Glottodidactics Lesson 7

Chapter 7 Ellis:Psycholinguistic aspects of Interlanguage Glottodidactics Outline Chapter 7 Ellis:Psycholinguistic aspects of Interlanguage L1 Transfer The role of consciousness in L2 acquisition Processing operations Communication strategies Two types of communication models

Glottodidactics Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, understand and produce language (Wikipedia). Psycholinguistics is the study of mental structures and processes involved in the acquisition and use of language.

Glottodidactics L1 Transfer Language transfer (also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference, and cross meaning) refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their native language to a second language. 

Glottodidactics When the relevant unit or structure of both languages is the same, linguistic interference can result in correct language production called positive transfer. Negative transfer occurs when speakers and writers transfer points and structures that are not the same in both languages.

Glottodidactics Contrastive analysis is the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities (Wikipedia). The greater the differences between the two languages, the more negative transfer can be expected.

Glottodidactics L1 transfer can result in avoidance. For example, Chinese and Japanese learners of English avoid the use of relative clauses because their languages do not contain equivalent structures. These learners make fewer errors in relative clauses than Arabic learners of English but only because they rarely use them.

Glottodidactics Erric Kellerman said that learners have perceptions regarding the linguistic features of their own language. Kellerman found that advanced Dutch learners of English had clear perception about which meanings of ‘breken’ (‘break’) were basic in their L1 and which were unique. He also found that they were prepared to translate a sentence like: Hij brak zijn been. (He broke his leg)

The role of consciousness in L2 acquisition Glottodidactics The role of consciousness in L2 acquisition L2 learners, especially adults, seem to have to work hard and to study the language consciously in order to succeed. Krashen claims that the two knowledge systems, learned and acquired L2 knowledge, are independent, and both of them cannot be converted.

Glottodidactics Schmidt argues that regardless of intentional or incidental learning, it involves conscious attention to features in the input. He also claims that learning cannot take place without noticing. Learners learn implicitly when they know rules that guide their performance without any awareness of what the rules consist of. Learners learn explicitly when they may have the knowledge about the L2 but be unable to use this knowledge in performance without conscious attention.

Glottodidactics Explicit knowledge can help learners in developing implicit knowledge in a number of ways: Explicit knowledge can only convert into implicit knowledge when learners are at the right stage of development. Explicit knowledge can facilitate the process by which learners deal with features in the input. Explicit knowledge can help learners to move from intake to acquisition by helping them to notice the gap between what they have observed in the input and the present state of their interlanguage as manifested in their output.

Processing operations Glottodidactics Processing operations Another way of identifying the processes responsible for interlanguage development is to deduce the operations that learners perform from a close inspection of their output. Operating principles are strategies which children use to extract and segment linguistic information from the language they hear. Operating principles provide a simple and attractive way of justifying the properties of interlanguage. However, it is not clear how many principles are needed and the one that has been advanced are not mutually exclusive.

Glottodidactics This multidimensional model tried to give an explanation for both why learners acquire the grammar of a language in a definite order and also why some learners only develop very simple interlanguage grammar. The multidimensional model is a great theory of L2 acquisition because it proposes mechanisms to explain why learners follow a definite acquisitional method.

Communication strategies Glottodidactics Communication strategies L2 learners frequently experience problems in saying what they want to say because of their inadequate knowledge. If they do not know a word in the target language, they can borrow a word from their L1 or use another target- language. Learners can also try to paraphrase the meaning of the word, or even create a new word. The choice of communication strategies will reflect the learner’s stage of development. Selinker pointed that communication strategies constitute one of the processes responsible for learner errors.

Two types of communication models Glottodidactics Two types of communication models The first type involves the idea of ‘serial processing.’ The second type involves the idea of ‘parallel distributed processing.’

Glottodidactics

Glottodidactics