Chapter 6. Vanpatten And Jessica Williams Dekeyser: Skill Acquisition Theory Supported power of learning curve as a representation of fast proceduralization followed by slow automatization and underlined skill-specificity of procedural knowledge. learners may still follow predictable stages in their order of acquisition of target structures, the speed and systematicity with which they learn them should increase.

1. Source: Vanpatten And Jessica Williams
By: Zahra Farajnezhad

2. THE THEORY

4. Knowledge And Skill
 To be good at a skill, you have to acquire a lot of knowledge.
 It takes time and effort to acquire a lot of knowledge.
o When a certain amount of knowledge is acquired on a topic, you begin
to see patterns.
• Pattern recognition facilitates expert rules. Ericsson et al (1993) No
talent.

5. Declarative Knowledge
 Characterized by thinking - trying to understand the skill
 Movements in this stage are halting and poorly timed
• Performance is variable with a lot of 'gross errors'
 An increase in 'self-talk' is evident as this stage progresses
o This stage is quite short
o With regular practice and thought, the learner will make rapid and large gains
in proficiency
 Gross errors = the learner knows something is wrong, but they don’t know
how to fix it. E.g. learning a golf shot and keep missing ball or hitting the
ground

7. Procedural Knowledge
 Acquired with cognitive mediation
 With practice, thinking time decreases according to the power function
 The limit is the cycle time of the instruments

8. Procedural Knowledge
o Proceduralization for the specific task, declarative knowledge is converted to
procedural knowledge.
 Practice lessens the need for cognitive mediation in a rehearsal buffer/ rehearsal
system
 In proceduralization, recognition replaces recall
 The recognition strategies are called production rules
• Heuristics for knowing (recognizing) when to apply a solution strategy.
 Like vocabulary learning for a foreign language, production rules are not reversible.
 In other words, practice improves production rules only in the direction practiced.

10. Automatic Stage
 Non-cognitive, less interruptible
 Non-cognitive control
• The monosynaptic stretch reflex 30 msec
• Cerebellar programs 80 msec
• Conscious reaction time 200msec

13. Limit Of Application
 Primarily applies to "(a) high-aptitude adult learners engaged
in (b) the learning of simple structures at (c) fairly early
stages of learning in (d) instructional contexts." (p.103)

14. Exemplary Study
 DeKeyser (1997) (see Ortega pp. 85-87)
• -Supported power of learning curve as a representation of fast
proceduralization followed by slow automatization and underlined skill-
specificity of procedural knowledge.
 6 sessions (3 weeks) to learn Autopract an grammar, vocab 15 sessions to practice
Conditions:
(a) single or dual task;
(b) comprehension, production, mixed
 Results: (1)reduction of practice effect (2) mode-specific automatization

15. Exemplary Study
 Robinson (1997)
 -Suggested that "knowledge acquired from exposure to samples alone
without a rule being available is completely memory-based and
therefore limited in its generalizability." (p.107)
 -Indicated that the frequency of specific examples in the input does not
influence the power curve (refuted Logan's theory of automaticity as
retrieval of instances)

16.  Robinson (1997):
 Learning conditions Implicit: Memorize word positions Incidental: Read
for meaning
 Explicit 1: Look for rules (with help)
 Explicit 2: Receive rule, practice Post-test: Speed, accuracy of
judgments Results: Explicit 2 fastest, most accurate All groups better
on old than new instances
 Conclusion Low-level implicit learning is possible, allowing fast access
of learned instances Explicit learning leads to generalization with
awareness.
Exemplary Study

17. IMPLICATIONS FOR SLA
 All three stages (descriptive, procedural, automatic) are necessary, and must occur in
this order, for skills to be acquired.
 Different learning outcomes occur because of:
1. Different levels of ability to grasp declarative knowledge
2. Differing amounts of practice of specific kinds for specific structures
3. Different sequencing of various kinds of explicit information, implicit input, and
practice
 Although learners may still follow predictable stages in their order of acquisition of
target structures, the speed and systematicity with which they learn them should
increase.

18. An Emergentist Turn In SLA?
 3 important tenets of learning
1. Associative: based on co-occurrences
2. Probabilistic: not categorical, deterministic
3. Rationally contingent: guesses based on… accumulated statistical
(frequency) information most relevant recent evidence attention to
cues contextual clues

19.  Other emergentist tenets Usage-based:
 Use & knowledge are inseparable; no competence/performance,
representation/access distinctions
 Grounded: language & thought are structured by human experience
 Dynamic system: identifiable patterns emerge from a multiplicity of
factors
An Emergentist Turn In SLA?

20. REVIEW

21. DEKEYSER: SKILL ACQUISITION THEORY
 Time to solution
 Error rate
 Interference from other tasks
 Procedural
 Automatic
 Number of problems / trials