Psycholinguistic Aspects of Interlanguage

Psycholinguistic Aspects of Interlanguage

Psycholinguistics is the study of the mental structures and processes involved in the acquisition and use of language.

L1 Transfer

L1 transfer refers to the influence that the learner’s L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2. This influence is apparent in a number of ways. First, the learner’s L1 is one of the sources of error in learner language (negative transfer). However, in some cases, the learner’s L1 can facilitate L2 acquisition (positive transfer). L1 transfer can also result in avoidance (learners make fewer errors in relative clauses). Finally, L1 transfer may be reflected in the overuse of some forms.

Behaviourist theories cannot account for L2 acquisition. This led to two developments. The first development sought to play down the role of L1 transfer. The second development was to reconceptualize transfer within a cognitive framework (This was begun by Larry Selinker).

The learner’s stage of development has also been found to influence L1 transfer. This is clearly evident in the way learners acquire speech acts like request, apologies and refusals. When language transfer takes place there is usually no loss of L1 knowledge. A better term for referring to the effects of the L1 might be ‘cross-linguistic influence’.

The Role of Consciousness in L2 Acquisition

There are two opposing positions about the role of consciousness. First, Stephen Krashen has argued the need to distinguish ‘acquired’ L2 knowledge and ‘learned’ L2 language. He claims that the former is developed subconsciously through comprehending input while communicating, while the latter is developed consciously through deliberate of the L2.

Richard Schmidt has pointed out that the term ‘consciousness’ is often used very loosely in SLA and argues that there is a need to standardize the concepts that underlie its use. For example, he distinguishes between consciousness as ‘intentionally’ (learner makes a conscious and deliberate decision to learn some L2 knowledge) and consciousness as ‘attention’. Schmidt argues that learning cannot take place without noticing (the process of attending consciously to linguistic features in the input).

Explicit knowledge may aid learners in developing implicit knowledge in a number of ways:

1.    A direct interface may occur

2.    Explicit knowledge may facilitate the process by which learners attend to features in the input.

3.    Explicit knowledge may help learners to move from intake to acquisition by helping them to notice the gap between what they have observed in the input ant the current state of their interlanguage as manifested in their own input.

Processing Operations

A.  Operating Principles

Dan Slobin has argued about operating principles, the identification of a number of general strategies which children use to extract and segment linguistic information from the language they hear. Operating principles provide a simple and attractive way of accounting for the properties of interlanguage.

B.  Processing Constrains

Multidimensional model proposed that some grammatical features can be acquired at any stage of development. Thus, it distinguishes a developmental and a variational axis. Progress along one axis is independent of progress along the other axis. To account for progress along it,a number of processing constrains have been proposed. It is possible for a learner to move from one stage to another.

Communication Strategies

If learners do not know a word in the target language they may ‘borrow’ a word from their L1 or use another target-language word that is approximate in meaning, or try to paraphrase the meaning of the word, or even construct an entire new word. Selinker has pointed out that communication strategies constitute one of the processes responsible for learner errors. We might expect that the choice of communication strategies will reflect the learner’s stage of development.

The Role of Consciousness in L2 Acquisition

There are two radically different types of apparatus have been proposed.

A.  Serial Processing

Information is processed in a series of sequential steps and results in the representation of what has been learned as some kind of ‘rule’ or ‘strategy’.

B.  Parallel Distributed Processing

This credits the learner with the ability to perform a number of mental tasks at the same time. Models based on it reject the whole notion of ‘rule’.

Psycholinguistics is the study of the mental structures and processes involved in the acquisition and use of language.

L1 Transfer

L1 transfer refers to the influence that the learner’s L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2. This influence is apparent in a number of ways. First, the learner’s L1 is one of the sources of error in learner language (negative transfer). However, in some cases, the learner’s L1 can facilitate L2 acquisition (positive transfer). L1 transfer can also result in avoidance (learners make fewer errors in relative clauses). Finally, L1 transfer may be reflected in the overuse of some forms.

Behaviourist theories cannot account for L2 acquisition. This led to two developments. The first development sought to play down the role of L1 transfer. The second development was to reconceptualize transfer within a cognitive framework (This was begun by Larry Selinker).

The learner’s stage of development has also been found to influence L1 transfer. This is clearly evident in the way learners acquire speech acts like request, apologies and refusals. When language transfer takes place there is usually no loss of L1 knowledge. A better term for referring to the effects of the L1 might be ‘cross-linguistic influence’.

The Role of Consciousness in L2 Acquisition

There are two opposing positions about the role of consciousness. First, Stephen Krashen has argued the need to distinguish ‘acquired’ L2 knowledge and ‘learned’ L2 language. He claims that the former is developed subconsciously through comprehending input while communicating, while the latter is developed consciously through deliberate of the L2.

Richard Schmidt has pointed out that the term ‘consciousness’ is often used very loosely in SLA and argues that there is a need to standardize the concepts that underlie its use. For example, he distinguishes between consciousness as ‘intentionally’ (learner makes a conscious and deliberate decision to learn some L2 knowledge) and consciousness as ‘attention’. Schmidt argues that learning cannot take place without noticing (the process of attending consciously to linguistic features in the input).

Explicit knowledge may aid learners in developing implicit knowledge in a number of ways:

1.    A direct interface may occur

2.    Explicit knowledge may facilitate the process by which learners attend to features in the input.

3.    Explicit knowledge may help learners to move from intake to acquisition by helping them to notice the gap between what they have observed in the input ant the current state of their interlanguage as manifested in their own input.

Processing Operations

A.  Operating Principles

Dan Slobin has argued about operating principles, the identification of a number of general strategies which children use to extract and segment linguistic information from the language they hear. Operating principles provide a simple and attractive way of accounting for the properties of interlanguage.

B.  Processing Constrains

Multidimensional model proposed that some grammatical features can be acquired at any stage of development. Thus, it distinguishes a developmental and a variational axis. Progress along one axis is independent of progress along the other axis. To account for progress along it,a number of processing constrains have been proposed. It is possible for a learner to move from one stage to another.

Communication Strategies

If learners do not know a word in the target language they may ‘borrow’ a word from their L1 or use another target-language word that is approximate in meaning, or try to paraphrase the meaning of the word, or even construct an entire new word. Selinker has pointed out that communication strategies constitute one of the processes responsible for learner errors. We might expect that the choice of communication strategies will reflect the learner’s stage of development.

The Role of Consciousness in L2 Acquisition

There are two radically different types of apparatus have been proposed.

A.  Serial Processing

Information is processed in a series of sequential steps and results in the representation of what has been learned as some kind of ‘rule’ or ‘strategy’.

B.  Parallel Distributed Processing

This credits the learner with the ability to perform a number of mental tasks at the same time. Models based on it reject the whole notion of ‘rule’.