1.
Chapter 5:
The Psychology of
Second Language
Acquisition

2.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter, the students
should be able to:
 Explain the relationship between
language and the brain
 Explain their understanding on how
language is learnt and variations in
language learning
 Plan lessons using insights from the learnt
knowledge to make their lesson more
stimulating and learner-friendly.
2

3.
Language and the Brain
 Core linguistic processes are
typically housed in the left
hemisphere.
 Lateralization
 Plasticity
 Critical Period Hypothesis
 Obler & Gjerlow (1999)
…we no longer expect that
there are language areas that are
entirely ‘responsible’ for
language, or even ‘dominant’ for
language
3

4.
Left Vs. Right Hemisphere
4

5.
5
Principal hemispheric specializations
Left hemisphere Right hemisphere
Phonology Nonverbal (as babies’ cries)
Morphology Visuospatial information
Syntax Intonation
Function words &
Inflections
Non-literal meaning &
ambiguity
Tone systems Many pragmatic abilities
Much lexical knowledge Some lexical knowledge

6.
Language and the Brain (3)
 How about those bilinguals or multilinguals?
 Most individuals lose or recover multiple languages
equally, but some recover one before the other, and some
never recover use of one, after brain damage.
 Methods for gathering data
 Correlations of location of brain damage where
languages are affected differentially.
 Presentation of stimuli from different languages to the
right vs the left visual or auditory fields to investigate
which side of the brain is most involved in processing
each language.
 Mapping the brain surface during surgery by using
electrical stimulation at precise points and recording
which area are involved in each language.
 Positron Emission Tomography (PET-scan) and other
non-invasive imaging techniques
6

7.
Language and the Brain (4)
 How independent are the languages of multilingual speakers?
 It seems reasonable that multiple language system are neither
completely separate nor completely fused.
 Coordinate bilingualism (2 semantic systems, 2 linguistic
codes, two languages learned in distinctively separate
contexts)
 Compound bilingualism (one semantic system, two linguistics
codes, two languages learned at the same time & context)
 Subordinate bilingualism (the weaker language is interpreted
through the stronger one)
 How are multiple language structures organized in relation to one
another in the brain? Are both languages stored in the same areas?
 L1 and L2 are stored in somewhat different areas of the brain, but
both are predominantly in (probably overlapping) areas of the left
hemisphere.
 The right hemisphere might be more involved in L2 than in L1.7

8.
Language and the Brain (5)
 Does the organization of the brain for L2 in relation to L1
differ with age of acquisition, how it is learned, or level of
proficiency?
 Age
 Individuals who acquire L2 later in life show more right-
hemisphere involvement.
 How it is learnt
 Second languages may be learnt by many means rather
than the single means found in L1 acquisition and,
consequently, may have a greater apparent hemispheric
spread.
 Proficiency level:
 It appears probable that the organization of L2
knowledge is more diffuse for lower levels of proficiency
and more compact for highly fluent L2 users.
8

9.
Language and the Brain (6)
 Do two or more languages show the same sort of loss or
disruption after brain damage? When there is differential
impairment or recovery, which language recovers first?
 Loss or damage
 First to come, last to go
 Recovery
 Not only can different languages be affected differentially
by brain damage, but different abilities in the same
language may be differentially impaired.
9

10.
Language and the Brain (7)
 Conclusion
 What is being added in the brain when a second language is
acquired is not very different from, nor usually entirely
separate from what is already there for the first.
 There are some intriguing differences with regards to:
 Level of L2 proficiency
 Circumstances of L2 learning
 The fact that our brains are not ‘wired’ in exactly the
same way.
 How are second languages learnt?
 Why are some people more successful than others?
10

11.
Learning Process
 Two major framework
 Information Processing (IP)
 Learning language is essentially like learning
other domains of knowledge, which employ
the same kind of mental activity.
 Three approaches: Multidimensional Model,
Processability, and Competition Model.
 Connectionism
 Learning process is a matter of increasing
strength of associations rather than as the
abstraction of rules or principles.
11

12.
LP: Information Processing
 Concerned with the mental processes involved in
language learning and use.
 perception and the input of new information
 the formation, organization, and regulation of
internal (mental) representation
 retrieval and output strategies
12

