language (L1) acquisition, scholars in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) need to explain both the nature of language and how it is acquired, that is, what is learned and how it is learned. Unlike researchers in the field of L1 acquisition, however, SLA researchers need to explain the enormous variation found both in the rate of acquisition and in the level of ultimate attainment that characterizes adult language learning. Their goal is to identify universals of adult SLA as well as to explain the role of individual differences (IDs) in the process of acquiring a second language (L2). Researchers agree that L2 learners follow a predictable path in their acquisition process irrespective of their L1, aptitude, and context of acquisition and that language learners vary in the efficiency with which they go through the stages. There is no doubt that the learning context is in part responsible for this situation: Graduates from immersion programs learn faster and attain higher proficiency levels than L2 learners in foreign language programs. In addition, IDs such as motivation, aptitude, and attitude account for differences among learners in the same contexts. It is the interaction between internal processing mechanisms and IDs on the one hand, and external factors, such as quality and quantity of input on the other, that explain why some adult language learners learn faster than others and get further ahead in the acquisition process.

This volume is concerned with the adult L2 learner and the interaction between external and internal factors that determines and ultimately explains adult L2 learning processes. It therefore contributes to the general picture of language acquisition in a context that is different from child bilingualism and skilled adult bilingualism (i.e., adults who started learning an L2 at a young age and who have reached a high level of proficiency). Given the fact that adult L2 acquisition takes place after cognitive development is basically complete, adult language learners need to make the most of their cognitive resources in order to compensate for the limitations that have been imposed both externally (linked to the nature of the input, generally poorer in quality and frequency than L1 input) and internally (related to depleted cognitive resources). Key topics to be explored regard (a) the nature of the language, which is the input that feeds the learning process (Mackey and Abbuhl, this volume, chapter 7; Sanz and Morgan-Short, this volume, chapter 8), (b) the mechanisms that process information and the role of attention and awareness in explicit and implicit processing of information (Leow and Bowles, this volume, chapter 6), (c) how properties of the brain may account for differences in child and adult SLA (Ullman, this volume, chapter 5), and (d) how age, sex, and prior language experience interact with cognitive limitations to explain differential success in the acquisition of nonprimary languages (Bowden, Sanz, and Stafford, this volume, chapter 4).

Although the volume takes a cognitive approach to L2 learning, it also accepts the importance of social context in both L1 and L2 acquisition. All knowledge, especially but not exclusively linguistic knowledge, is the result of learners’ interaction with their social context, and acquisition is thus both social and cognitive. Mackey and Abbuhl’s work on input and interaction as well as Bowden, Sanz, and Stafford’s discussion of bilingualism and the acquisition of nonprimary languages provide insights into these issues. The latter chapter in particular distinguishes between individual and societal bilingualism and defends the proposition that the first cannot be understood without the second. Psycholinguistics may explain the positive effects that the ability to read and write in two languages has on subsequent language learning (Sanz, 2000), but biliterate bilingualism results from specific external conditions, for example, language policies leading to bilingual education.

The motivation behind adult SLA research is in large part theoretical. L2 learning is pervasive throughout the world today, as it has been throughout history. An understanding of SLA processes adds to a greater understanding of that which makes us human, our minds. Scholars will one day explain the cognitive processes underlying adult SLA and thus contribute to the larger understanding of human cognition. But the motivation behind SLA research is also practical. Practical applications of adult SLA research are not always necessary, but most SLA research can inform language teachers, language learners, and administrators involved in language policy and language program direction. More and more, thanks to advances in neurolinguistics, findings from SLA research also have implications for clinical treatment, for example, helping bilingual aphasics.

The SLA field has borrowed both theory and research methodology from the fields of linguistics and psychology, both of which have posited theories attempting to explain what language is and how it is learned. Although descriptive accounts are important, a theory that has explanatory power is indispensable. Given a solid theoretical foundation, SLA researchers can make predictions, elaborate hypotheses, test them, and explain their results. This process ultimately tests, and if necessary, changes, the theory itself. Ullman (this volume, chapter 5) presents an example of such a process. His model, based on observations that have accumulated from psycholinguistic, developmental disorder, neurological, and neuroimaging studies, makes predictions that are now being tested.

SLA research methodology has largely been borrowed from L1 acquisition research, which is carried out primarily by scholars trained in psychology departments. Some methods more common to theoretical linguistics and sociolinguistics are also popular. Research methodology can be classified as quantitative or qualitative and may be either cross-sectional or longitudinal, though mixed designs are increasingly common. Chen’s chapter (this volume, chapter 2) on quantitative methods and Adams, Fujii, and Mackey’s (this volume, chapter 3) on qualitative methods provide an excellent overview of basic SLA methodological tools. Becoming familiar with SLA research tools is necessary not only for those who carry out data-based studies but also for language practitioners who need to read the research with a critical eye.

Thus the purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to adult SLA from an information-processing perspective, to contextualize its focus within general SLA and its connections with other disciplines. The chapter often makes reference to relevant chapters in the volume, but the reader is referred to the introduction at the beginning of the volume for summaries and details on chapter structure and volume organization. The remainder of the chapter is divided into three sections. The first presents two competing approaches to adult SLA, namely, generative and general nativist approaches, the latter of which includes information-processing approaches. The second section briefly provides a historical perspective on adult SLA research and the different emphases that a number of models and theories have assigned to external and internal factors to explain L2 acquisition. The final section introduces key issues and terms discussed in depth in the volume, which include external factors, such as input and interaction, and IDs, such as cognitive capacity (working memory) and its relation to attention.

2. Two Competing Approaches to Language Acquisition

The present section explores the contrast between two major approaches to adult SLA: grammatical nativism or generativism (Schwartz, 1993; White, 1989), connected to generative linguistic theory, and more psychology-based approaches, including information-processing approaches, grouped under the umbrella of general nativism (Anderson, 1983; McLaughlin, 1987). Both approaches attempt to explain what is learned (rules and representations, associations, or both) and how it is learned, but differ in scope, methods, and assumptions. General nativism posits domain-general mechanisms, such as those responsible for all skill learning, while grammatical nativism or generativism posits a language acquisition device—an innate grammar (termed Universal Grammar) that both expands with exposure and sets limits on learners’ predictions. The theories agree on a basic definition of what constitutes language knowledge: a lexicon with information about properties of words, such as categories (nouns, verbs, etc.), and a computational system that allows words to be combined to produce and interpret language. The disagreement between the theories begins with the nature of the computational system. Generativists propose that such a system is a hierarchical set of rules, whereas connectionists characterize the system as a nonhierarchical set of mental associations. More disagreement between approaches is found in relation to how language is learned (see Ullman, this volume, chapter 5).

Generativists propose a language acquisition device (LAD) exclusively devoted to language in order to explain the speed and sophistication of language acquisition (i.e., modularity). The LAD consists of an innate grammar that grows in contact with input triggering its development and that limits the otherwise infinite possibilities that a purely computational system would generate. The LAD is posited in order to explain how the L1 is acquired rapidly and efficiently based on degenerate input and lacking negative feedback. This is known as Plato’s paradox or the logical problem of language acquisition. The key question in SLA for this approach is whether L2 grammars are like L1 grammars and whether interlanguage (i.e., the developing L2 system) is the result of access to Universal Grammar. There are three basic positions: the full access–full transfer account (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1996); the weak transfer–valueless features hypothesis (Eubank, 1996) and the lexical transfer–minimal trees hypothesis (Vainikka and Young-Scholten, 1996).

Since generativists see knowledge or competence as internally driven and universal, their research gives only minimal attention to external factors, including input and IDs. Elegance (a theory’s ability to explain phenomena with the fewest possible constructs) is a fundamental principle for generativists and is always preferred over inclusiveness. General nativists (cognitive nativists, connectionists, and emergentists) posit the existence of domain-general mechanisms responsible for all learning, not just language learning. Acquisition is input driven and takes place through interaction and experience. The goal of nativist theory is to explain all language behavior. From input characteristics, such as complexity and frequency and the factors intervening in its processing (strategies and attention), to knowledge representation and access, their approach is inclusive. SLA research of this type is interactive in nature since it looks at both internal and external factors in language acquisition and at the way they affect each other. While it must be recognized that generativist approaches to language acquisition, including SLA, have made contributions to the advancement of knowledge of the human mind, administrators, teachers and practitioners in general find it difficult to relate them to their needs.

Although it may appear contradictory, most SLA researchers do not adhere to one theory alone. For example, in Gass (2003) the first section is a defense of the primary role of an innate program (nature) over input (nurture) in acquisition, but the rest of the chapt...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1 Theory and Methodology
• Part 2 Internal Factors
• Part 3 External Factors
• Part 4 Pedagogical Implications
• Contributors
• Index