Lecture 6 Psychological aspects of second language acquisition

1. Lecture 6Psychological aspects of second language acquisition

2. L1 versus L2 M K Leonard et al (2011). Language Proficiency Modulates the Recruitment of Non-Classical Language Areas in Bilinguals. In PLoS ONE 6(3): e18240. MEG responses to first language words, second language words, and pictures during lexico-semantic processing (~400 ms after a word is shown). Regions with arrows indicate areas where responses to pictures and L2 words are similar, but differ from the responses to L1 words. Brain activity in Spanish-English bilinguals reading words in native Spanish & second language, English.

3. Dissociations in L2 Learning

4. Multicompetence Term used by Vivian Cook in 1991 (The poverty-of-the-stimulus argument and multi-competence, Second Language Research, 7, 2, 103-117) Multicompetence raises the problems of contamination and attrition It also raises the problem of what qualifies as a language

5. Word association

6. Theories of L2 acquisition • Stephen Krashen's Five Hypotheses • The natural order hypothesis • The Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis • The Monitor Hypothesis • The Input Hypothesis • The Affective Filter Hypothesis • Interlanguage – Larry Selinker • The learner does not learn the target language structure, they learn an intermediate structure • As the learner becomes more capable in the target language their interlanguage model drifts closer to the target language structure • Fossilization occurs when the learner ceases to be interested in the “nativisation” of their interlanguage • The reduced L1 model – Stephen Pit Corder • The learner starts with a simplified model of their L1, and uses that to build their L2. • As they become more capable in the target language the learner elaborates their model of the target language • Fossilization occurs when the learner feels they have a sufficient model of the target language • Theory of Instructed Language Learning – Rod Ellis • L2 utterances are Consciously planned or Unplanned • Pragmatic learning is more important to the learner than semantic learning • Teaching should attend to form as well as meaning

7. Pidgins & Creoles

8. International icons

9. And finally ...