13.
LP: Information Processing (2)
 Assumptions under IP (McLaughlin, 1987)
 Second language learning is the acquisition of a
complex cognitive skill.
 Complex skills can be reduced to sets of simpler
component skills, which are hierarchically organized.
 Learning of a skill initially demands learners’ attention,
and thus involves controlled processing.
 Controlled processing requires considerable mental
‘space,’ or attentional effort.
 Humans are limited-capacity processors. They can
attend to a limited number of controlled processing
demands at one time.
 Learners go from controlled to automatic processing
with practice. Automatic processing requires less
mental ‘space’ and attentional effort. 13

14.
LP: Information Processing (3)
 Assumptions under IP (McLaughlin, 1987)
 Learning essentially involves development from
controlled to automatic processing of component skills,
freeing learners’ controlled processing capacity for new
information and higher-order skills.
 Along with development from controlled to automatic
processing, learning also essentially involves
restructuring or reorganization of mental
representations.
 Reorganizing mental representations as part of learning
makes structures more coordinated, integrated, and
efficient, including a faster response time when they are
activated.
 In SLA, restructuring of internal L2 representations,
along with larger stores in memory, accounts for
increasing levels of L2 proficiency. 14

15.
LP: Information Processing (4)
15
Mentalcapacity
requirement
Lower-order
skills
Higher-order skills
• Controlled
processing
• Attention to
comprehension or
production of
basic vocabulary
and syntactic
structures
• Attention to
feature and
content
Automatized
through
PRACTICE
Fossilization

16.
LP: Information Processing (5)
 Stages in IP (Skehan, 1998)
16
INPUT CENTRAL PROCESSING OUTPUT
Perception Controlled-automatic
processing
Production
Declarative-procedural
knowledge
Restructuring

17.
LP: Information Processing (6)
17
Input Intake
Whatever
sample of L2
that learners
are exposed
to
The subset of
all input that
actually get
assigned to our
long-term
memory store
(inferred
competence)
ATTENTIONS
• Frequency of encounter with
items
• Perceptual saliency of items
• Instructional strategies that
can structure learner
attention
• Individuals’ processing ability
• Readiness to notice particular
item
• Task demands, or the nature
of activity the learner is
engaged in
• Developing & testing
strategies
through

18.
LP: Information Processing (7)
 OUTPUTS
 The language that learners produce, either in
speech/sign or writing.
 Meaningful production practice helps learners by
 enhancing fluency by furthering development of
automaticity through practice
 noticing gaps in their own knowledge as they are
forced to move from semantic to syntactic
processing, which may lead learners to give more
attention to relevant information
 testing hypotheses based on developing
interlanguage, allowing for monitoring and revision
 talking about language, including eliciting relevant
input and (collaboratively) solving problems
18

19.
LP: Information Processing (8)
 CENTRAL PROCESSING
19
Attention to
Formal Properties
of Language
INFORMATION PROCESSING
Controlled Automatic
Focal
Performance based
on formal rule
learning
Performance in a
test situation
Peripheral
Performance based
on implicit
learning or
analogic learning
Performance in
communication
situations

20.
LP: Information Processing (9)
 CENTRAL PROCESSING
20
Declarative
stage
Procedural
stage
 It involves the acquisition of
isolated facts and rules.
 Processing is relatively slow and
often under attentional control.
 Processing of longer associated units
 Increasing level of automatization
PRACTICE

21.
LP: Theories regarding order of acquisition
 MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODEL
 This model includes the following claims:
 Learners acquire certain grammatical structures in a
developmental sequence.
 Developmental sequences reflect how learners
overcome processing limitations.
 Language instruction which targets developmental
features will be successful only if learners have
already mastered the processing operations which are
associated with the previous stage of acquisition.
21

22.
…order of acquisition (cont’)
 MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODEL
 Clahen (1984)
Which syntactic structures require more processing capacity is
determined by the extent to which their underlying relations
are preserved in output, and by the perceptual salience of any
reordering that does occur.
 Processing hierarchy
 Canonical Order Strategy
 There is no reordering from ‘basic’ word order.
 Structures which can be processed with this
strategy will be acquired first.
e.g. cats and dogs, safe and sound, etc.
22

