devolopmental psycholinguistics tutorials

The first major finding is transfer.

P.S. Prior knowledge of something prevents me from learning something or at least there is interference. Necessity to consult learner’s prior knowledge: learner’s native tongue.

Importance of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis: the arguments consist in comparing the target language and the learner’s native tongue and the objectives are to identify those instances of similarities and differences. Differences between the two systems are the major cause of the learner’s errors. The learner’s errors show these difficulties in assimilating the structure of the target language. Contrastive Analysis as an enterprise of behaviorist psychologists,

Eg: the past can be used as the simple past by adding the morpheme ed

This knowledge will affect subsequent ones

Eg: Go => * goed

ð Negative transfer

ð The interference theory: learning thru transfer on basis of stimulus response bond

ð Stimulus response: 2 types: conditioned and unconditioned

ð Stimulus activates dog’s response: salivation

ð We don’t condition the dog to salivate

ð Conditioned: I produce with meat a sound or a word “come”

ð Come is identified with food and acts as a stimulus to produce the same response. After much training. This conditioning structure activates the same process of salivation

ð The same thing can apply to language

ð Eg: when you show a baby milk and say “milk” he would have the same response

In language there are situations (stimulus) and sentences (response)

This is how language was thought to be learned: Stimulus-response bond.

But in language we don’t need things we have lexis and we combine them using phrases and sentences.

ð This is the idea of behaviorist psychologists: they thought that language learning is an external approach -> Structuralists: language inventory of items organizational patterns and sentences. Behaviorist psychologists conceive learning in different situations.

ð Language= inventory => sentences produced by native or adult speakers. These sentences correspond to situations. Whenever situation 3 occurs we reproduce sentence 3. This situation is identified with the sentence.

ð Eg: Situation and sentences: the person asking a question has perceived the same situation. The question “do you want juice?” being hungry fits a situation to which sentence1 fits. We are conditioned to produce these sentences. We don’t create the sentences. These sentences are the stimulus.

ð Physical or verbal stimulus; verbal stimulus (question) is identified with a physical (hunger) state.

ð Verbal stimulus that activates a verbal response.

ð Language as habit formation process. The habits consist in identifying a verbal stimulus and a verbal response till it becomes a habit.

ð Those who make mistakes showing the traits of the native tongue. Seeing that language is a habit formation process. That is the learner is exercising the verbal habits of his native tongue.

ð This is the psychological basis of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. The bond between stimulus and response if firmly established. Stimulus is immediately with response. Verbal stimulus correspond to verbal response; (verbal habit)

ð Associanism associate different situations with their corresponding utterances => Behavioristic associanism . There are two sorts of inhibition: proactive inhibition and retroactive inhibition.

There are two types of interference. Proactive interference occurs when prior learning or experience interferes with our ability to recall newer information. For example, suppose you studied Spanish in tenth grade and French in eleventh grade. If you then took a French vocabulary test much later, your earlier study of Spanish vocabulary might interfere with your ability to remember the correct French translations. Retroactive interference occurs when new information interferes with our ability to recall earlier information or experiences. For example, try to remember what you had for lunch five days ago. The lunches you have had for the intervening four days probably interfere with your ability to remember this event. Both proactive and retroactive interference can have devastating effects on remembering.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Proactive inhibition:

The negative effect one learned task has on the retention of a newer task; a type of interference or negative transfer observed in memory experiments and other learning situations. http://www.answers.com/topic/proactive-inhibition-1

Retroactive inhibition:

The partial or complete obliteration of memory by a more recent event, particularly new learning. http://www.answers.com/topic/retroactive-inhibition-1

Retroactive inhibition the tendency of recently gained knowledge or skills to degenerate when new learning in a similar area is acquired Microsoft® Encarta® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Trasnfer -> psychologist basis -> habit formation -> S - R

(Major findings in SLA) PV_L PV_L

P11P27P1

P3,4,5 to read from SLA

The shift of interest in SLA research from Contrastive Analysis (interference theory) to Error Analysis:

è Developmental Stages & Systematicity è EA?

Behaviorism à mentalism è concerning language learning

What is the ultimate objective of the author? In p16 -> Related the author’s objective to the identity hypothesis.

The author wants to determine the psychological realities of transformational rules.

Does TGG correspond to the process of learning?
TD2
P6

View of lg

Externalist -> behaviorism -> CAH

Internalist -> Mentalists -> Error Analysis

Taxonomic linguistics => structuralist linguistics

Behaviorism has been supplanted by cognitive psychology.

The turning point can be traced back to Chomsky’s review of Skinner’s model and accounted for the inadequacies of behaviorism. => Can this undermine the CAH?

a) Restitution Production

b) Knowledge output

(c) Input -> knowledge (d) <-Intake

(c) -> (d) The learner constructs a hypothetical grammar about the structure

ð Then he makes deviations of the rules

a- we exert the verbal habits of L₁ => The system is acquired => the system is a state

Language in use

b- Language learning (a sub-system) => The system is a process

ð You cannot trace errors to ignorance because the learner has a partial knowledge of it. There, is no room for habit formation in language learning.

ð The two opposing instances are confusing and they do not reflect what actually happens when we use language and what happens when we learn language.

