Cognitive Approaches Chapter in Rasmond Mitchel's book Second Language Learning Theories

1. Cognitive
Approaches to
Second Language
Acquisition1
Presented by
Ola Sayed
Second Language
Learning Theories By
Rasmond Mitchel

2. Cognitive Approaches to SLA
 Introduction
 UG Theorists vs. Cognitive theorists.
 Two groups of Cognitive Theorists.
 Processing Approaches.
 Emergenist/Constructionist Approaches.
2

3. UG Theorists vs. Cognitive theorists
3
Cognitive theoristsUG Theorists
Cognitive psychology &
neurology
Linguistic systemsHypothesis
•One instantiation of learning
among others.
•Understanding how the human
brain processes and learns new
information is crucial to
understanding SLA process.
•Different from other kinds
of learning.
•Describing linguistic
systems is crucial to our
understanding of the SLL
task.
SLL
How learners access
competence in real time, and the
strategies they employ when their
incomplete competence lets them
down.
Distinction between
competence and
performance with more
interest in competence.
Central
Issues
Another form of information
processed using general
mechanisms.
Separate innate module in
the mind
Language

4. From Innateness to Cognitivism
4
Innate
• Language
is a
separate
module in
the mind.
LAD & UG
Some aspects
• Of
language
acquisition
are innate
and other
aspects are
not.
Only FLA
• There is a
language-
specific
module only
for FLA.
Cognitive
• There is no
language-
specific faculty
and language is
learned just like
any other type of
knowledge.
Language Faculty

5. Two Groups of Cognitive theorists.
5
 Pienemann, or Towell & Hawkins are theorists who
believe that language knowledge might be special in
some way, but are concerned to develop transition or
processing theories to complement property theories
such as UG or Lexical Functional Grammar. Processing
theorists.
 N.C. Ellis, MacWhinny, or Tomasello are theorists who
think that the separation between property and
transition theories is not legitimate. They want to explain
both the nature of knowledge and how it is processed
through general knowledge. Emergenist or
constructionist theorists.

6. Overview
6
Processing Approaches
• Investigate how SL learners
process linguistic information,
and how their ability to process
the second language develops
over time.
• Focus on computational
dimensions of language
learning.
• They are divided to:
Information Processing
Approach & Process Ability
Theory.
Emergenist Approaches
• Share a usage-based view of
language development, driven by
communicative needs.
• See learning as the analysis of
patterns in the language input. It is
an associative learning process that
leads to regular/rule-like patterns.
• Regularities that emerge from
examples committed to memory
give rise to slot-and-frame patterns.
• Verbs are found productive in
making abstract generalizations with
regard to FLA, while chunks play
that role when SLA is concerned.
• Include approaches such as,
Emergentism, Connectionism/
Associationism .

7. Cognitive Approaches to SLL
7
 Process Approaches
 Information-Processing models of SLL
 McLaughlin’s (1987-1990) Information-processing model.
 Anderson’s Active Control of Thought ACT model.
 Theories of SL Processing.
 Processability Theory.
 Teachability.
 Perceptual Saliency Approach
 Operating principles of FLA.
 Operating principles of SLA.
 Connectionism/ Emergenist Approach.
 Connectionism in FLA.
 Connectionism in SLA.

8. McLaughlin’s Information-processing model
8
In general the fundamental notion of
the information-processing approach
to psychological inquiry is that
complex behavior builds on simple
processes.
(McLaughlin and Heredia,1996, p.213)
These processes are modular and can therefore be
studies independently of one another.

9. McLaughlin’s Information-processing model
9

10. McLaughlin’s Information-processing model
10
 Automatization: is the shift-involved in learning-
from controlled processing of information towards
automatic one.
Controlled Processing: the temporary
activation of a selection of information nodes in
the memory, in a new configuration. It needs a lot
of attentional control & constrained by limitations
of the short-term-memory.
Automatic Processing: automatic
sequences are stored as units in the long-
term-memory. So they can be available very
rapidly with minimal attentional control
whenever the situation requires it.
Practice
(Repeated
Activation)

11. McLaughlin’s Information-processing model
11
 Restructuring: the continuous movement from
controlled to automatic processing within the
linguistic system of the SL learner.
 It destabilizes some structures in the interlanguage
(previously acquired) which accounts for the
reappearance of SL errors.
 It’s the result of exemplar-based representations
becoming rule-based. What happens when a
controlled process become automatic prematurely,
before it’s native-like? Fossilization.

12. Anderson’s Active Control of Thought model
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 It enables declarative Knowledge (knowledge that
something is smth) to become procedural
knowledge (knowledge how to do smth). Can you
give an example for each type of knowledge from
SLL?
 There are 3 kinds of memory:
 Working memory (short-term memory) capacity
limited.
 Declarative long-term-memory.
 Procedural long-term-memory.

13. Anderson’s Active Control of Thought model
13
Stages of Learning (movement from declarative to procedural
knowledge):
 It explains the step-by-step nature of learning.
 The proceduralized knowledge is available quickly and efficiently,
difficult to modify and applicable only to the situation that gave rise to
it.
 The learner’s speech becomes more fluent as more knowledge
becomes proceduralized.
 So are all or most of the SL grammar is learnt through the conscious
study and application of explicit rules?

14. Application of ACT to Leaning strategies
14
Anderson’s model has been applied Learning
strategies by O’Malley & Chamot. What do we
mean by Learning Strategies? What is the
difference between them & communication
strategies.
Learning strategies are classified into three
categories:
 Metacognitive strategies.
 Cognitive strategies.
 Social or affective strategies.

15. Application of ACT to Leaning strategies
15
In the view of O’Malley & Chamot
If learning strategies are a skill then they can be taught
and will become proceduralized quickly, therefore
freeing working memory space for other aspects of
learning. But It’s found that learning them involves
investment of time and effort in order to be effective.

16. Application of ACT to Leaning strategies
16
They make it clear that this approach deals with the rate of learning and
how learning strategies influence it rather than the language learning
rout followed by students.

17. ACT & fluency Development in SLA
17
 Tomwell & Hawkins have incorporated aspects of ACT
into their model of SLL.
 They reject the idea that Anderson’s model can account
for all aspects of SLL, especially the acquisition of ‘core’
grammatical knowledge.
 Their model attempt to integrate how learners learn the
SL system with how they learn to use the system
 In order to explain the natural order of grammatical
structure and the rigid stages SL learners go through in
their SLL they resort to UG.
 They argue that Declarative knowledge could be implicit
or explicit & the learner will not have a conscious
analyzed knowledge of UG

18. 18

19. Tomwell & Hawkins Claims & different kinds of learning.
19
 Internally derived hypotheses about SL structure give rise to a
production stored in procedural memory, first in associative level
and eventually in the autonomous form.
 Explicit rules can be learnt and stored as procedural knowledge.
 Learning strategies facilitate the proceduralization of mechanisms
for faster processing of linguistic input.
 This model attempts to reconcile internal UG-derived hypothesis
with what actually happens during the processes of LL and
Language use.

20. Theories of Second Language Processing
20
Processability Theory by Pienemann
 outlined by Pienemann claims that a theory of grammar (Lexical functional
Grammar LFG; psychologically plausible) and a processing component
should be used in order to understand SLA.
 LA is the gradual acquisition of the computational mechanisms that operate
on the linguistic knowledge the learners construct.
 Feature Unification ( one characteristic of LFG) involves:
 The identification of grammatical information in lexical entry,
 The temporary storage of that knowledge and
 Its utilization at another point in the constituent structure.
E.g. a noun & its article should have the same gender, number and case features.
*Peter walk a dogs.
 Learners cannot access hypotheses about the SL that they cannot process.
There is hierarchy of processing resources in which learners will gradually
move ‘up’ the structure, first accessing words, then their syntactic
categories, then joining them in a phrase.
E.g. a word need to be added to the L2 lexicon before its grammatical category can
be assigned.

21. Theories of Second Language Processing
21
 The hierarchy of processing resources

22. Theories of Second Language Processing
22
Processability Theory by Pienemann
 He makes a prediction for acquisition route.
 He applied his model to both morphology & syntax in SLA
and one of the major findings was the clear developmental
route in the acquisition of German word order, found in
both naturalistic and classroom learners.
 The stages are due to the hierarchy of processing
procedures that he has outlined, in terms of grammatical
information.
 Teachability Hypothesis :
Rigid route→ structures become learnable when the previous
step on the acquisition have been acquired.

23. Theories of Second Language Processing
23
Perceptual Saliency Approach by Slobin who:
 It’s the Perceptual Saliency that drives the learning
process, rather than an innate language-specific
module LMC (language making capacity).
 He devised a number of operating principles which
guide children in their processing of the linguistic
strings they encounter.
Operating principles of FLA by Slobin.
Operating principles of SLA by Anderson.

24. Operating Principles of FLA by Slobin
24
 They are based on the claim that certain linguistic
forms are more accessible or more salient to the child
than others.
 They are 5 cognitive (rather than linguistic) principles
that characterize the way in which children perceive
their environment and try to make sense of it.
 Based on these principles Slobin predicted 5 LA
universals.
 By 1985 the list of operating principles reached the
number of 40.

25. Operating Principles of FLA by Slobin
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26. Operating Principles of FLA by Slobin
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LA Universals:

27. Operating Principles of SLA by Anderson
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Anderson’s principles are based on those of Slobin
but are adapted to the learners of second language
They are 7 elaborated principles (p.118)

28. Operating Principles of SLA by Anderson
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29. Operating Principles of SLA by Anderson
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30. Operating Principles of SLA by Anderson
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31. Operating Principles of SLA by Anderson
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32. 32 Ola Sayed Ahmed