Downloaded 487 times
Uploaded byyaseen zebary
Cognitive theory
The document discusses cognitive approaches to second language learning, contrasting them with behaviorism, emphasizing that language acquisition involves conscious processing and learning strategies. It outlines various schools of thought, key cognitive theorists, and specific models, such as information processing and processability theory, to explain how learners acquire language and restructure their knowledge. The document also explores learning strategies that enhance language acquisition, focusing on metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective approaches.
More Related Content
Similar to Cognitive theory
Cognitive theory
- 1. Cognitive approaches tosecond language learning Yaseen Taha
- 2. Schools ofthought cognitive approaches Behaviourism Learning strategies Processing approaches
- 3. What are theSchools of thought?
- 4. Schools of thought Structural linguisticsand behavioral psychology 1900s, 1940s, 1950s Generative linguistics and cognitive psychology 1970s, 1980s Constructivism 1980s, 1990s, 2000s
- 5. What does cognitivetheory mean? A theory of learning processes that focuses on how people think, understand, and know. It does not specifies precisely what is learned, what content will be easiest (or most difficult) to learn, or what learners will select to learn at different stages of development or levels of mastery of a complex skill. It came about as a reaction to behaviorism. A cognitive theory of learning sees second language acquisition as a conscious and reasoned thinking process, involving the deliberate use of learning strategies.
- 6. Important cognitive theorists Allan Paivio, Robert Gagne, Howard Gardener, Benjamin Bloom.
- 7. Behaviourism a highlyinfluential academic school of psychology. It assumes that a learner is essentially passive, responding to environment stimuli. Believes that a learner starts out with a clean slate, and behavior is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement. Reinforcement, positive or negative increases the possibility of an event happening again. Punishment, both positive and negative, decreases the possibility of an event happening again. It implies that the learner responds to environmental stimuli without his/her mental state being factor in the learners' behavior. Individual learns to behave through conditioning.
- 8. Comparison between BEHAVIORISTtheory and COGNITIVIST theory Behaviorism is a learning theory As a formation of habit, conditioning Practice is necessary, constant repetition Learner is passive Behaviorists: teach, plan, present language item, make Students repeat Errors are forbidden Ignored thought and emotions Cognitivism is a learning theory, based on how people think not a theory that specifies precisely what is learned what content will be easiest to learn, or what learners will select to learn at different stages of development Learning results from internal activity (mental processes) Practice is necessary, but rote learning and meaningless repetition is out. Learners process, store, and retrieve information Cognitivists: creates opportunities for learning to occur Errors can be. Through them one can learn
- 9. Universal Grammartheorists were interested in competence of second language grammars, and in its construction. They are not centrally concerned with how learners access this linguistic knowledge in real time, or in the strategies they might employ when their incomplete linguistic system lets them down, or why some individuals are substantially better than others at learning other languages. For cognitive theorists, on the other hand, these are central issues.
- 10. Dichotomy between linguistics language Aseparate innate module in the mind Another form of information processed by general mechanisms
- 11. Researchers believe thatthere is a language-specific module for first language acquisition, but that the learning of second languages is different and relies on general cognitive mechanisms. Even for first language acquisition, some researchers believe that some aspects of language acquisition are innate and other aspects not.
- 12. Cognitive theorists Pienemann,or Towell and Hawkins belong to Processing approaches. These approaches investigate how second language learners process linguistic information, and how their ability to process the second language develops over time. They are focused primarily on the computational dimension of language learning, and might or might not believe that language is a separate innate module. (information- processing approaches) N.C. Ellis, MacWhinney, or Tomasello belong to emergentism, constructionist approaches ( the acquisition of language from the constructionist or emergentist point of view).
- 13. Processing approaches they areinterested in the way in which the brain's processing mechanisms deal with the second language. The first approach, information processing, investigates how different memory stores (short-term memory (STM); long-term memory (LTM) - declarative and procedural) deal with new second language information, and how this information is automatized and restructured through repeated activation. The second approach, processability theory, looks more specifically at the processing demands made by various formal aspects of the second language, and the implications for learnability and teachability of second language structure.
- 14. The multi-store modelof memory
- 15. Information-processing models ofsecond language learning McLaughlin's (1987, 1990) information-processing model Anderson's Active Control of Thought (ACT*) model (1983 , 1985)
- 16. Second languagelearning is viewed as the acquisition of a complex cognitive skill. To learn a second language is to learn a skill, because various aspects of the task must be practised and integrated into fluent performance. These two notions - automatization and restructuring - are central to cognitive theory. (McLaughlin, 1987, pp. 133-4)
- 17. Automatization the wayin which we process information may be either controlled or automatic, and that learning involves a shift from controlled towards automatic processing. Learners first resort to controlled processing in the second language. This controlled processing involves the temporary activation of a selection of information nodes in the memory. Such processing requires a lot of attentional control on the part of the subject, and is constrained by the limitations of the short-term memory. For example, a beginner learner wanting to greet someone in the second language might activate the following words: Good Morning How Are You? Initially, these words have to be put together in a piecemeal fashion, one at a time (assuming they have not been memorized as an unanalysed chunk).
