Second Language Acquisition Processes & Theories

1. Richard Montague, Lydia White, Steven Pinker

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• e.g. a distinction between nouns and verbs

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• "Language Acquisition Device" (LAD) UG provides a "metaphor for the human linguistic potential" (Razfar)

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• There are a finite number of grammatical structures possible.

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• "Poverty of Stimulus"

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• "Rules of language acquired in predictable order"

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• "Acquisition is using language for real communication"
• "Learning is knowing about language"

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• "conscious learning... is used as a monitor or editor"

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• "we acquire language by receiving comprehensible input"

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• "mental blocks/affective filters prevent input comprehensibility"

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• Language instruction just slightly above the student's comprehensible input is useful.
• Speaking cannot be taught directly; it is a result of internalizing comprehensible input.

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• Graduated process of procedurization

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• Automaticity is performing skill without conscious control

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• Progression from "controlled" processes to "automatic" ones

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• e.g. recent Degner, et al. study of affective connotations

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• Processing sub-components involved in a skill requires more attention resources.

1. James P. Lantolf

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• According to Vygotsky and later theorists, the idea that human minds function according to participation and accommodation of cultural and mediation integrated into social activities

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• The process whereby language and other social artifacts become part of a person's mental and psychological processes

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• Stages of focus where words focus on certain aspects or areas of an individual's environment to shape biological realities into cultural concepts

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• Difference between what someone can do alone and what someone can do with mediation

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• A psychological theory that argues that humans use higher-level cultural tools such as language, literacy, and logic in a conscious effort to control the biologically-endowed mental processes of the brain

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• Cognitive activity with the goal of forming conscious psychological development

1. Brian MacWhinney

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• Individuals use linguistic cues to get meaning from language, rather than relying on linguistic universals.

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• When aquiring an L2, learners sometimes receive competing cues and must decide with cue(s) is more relevant for determine meaning.