Cognitive Accounts of

SLA
 Starting off with a very general framework for L2
acquisition from Gass (1988):
1) apperceived input (also called noticed input)
2) comprehended input
3) intake (the portion of input learners attend to and
taken into short-term memory)
4) integration
 Apperceived input is the first stage, where learners go
through initial data. Some features/parts are noticed,
usually what is most salient/prominent or what is already
existing knowledge of the L2 of the learner.
All apperceived input is not is understood, and not all
understood apperceived input becomes intake.
Intake then becomes implicit/explicit knowledge.
 Example
Take a look at the brands of shoes
to the left. Now think about how
many times we receive this input
daily. How much of this input is
noticed?
 Interlanguage

And another wonderful theory which weve glanced at and will

continue to see in more detail shortly.....

Come up with a definition first, with a neighbor.

 Originally used by Selinker (1972), it refers to
both the internal system that a learner has
constructured at a single point in time (an
interlanguage) and to the series of internnected
systems that characterize the learners progress
over time (interlanguage or the interlanguage
continuum).
 Processes of interlanguage construction
1) Crosslinguistic influence
2) Transfer of training (some interlanguage elements may
derive from the way learners were previously taught)
3) Strategies of SLL
4) Strategies of second language communication.
5) Overgeneralization of the TL material.
 Interlanguage is considered systematic, since learners behave
grammatically, that is, they seem to have created rules and apply them
regularly.

These rules are viewed as hypotheses. Leaners will often have overlapping
hypotheses and this overlap results in variability in learner performance.

Interlanguage is not a restructuring continuum (the interlanguage theory that

says learners replace L1 rules with correct TL rules as they progress).
Instead, users create their own rules.
 Explicit/Implicit knowledge
We go back to this distinction between the two.
Krashen, as we know, claimed that learned knowledge is completely different than and
can not be convered into acquired knowledge (called the non-interface position).
Bialystok (1978) created a model of L2 learning where there is an interface between
implicit/explicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge is developed through communicative
language use and attempts by the learner to get maximum exposure to communication.
Explicit knowledge arises when learners focus on language features and it is facilitated by
formal practice. Formal practice enables explicit knowledge to become implicit.
 Studies have been done to examine learners vs explicit knowledge. A study
by Green and Hecht (1992) included 300 German learners of English and 50
native English speakers.

They were given sentences with grammatical errors and were asked to correct
them and state the rule that had been violated. German learners correct 78
percent of errors compared to 98 percent from native speakers. The highest
level group of German learners corrected 97 percent of the errors.

Of that 97 percent, they were only able to state the rule that had been violated
in 43 percent of the cases. This seems to signal that learners relied more on
implicit knowledge.
 Consciousness
Distinguish between/define the following terms in regards to consciousness
by Schmidt and language learning:
Intentionality
Incidental learning
Noticing
Awareness
 Consciousness
Intentionality-whether a learner makes a conscious and
deliberate attempt to learn some L2 knowledge.

Incidental learning-takes place when learners pick up L2

knowledge though exposure.

Incidental learning may require some conscious attention to

input.
 Noticing
The process of attending consciously to linguistic features in input.
Schmidt provided evidence of the importance of noticing with his
own acquisition of Portuguese while living in Brazil. He kept a diary
recording L2 features he noticed in the input he experienced.
Analysis of his output followed and the forms he produced were those
he had previously noticed.
 Awareness

Schmidts third conscious sense in language

learning.

This final one refers to whether or not learners are

conscious of having acquired new L2 elements
 Operating principles
This term initially referred to strategies children use to extract/segment
information from language they hear in L1 acquisition.
Examples of these strategies include avoid interruption and rearrangement
of linguistic units or avoid exceptions.
An example of an L2 utterance such as My brother made me to give him
some money shows the strategy of avoid exceptions since make
doesnt require the infinitive but instead the base form of the verb after.
An example of an operating principle in L2 acquisition is the one-to-one
principle. What does this refer to and can you provide an example?
 Multi-dimensional model

ZISA - a study focusing on the order that migrant workers

with romance language backgrounds acquired a number of
German word order rules
Based on the multi-dimensional model which tries to
explain why learners acquire grammar in a defined order
and at the same time why some learners only develop simple
interlanguage grammars.
 The study hypothesized that some grammatical features
like word order rules are acquired in a sequence, while
others, like copula be, can be acquired at any stage of
development.
There are two axis-a developmental and variational axis.
 Communication strategies
What are some communication strategies learners might use when confronted with
a problem?

Borrowing Avoidance
Paraphrasing Substitution
Coining new words Code switching
Asking for clarification Non-verbal strategies
Communication strategies are considered one of the causes of errors in student
production.
 Computational model
One common way to describe what happens cognitively is to describe the
brain as a black box.

The black box extracts information from input, anaylzes it, stores it, and
later uses it in output.

There are some different views of what actually happens.

 Serial processing
This view states that information is processed in a series
of sequential stages and is represented by some type of
rule or strategy.

One process is focused on at once.

Essentially it means that you have to check one thing at a

time before moving on to another.
 Parallel processing
Just like the name entails, it assumes the learner can perform a
number of mental tasks at the same time.
An example would be attending to both form and meaning at the
same time (I will show you an example through a song activity I
created years ago).
 Example 1

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 Example 3.
High and Dry
 Handouts
Disney reading
High and Dry