Understanding Second Language Process (Second Language Acquisition, 25) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847690149 ISBN 13: 9781847690142

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

This book assembles 11 analytical and empirical studies on the process of second language acquisition, probing a wide array of issues, from transfer appropriate processing to L2 default processing strategies, among hearing or deaf learners of a variety of target languages including English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, and American Sign Language. Although instruction per se is not the focus of this volume, the chapters are written with instructed learners in mind, and hence offer valuable insights for both second and foreign language researchers and practitioners.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

ZhaoHong Han is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include second language learnability, teachability, and fossilization. She is the author of Fossilization in Adult Second Language Acquisition (2004, Multilingual Matters) and of a variety of articles in journals and books in applied linguistics, second language learning, and second language education.

ZhaoHong Han is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include second language learnability, teachability, and fossilization. She is the author of Fossilization in Adult Second Language Acquisition (2004, Multilingual Matters) and of a variety of articles in journals and books in applied linguistics, second language learning, and second language education.

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Understanding Second Language Process

By ZhaoHong Han

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2008 ZhaoHong Han and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-014-2

Contents

The Contributors, vii, 
Preface, xi, 
1 Revisiting the Role of Consciousness with MOGUL Michael Sharwood Smith, 1, 
2 Multi-Competence: Black Hole or Wormhole for Second Language Acquisition Research? Vivian Cook, 16, 
3 Transfer Appropriate Processing as a Model for Classroom Second Language Acquisition Patsy Martin Lightbown, 27, 
4 On the Role of Meaning in Focus on Form ZhaoHong Han, 45, 
5 The Efficacy of Visual Input Enhancement in Teaching Deaf Learners of L2 English Gerald P. Berent and Ronald R. Kelly, 80, 
6 Learner Spontaneous Attention in L2 Input Processing: An Exploratory Study Eun Sung Park and ZhaoHong Han, 106, 
7 Working Memory and L2 Processing of Redundant Grammatical Forms Nuria Sagarra, 133, 
8 L2 Learners' Interpretation of Operator-Variable Binding in VP Ellipsis Hong Guang Ying, 148, 
9 Metasyntactic Ability in L2: An Investigation of Task Demand Daphnée Simard and Véronique Fortier, 160, 
10 Prosody Acquisition by Japanese Learners Tomoko Shibata and Richard R. Hurtig, 176, 
11 Recognition and Production of Formulas in L2 Pragmatics Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig, 205, 
References, 223, 
Index, 254, 

CHAPTER 1

Revisiting the Role of Consciousness with MOGUL

MICHAEL SHARWOOD SMITH

Thirty years of research has not produced any really hard evidence that making people aware of formal features of the second language (L2) has any significant long-term effect on their grammatical development. However, people still have a persistent feeling that metalinguistic ability in the L2 is more than just a luxury extra or, viewed more pessimistically, more than a distraction and an encumbrance. It is surely a prerequisite for any proper research into such issues that we have a much more fine-grained explanation of the mechanisms involved in metalinguistic ability than has been the case so far. At the least, we need to develop a coherent theoretical model of this ability that we can use to generate interesting research questions about such issues as input enhancement (see Berent & Kelly, this volume) and focus on form (see Han, this volume). You might say that, although there has been no dearth of empirical research, not all that much has happened in this theoretical arena since the 1970s. The MOGUL framework being developed by Sharwood Smith and Truscott aims, among other things, to rekindle the search for more coherent conceptualisations of the problems involved.

MOGUL is a processing model that is devised in such a way as to engage coherently with research across a variety of domains. Following proposals by Ray Jackendoff, it involves a recognition of the existence of a separate, modular language faculty, containing the core phonological and syntactic systems. It also recognises the crucial importance of 'conceptual structure', which includes the vital semantic and pragmatic dimensions of language that, in this framework, lie outside this core and allow for the possibility of conscious introspection. In fact, it is in the conceptual domain that metalinguistic ability is anchored, allowing the language user to construct fragmentary or even quite sophisticated metagrammars that co-exist with the inaccessible grammar(s) processed inside the core language modules. Although accessible to conscious awareness, these metalinguistic systems can in principle be recruited in performance skilfully and quite spontaneously.

MOGUL has a way of explaining the relationships between these two types of grammar and the way they may develop and interact, which takes us well beyond the original innovative and widely disputed model proposed by Stephen Krashen and in ways that accord with current research into cognition. It also places metalinguistic ability in a wider context as something that is a regular part of everyday use in both first language (L1) and L2, that is, both in and outside the classroom.

The Early Years

At the close of what might be called the first years of L2 acquisition starting with Corder's seminal paper on error analysis and ending with Dulay, Burt and Krashen's Language Two in 1982, three basic ideas had been introduced to the field (Corder, 1967; Dulay et al., 1982):

(1) The learner system;

(2) The 'developmental imperative'; and

(3) Dual Knowledge Hypothesis.

The first of these was the idea that language learners operate a non-native version of the target language, which one could regard in some sense as systematic and autonomous, in other words, as not merely an ill-assorted collection of correct and incorrect ideas, rules or principles concerning the properties of the L2 in question.

The second basic notion was what one might call the 'developmental imperative', namely that the L2 grammar, or a goodly part of the morpho-syntax, unfolds in the learner in pre-ordained ways, usually to be interpreted as a pre-ordained sequence or perhaps a set of sequences, such that no intervention by either teacher or learner could influence the course of events, provided that the learner continued to be exposed to the L2. It is as though there is a programmed sequence of steps that needs only exposure to the appropriate input to trigger growth. Aspects of the learner's system must develop in their own time and in a manner much constrained by in-built principles (not provided by the environment) – it is the role of SLA research to determine the nature and scope of these principles. Although the idea of fixed sequences is not a Chomskyan notion nor is it necessarily implied by the existence of principles of universal grammar, the basic idea fits in neatly with the general assertion, familiar from generative linguistics, that because mother tongue (L1) grammatical development unfolds without the need for correction or introspection, it must therefore in some way be helped along by innately given principles. The claim put forward by various L2 researchers was, of course, that L2 development is driven by essentially the same principles, although their implementation might in practice encounter more obstacles on the way.

The third and perhaps most contentious notion was that learning language in a conscious, analytic manner resulted in a kind of knowledge that was quite distinct from that which underlies spontaneous language use. Knowing the language is not the same as knowing about the language. SLA theory must account for the characteristic discrepancy between the two.

The nub of the problem

The most contentious part of the dual knowledge idea was Krashen's assertion that there was no 'interface' between consciously and subconsciously gained grammatical knowledge (Krashen, 1976, 1978, 1985; Sharwood Smith, 1981). Conscious rules could not be converted into subconscious ones, no matter how hard one practised. If this were so, then the developmental sequences could easily be subverted and, all other things being equal, particular training programmes could dictate the actual sequences in which learners gained control over given areas of the L2 grammar. The research carried out during this early period suggested that conscious learning could not interfere with the pre-ordained sequences of development and only made the learners more knowledgeable about the nature of the 'errors' they committed. The best thing was to focus on the meaning and not...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847690149
• ISBN 13: 9781847690142
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256
• Herausgeber: Han Zhaohong
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar