What Does Memory Have To Do With It? The Declarative/Procedural Model

1. What Does Memory Have To Do With It? The Declarative/Procedural Model Teacher Workshop CLAS & CSLS Virginia Scott Academic Director, Vanderbilt University Center for Second Language Studies Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

2. Cognitive neuroscience informs SLA Franco, Fabbro. 2002. The Neurolinguistics of L2 Users. In Portraits of the L2 User, edited by Vivian Cook, 199-220. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Hagoort, Peter, Colin M. Brown, and Lee Osterhout. 1999. The Neurocognition of Syntactic Processing. In The Neurocognition of Language, edited by Colin M. Brown and Peter Hagoort, 273-316. Kroll, Judith F. and Gretchen Sunderman. 2003. Cognitive Processes in Second Language Learners and Bilinguals: The Development of Lexical and Conceptual Representations. In The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, edited by Catherine J. Doughty and Michael H. Long, 104-129. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Paradis, Michel. 2004. A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Tomasello, Michael. 2002. The Emergence of Grammar in Early Child Language. In The Evolution of Language out of Pre-Language, edited by T. Givón and Bertram F. Malle, 309-328. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Ullman, Michael T. 2004. Contributions of Memory Circuits to Language: The Declarative / Procedural Model. Cognition, 93, 231-270. Wartenburger, Isabell, Hauke R. Heekeren, Jubin Abutalebi, Stefano F. Cappa, Arno Villringer, and Daniela Perani. 2003. Early Setting of Grammatical Processing in the Bilingual Brain. Neuron 37: 159-170. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

3. What is the connection between memory and language? • Short-term memory: (working memory) processes and stores limited amount of information for a few seconds. • Long-term memory: • Procedural: knowledge that cannot be retrieved consciously. • Declarative: knowledge that can be consciously retrieved. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

4. Long-term memory • Procedural memory • “stores” knowledge that can be used without conscious reflection, such as the rules of one’s native language; knowing how. • Also called “implicit” learning. • Declarative memory • “stores” facts and experiences that can be consciously recalled, such as words associated with the category ‘fruit,’ or the names of countries in Europe; knowing what. • Also called “explicit” learning. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

5. Words and grammar in memory Evidence suggests that for native language (L1) processing … • words may be stored and processed in declarative memory. • grammar may be stored and processed in procedural memory. Evidence suggests that for adult* second language (L2) processing … • words and grammar may be stored and processed in declarative memory. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

6. Note: What does “adult” mean? • There is general agreement that humans have a critical period / sensitive period for language learning. (Lenneberg’s CPH, 1967) • Although there is no agreement about how long this sensitive period lasts, most research suggests that it lasts from birth through puberty. • The term “adult” in SLA refers to a learner who is past the sensitive period for language learning. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

7. Child language acquisition When children acquire their first or second (or third) language, evidence indicates that grammar is supported by procedural memory and words are supported by declarative memory.  L1 and L2 acquisition involve the same memory systems. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

8. Adult SLA When adults acquire a second language, evidence indicates that that both words and grammar are supported by declarative memory systems. (Ullman’s, 2005 DP model of SLA)  L1 and L2 acquisition involve different memory systems. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

9. More evidence … • In people who have acquired a L2 after the sensitive period for language acquisition, it appears that the two languages access a common semantic system. (Dehaene et al., 1997; Illes et al., 1999; Klein et al., 1995; Marian, 2003; Marian, Spivey, & Hirsch, 2003; Xue et al., 2004) • “The frontal lobe structures organize the syntactic components of a language only if it is learnt before the critical age. Afterwards, other brain structures account for the organization of the grammatical aspects of the second language, probably through explicit learning.”(Fabbro, 1999, p. 101) Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

10. And more … • The monolingual and the bilingual brain are physiologically different. • A bilingual person processes language differently than a monolingual person. • Brain imaging technologies suggest that when L2 is acquired during the sensitive period, L1 and L2 tend to be represented in the same areas. • Increasing L2 proficiency changes brain organization. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

11. Implications for the classroom • When students say “I hate grammar” they are expressing real frustration related to the disconnect between knowing what and knowing how. • Learning and practicing grammar rules is unlikely to promote spontaneous use of those rules. • Learning words and meaning-bearing phrases may lead to spontaneous grammatical utterances. Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011

12. Final thought … “I have seen instructors so caught up in explaining things that very little class time is left over for any kind of meaningful language use.” (Wong, Wynne. 2003. Input Enhancement: From Theory and Research to the Classroom. New York, NY: McGraw Hill,p. 34.) Teacher Workshop, October 4, 2011