Learners’ Transitional competence (Grammar) => Output Mistakes

Error free utterances (aren’t due to the precise patterns he has perfectly acquired (they are systemized). Some use the term “transitional competence” others use “interlanguage”

The learner constructs his own grammar which explains errors. What is the relationship between the issue and linguistics in general or TGG. What is the relationship between the learner’s transitional competence and TGG? Why does he related to TGG?

The most appropriate grammar is the one that corresponds to what happens in the learner’s mind. Your grammar should be psychologically (the learner’s cognitive activity) corresponding to the learner’s processing of the language.

The development of WH-questions in 1^st language acquisition:

Roger Brown is concerned with L1 acquisition.

Brown’s conclusions have had implications on SLA research.

We have structural grammar, functional grammar, TGG => the most appropriate one is the one that corresponds to the psychological realities.

If we can ascertain that the language learner converts what is in deep structure into a surface structures showing these typical deviations in L1 and L2 and the ones described by the linguist himself.

Rationalism

States that knowledge comes form our mind. It doesn’t come from the environment. It the human mind which determine knowledge.

Empiricism

The source of true knowledge is the environment. The human at birth is a blank slate.

Theory of language

TGG, structuralism (the system is an external mechanism that doesn’t depend on my mind), (the social fact alone can create a system)

My mind internalize

Theory of language learning

- Behaviorism: Internalizing what is external. (corresponds to externalism)

- Mentalistic account for language learning.

Twin theory

Structural behaviorism

TGG menatlistic account

1) TGG -> (a) Conclusion: psychologically

unreal (d) Language learning

- (b) Scientific utility? => - Linguistic variables +

- (c) Ravem’s recommendations?? - cognitive variables

2) Shift of interest: major findings:

- transfer

- staged development Interlanguage (Selinker p 29)

- Systematicity

- Variability

- Incompleteness

The transformation description though psychologically unreal has made it possible to set up testable hypotheses.

1. Transfer Shift of interest ‘habit formation view’ (behaviorism) à CAH

lost its predictive Power è it is used to explain not to predict

2. ST development è the pedagogical implications of CA?
3. Systematicity
4. variability ‘Creative construction model’ (mentalism)
5. Incompleteness

No one can deny those universal principles found in general learning. Among these principles we all know that what is similar is systematically easier to learn. What is different is more difficult. This is a well established principle in learning. The ultimate objective of the contrastive analyst is to identify what is similar and what is different based on criteria determining areas of similarity and difference.

Language

Vocabulary structure

Lexical morpheme grammatical morpheme

Linguistic sign

V

Grammatical morpheme Lexical morpheme

Sign Sign

Signifier signified Signifier signified linguistically

Sound Pattern concept Sound pattern concept psychologically

Motor activity Conceived Reality Motor activity Perceived reality neurophysiologic

We can describe language from 3 angles;

Motor perceptual system: MPS

Motor conceptual system: MCS

Stage Time Organizational System STOS

(+ similarity – difference)

	MPS	MCS	STOS
1	+	+	+
2	-	-	-
3	+	+	-
4	-	+	+
5	+	-	+
6	-	+	-
7	+	-	-
8	-	-	+

To achieve a gradual progress it is necessary to avoid the introduction of utterances involving more than one difficulty at the same time. Hence, the appropriate order: MPS different MCS and STOS similar; 2^nd, STOS different, MPS and MCS similar; 3^rd, MCS different, MPS and STOS similar. Subsequently, we can have utterances including two variables at the same time according to the preferential order which is: 1^st MPS and STOS different and MCS similar; 2^nd, MPS and MCS different and STOS similar; 3^rd, MCS and STOS different, and MPS similar. Finally we can introduce utterances including the 3 variables.

MCS; STOS and MPS according to the degree of difficulty. MCS is difficult to be established because it does not include entities that the learner can perceive, entities he has never experienced. As for STOS,it is ranked 2^nd because it characterizes the difference between entities in different languages (eg; vacation & عطلة)

Latent psychological structure in the learner’s brain P30

Fossilization P32

5 processes P32

Krashen’s Input hypothesis model P53

1- Early approaches to SLA

5. Findings

Shift of interest è actual difference between the early approaches to SLA and Krashen’s model???

- Transfer

- Staged developments

- Systematicity

- Variability

- Incompleteness

2- Inter-language (latent structure ‘psych’¹‘linguistic’)

5 processes (Selinker) role of the latent structure in processing the TL.

- Language transfer

- Transfer of training

- Learning strategies

- Communication strategies

- Overgeneralization

3- The Natural Order Hypothesis (Krashen)

5 hypotheses

- Acquisition/ Learning Hypothesis objective? (What is the relation between the acquisition learning hypothesis and the identity hypothesis? Acquisition Hypothesis concerns the Identity Hypothesis (L₂acq=L₁acq) as it confirmed it and clarified the actual differences between 1st language acquisition and 2^nd language learning, ‘conscious vs unconscious learning’)

- The Input Hypothesis objective?

Relationships

- Monitor Hypothesis objective?

- Natural Order Hypothesis objective?

- Affective Filter Hypothesis objective?

Identity hypothesis relates to the shift of interest. If you claim that there is an inter language and a natural order: this explains that the L2 learner follows the same strategies as the child.

Clarify the relationship between Incompleteness and fossilization as introduced by Selinker. à (Only 5% of 2^nd learners can achieve a native-like competence)

Why doesn’t the learnt knowledge work systematically? Krashen suggests two conditions: