Summery of Cognitive Accounts [PDF]

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COGNITIVE ACCOUNTS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION A. Cognitive accounts of L2 learner (theories that explain how learners construct their mental represents of L2 ); how knowledge of the rules and items that comprise th L2 is developed B. Cognitive L2 communication (Theories that explain how learners employ their knowledge in actual language use) ; how L2 comprehension and production is accomplished Cognitive accounts of Second language acquisition Introduction Cognitive accounts concerned with what the learners knows’ knowledge is inseparable from actual use. Therefore the focus on the extent to which the learner has achieved mastery over the formal and functional properties of language and the mental processes involve. The computational model

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The representation of L2 knowledge Early inter language theory Any discussion of mental processes responsible for L2 acquisition is the concept of interlanguage. It refer to both the internal system that a learner has constructed at a single point in time (an interlanguage) and to the series of interconnected systems that characterize the learner’s progress over time (the interlanguage continuum). Therefore it provide an explanation of L2 acquisition. Processes of interlanguage construction (Selinker’ 1972) identifies five principal cognitive processes responsible for L2 acquisition: Language transfer Transfer of training Strategies of L2 learning Strategies of L2 communication Overgeneralization of the target language material. The nature of the interlanguage continuum The interlanguage continuum consists of a series of overlapping grammars. Each grammar shares some rules with the previously constructed grammar but also contains some new or revised rule. One of the outcomes of the view of the interlanguage continuum is that L2 acquisition is characterized not by simplification but by complexification. Corder (1977) has a suggested the learner’s starting point is the same as in L1 acquisition: a basic system consisting of lexical items and a few simple rules for sequencing them. Fossilization The term fossilization has been used to label the process by which not-target forms become fixed in interlanguage. The various factors of fossilization are: internal (age’ lack of desire to acculturate) and external (communication pressure’ lack of learning opportunity’ the nature of the feedback on learner’s use L2). Variable L2 knowledge Variability is seen as the product of both the differential use of explicit and implicit knowledge’ and the heterogeneous nature of implicit knowledge itself. And Which also shed

light on the wat learners organize their implicit knowledge’ as do functionalist grammar accounts of L2 learning. Functionalist views of L2 knowledge Implicit and explicit L2 knowledge Explicit knowledge refers to knowledge that is available to the learner as a conscious representation. e.g. The London is my favorite city. Learners may make their knowledge explicit either in every language or with the help of specially learnt technical language. There are two type of Implicit knowledge’ 1) formulaic knowledge (consists of ready-made chunks of language) and 2) rule based knowledge (consists of generalized and abstract structures which have been internalized). In both cases the knowledge is intuitive/hidden. The learners are not conscious of what they know. It becomes manifest only in actual performance. Bialystok’s theory of L2 learning. According to this theory implicit knowledge is developed through exposure to communicative language use and is facilitated by strategy of functional practicing. Meanwhile explicit knowledge arises when learners focus on the language code and is facilitated by formal practicing which involves either conscious study of the L2 or attempts to automatize already learnt explicit knowledge.

Declarative and procedural L2 knowledge The dual-mode system Concluding comment The processes of L2 acquisition Micro-processes Macro processes Final comment on the study of processes of L2 acquisition Cognitive theories of L2 acquisition The nativization model and operating principles The multidimentional model and processability theory The Multidimensional Model focus on the relationship between implicit knowledge and output by indicating the strategies which have to be mastered in order to produce different structure. Emergentist model of L2 language acquisition The competion model Both completion model and operating principles specify how input is noticed and interpreted at different stages of development and how this information is then organized as implicit knowledge. Skill-acquisition theories Skill-learning models consider the changes in the way knowledge is represented as a result of the need to use L2 efficiently in a range of tasks that place different demands on the learner’s processing abilities.