23.
…order of acquisition (cont’)
 MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODEL
 Processing hierarchy
 Initialization/Finalization Strategy
 Reordering which moves underlying elements
into the first or last position in a grammatical
string are perceptually more salient, and thus
easier to process than processing several
different forms.
e.g. He later went to France.
 Subordinate Clause Strategy
 Reordering in subordinate clauses in not
allowed.
e.g. As far as … is concerned,
23

24.
…order of acquisition (cont’)
 PROCESSABILITY THOERY
 Aims at determining and explaining the sequences in
which processing skills develop in relation to language
learning.
 Hierarchy of processing skills
 Lemma/word access
 Words are processed, but do not carry any
grammatical information or is associated with
any ordering rules.
 Category procedure
 Lexical items are categorized, and grammatical
information may be added.
 Phrasal procedure
 Operations within the phrase level occur, such
as agreement for number or gender between
adjective and noun within the noun phrase.
24

25.
…order of acquisition (cont’)
 PROCESSABILITY THOERY
 Hierarchy of processing skills
 S-procedure
 Grammatical information may be exchanged across
phrase boundaries, such as number agreement
between subject and verb.
 Clause boundary
 Main and subordinate clause structures may be
handled differently.
 Processing skills at Level 1 is a prerequisite for processing skill at
Level 2, and so forth.
25

26.
…order of acquisition (cont’)
 COMPETITION MODEL
 It assumes that all linguistic performance involves ‘mapping’
between external form and internal function.
e.g. They are having breakfast.
26
Form Functions
Lexical item its auditory
properties
its semantic
properties
Strings of lexical
items
word-order patterns
& morphological
inflections
grammatical

27.
…order of acquisition (cont’)
 COMPETITION MODEL
 SLA involves adjusting the internalized system of mapping
that exists in the learner’s L1 to one that is appropriate
for the target language, accomplished by
 Detecting cues in language input (particular function)
 Recognizing weight to assign each possible cue (cue
strength)
 Multiple cues are available simultaneously in input;
language processing essentially involves ‘competition’
among the various cues.
e.g. What determines certain constituents to be the subjects
in the sentences?
27

28.
…order of acquisition (cont’)
 COMPETITION MODEL
e.g. What determines certain constituents to be the subjects in
the sentences?
 The horse kicks the cow.
 On the stage comes the President.
 Dara is working at his desk.
 John was killed by a robber.
How reliable is the cue that enable you to make such decision?
28

29.
…order of acquisition (cont’)
 COMPETITION MODEL
 Acquisition of appropriate form-function mappings is driven
primarily by the probability that a particular functional
interpretation should be chosen in the presence of a
particular cue.
 Determinants of cue strength
 Task frequency
 how often the form-function mapping occurs
 Contrastive availability
 when the cue is present, whether or not it has any
contrastive effect
 Conflict reliability
 how often the cue lead to a correct interpretation
when it is used in comparison to other potential
cues.
29

30.
LP: Connectionism
 It focuses on the increasing strength of associations
between stimuli and responses, a change in which causes
learning to occur.
 Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)
 As learners are exposed to repeated patterns of units in
input,
 they extract regularities in the patterns; and
 probabilistic associations are formed and
strengthened (connection strengths or patterns of
activation).
 The strengths of associations changes with the
frequency of input and the nature of feedback.
30

31.
LP: Connectionism (2)
 Different assumptions between IP and PDP
 Attention is not viewed as a central mechanism that directs
information between separate memory stores, which IP
claims are available for controlled processing versus
automatic processing. Rather, attention is a mechanism that
is distributed throughout the processing system in local
patterns.
 Information processing is not serial in nature: i.e. it is not a
‘pipeline… in which information is conveyed in a fixed serial
order from one storage structure to the next.’ Instead,
processing is parallel: many connections are activated at the
same time.
 Knowledge is not stored in memory or retrieved as patterns,
but as ‘connection strengths’ between units which account
for the patterns being recreated.
31

32.
LP: Connectionism (3)
 Many connections in the brain must be activated all at once to
account for successful production and interpretation of language
and not processed in sequence.
 Proponents of PDP claims that
…(although) frequency is an all-pervasive causal factor, it
interacts with other determinants, including how noticeable
the language patterns are in the input learners receive, and
whether the patterns are regular or occur with many
variations and exceptions.
32