- 18. Through repeatedactivation, sequences first produced by controlled processing become automatic. Automatized sequences are stored as units in the long-term memory, which means that they can be made available very rapidly whenever the situation requires it. So, in the above example, once a learner has activated the sequence Good Morning How Are You? a large number of times, it becomes automatic, that is, it does not require attentional control. However, once acquired, such automatized skills are difficult to delete or modify.
- 19. Learning inthis view is seen as the movement from controlled to automatic processing via practice (repeated activation). When this shift occurs, controlled processes are freed to deal with higher levels of processing (i.e. the integration of more complex skill clusters), thus explaining the incremental (step by step) nature of learning. It is necessary for simple sub-skills and routines to become automatic before more complex ones can be tackled. Once our learner has automatized Good Morning How Are You?, he or she is free to deal with the learning of more complex language, as the short-term memory is not taken up by the production of this particular string.
- 20. This continuing movementfrom controlled to automatic processing results in a constant restructuring of the linguistic system of the second language learner. Second language learners often start by memorizing unanalysed chunks of language, which will later be analysed and give rise to productive rules . For example, a learner might first memorize a question as an unanalyzed chunk, for example Have you got a pet?, without having a productive rule for interrogatives, involving inversion. When this learner starts generating interrogatives that are not rote-learned chunks, he or she might produce an alternative, uninverted form, such Has you have pet?
- 21. Anderson's Active Controlof Thought (ACT*) model (1983 , 1985) Another processing model from cognitive psychology, which has also been applied to aspects of SLL. It enables declarative knowledge (i.e. knowledge that something is the case) to become procedural knowledge (i.e. knowledge how to do something). One of the major differences is that Anderson posits three kinds of memory: a working memory, similar to McLaughlin's short-term memory and therefore tightly capacity-limited, and two kinds of long-term memory - a declarative long- term memory and a procedural long-term memory. Anderson believes that declarative and procedural knowledge are different kinds of knowledge that are stored differently.
- 22. Declarative Knowledge(i.e. knowledge that something is the case) Procedural Knowledge (i.e. knowledge how to do something). For example: If you are learning to drive, you will be told that if the engine is revving too much, you need to change to a higher gear; you will also be told how to change gear. In the early stages of learning to drive, however, knowing that (declarative knowledge) you have to do this does not necessarily mean that you know how (procedural knowledge) to do it quickly and successfully. In other words, you go through a declarative stage before acquiring the procedural knowledge linked with this situation. With practice, however, the mere noise of the engine getting louder will trigger your gear changing, without you even having to think about it. This is how learning takes place in this view: by declarative knowledge becoming procedural and automatized.
- 23. Let us illustratewith an example how the notions of declarative and procedural knowledge could apply to SLL. If we take the example of the third person singular -s marker on present tense verbs in English, the classroom learner might initially know, in the sense that she has consciously learnt the rule, that s/he + Verb requires the addition of an -s to the stem of the verb. However, that same learner might not necessarily be able to consistently produce the -s in a conversation in real time. This is because this particular learner has declarative knowledge of that rule, but it has not yet been proceduralized. After much practice, this knowledge will hopefully become fully proceduralized, and the third person -s will be supplied when the context requires it.
- 24. According to Anderson,the move from declarative to procedural knowledge takes place in three stages 1. The cognitive stage: a description of the procedure is learnt. 2. The associative stage: a method for performing the skill is worked out. 3.The autonomous stage: The skill becomes more and more rapid and automatic.
- 25. In theexamples outlined above, in the cognitive stage, the learner would learn that the clutch pedal has to be pushed down and the gear lever moved to the correct position, or, in the case of the language example, that an -s must be added to the verb after a third person subject. In the associative stage, the learner would work out how to do it, that is, how to press the pedal down and how to get the gear lever in the correct position, or how to add an -s when the context requires it. In other words, the learner learns to associate an action (or a set of actions) with the corresponding declarative knowledge. In the autonomous stage, our learner's actions (changing gear or adding an -S) become increasingly automatic, to the point that the corresponding declarative knowledge may even be lost; in other words, our learner might not be able to explain or even be conscious of what they are doing.
- 26. When tasksbecome proceduralized, they are accessed automatically, without having to resort to the working memory, which is limited in its processing capacity. Here, we see the basic suggestions that the learner's speech becomes more fluent as more knowledge becomes proceduralized, and is therefore accessed more quickly and efficiently. We can also see how, as knowledge becomes proceduralized, the working memory is freed to work on higher level knowledge. What do Learning strategies mean?
- 27. procedures undertakenby the learner, in order to make their own language learning as effective as possible. Learning strategies are special ways of processing information that enhance comprehension, learning or retention of information. They may include: Learning strategies must not be confused with communication strategies, although there is some overlap; their focus is on facilitating learning. communication strategies are used in order to overcome a specific communicative problem.
- 28. Learning Strategies: Metacognitivestrategies Cognitive Strategies Social or Affective Strategies
- 29. Metacognitive Strategies Itis important but overlooked Thinking about thinking in another words knowing what we know and what we do not know They are techniques that help people become more successful learners When you read something you have strategies so in thinking also Before: developing a plan (you can ask yourself why am I doing this, what should I do first, how much time do I need to do this,, During: monitoring the plan: how am I doing, am I on the right track, am I getting close to my goals, do I need to do if I do not get it After: Evaluating the plan: how did I do,, did I do better or worse than I thought
- 30. Before beginningwhile working After completing a task on a task the task Set goals: plan the check on the task Assess how well you have Content sequence task accomplish the task Choose strategies check the how well you have used comprehension the learning strategies check the production Identify changes to be made next time Planning/ Organizing Monitoring Evaluating
- 31. Cognitive strategies Rehearsal(repeating) Organization (grouping, classifying) Inferencing (Using information in text to guess meanings or new linguistic items, predict outcomes or complete missing parts) Summarizing (restate most important points, condense key words, remove repetition, Deducing (applying rules to the understanding of language) Imagery (using visual images)
- 32. Transfer (usingknown linguistic information to facilitate a new learning task) ex. Learning to drive a car helps a person to later drive truck), ex. mathematics; physics… Elaboration (linking ideas contained in new information, or integrating new ideas with known information)
- 33. Social or Affectivestrategies Cooperation : working with peers to solve a problem, pool information, check notes or get feedback on a learning activity Questioning for clarification: eliciting from a teacher or peer additional explanation, rephrasing or examples. Self-talk: Using mental redirection of thinking to assure oneself that a learning activity will be successful or to reduce anxiety about a task.
- 34. Theories of secondlanguage processing Processability theory Perceptual Saliency approach Processability theory Processability theory is part of the cognitive approach to second language acquisition that attempts to increase understanding of the ways L2 learners restructure their interlanguage knowledge systems. LikeTowell and Hawkins, the Processability theory outlined by Pienemann (1998, 2003) also claims we need to use both a theory of grammar and a processing component in order to understand second language acquisition. The theory of grammar, titled Lexical Functional Grammar, also differs from the Chomskyan theory. Suffice it to say that Lexical Functional Grammar,
- 35. unlike UniversalGrammar, is a theory of grammar that attempts to represent both linguistic knowledge and language processing within the same framework. Unlike Universal Grammar, which is exclusively a theory of linguistic knowledge, Lexical Functional Grammar aims to be psychologically plausible, that is, to be in line with the cognitive features of language processing
- 36. Processability theoryaims to clarify how learners acquire the computational mechanisms that operate on the linguistic knowledge they construct. Pienemann believes that language acquisition itself is the gradual acquisition of these computational mechanisms The basic logic behind Processability theory is that learners cannot access hypotheses about the second language that they cannot process. They are claimed to have a Hypothesis Space, which develops over time according to the following hierarchy of processing resources
- 37. Level 1:lemma access; words; no sequence of constituents. Level 2: category procedure; lexical morphemes; no exchange of information - canonical word order. Level 3 : phrasal procedure; phrasal morphemes. Level 4: simplified S-procedure; exchange of information from internal to salient constituent. Level 5: S-procedure; inter-phrasal morphemes; exchange of information between internal constituents. Level 6: Subordinate clause procedure.
- 38. Teachability Pienemann developedhis Processability theory in order to explain the well documented observation that second language learners follow a fairly rigid route in their acquisition of certain grammatical structures. This notion of route implies that structures only become learnable when the previous steps on this acquisitional path have been acquired. The predictions of the Teachability hypothesis are as follows: • Stages of acquisition cannot be skipped through formal instruction. • Instruction will be most beneficial if it focuses on structures from 'the next stage
- 39. Operating principles andfirst language acquisition Slobin's (1973 , 1979, 1985) operating principles are based on the claim that 'certain linguistic forms are more "accessible" or more "salient" to the child than others Operating Principle A: pay attention to the ends of words. Operating Principle B: there are linguistic elements that encode relations between words. Operating Principle C: avoid exceptions. Operating Principle D: underlying semantic relations should be marked overtly and clearly. Operating Principle E: the use of grammatical markers should make semantic sense.
- 40. Operating principles insecond language acquisition The one-to-one principle an interlanguage system should be constructed in such a way that an intended underlying meaning is expressed with one clear invariant surface form (or construction). Example: Learners of German initially maintain an SVO word order in all contexts, in spite of the fact that German word order is not so consistent (Clahsen, 1984). the one-to-one principle means that learners of English will often start with just one form for negation (e.g. no the dog; he no go), but once this form has been incorporated into their interlanguage, they are able to notice other forms and differentiate the environment in which they occur.
- 41. The relexification principle when you cannot perceive the structural pattern used by the language you are trying to acquire, use your native language structure with lexical items from the second language. Example: Japanese learners of English sometimes use Japanese SOV word order in English in the early stages, with English lexical items.
- 42.