Summary_PLLT_chapter 4

 

Chapter 4 Human Learning

 

 

Fundamental Concepts in Human Learning

-In addition to the 3 theoretical perspectives in the first part of the chapter, there are a number of concepts, categories, and types of human learning applicable to SLA.

 

Types of Learning

1)     Signal learning

: human beings notice and attend to human language.

2)     Stimulus-response learning

: noticing and responding to specific sounds, words, and nonverbal gestures, and receiving a reward for the response

3)     Chaining

: stringing several sounds or words together to attempt to communicate meaning

4)     Verbal association

: assigning meaning to various verbal stimuli.

“nonsense” syllables become meaningful for communication

5)     Multiple discrimination

: noticing differences between/among sounds, words, or phrases that are similar.

e.g. minimal fair (sheep/ ship), homonyms (left/ left), synonyms (maybe/ perhaps)

6)     Concept learning

: learning to make a common response to a class of stimuli

e.g. the word “hot” applies to stoves, candles, and irons;

7)     Principle learning

: learning a chain of two or more concepts, a cluster of related concepts.

e.g. verbs in the past tense are classified into regular and irregular forms, yet both forms express the concept of tense.

8)     Problem solving

: learning that metaphorical language is not simply idiosyncratic but connected to cultural world views and ways of thinking, thus explaining why a dead person is “gone.” Also, using language to solve problems, such as information gap exercises in a classroom.

 

- Robert Gagné(1965)

- 1,2,3,4,5 ➔  a behavioral framework

- 6,7,8➔  cognitive or sociocultural perspectives

 

Transfer and Interference

●        Transfer: the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning.

1)     Positive transfer

: occurs when a previous item is correctly applied to present subject matter.

2)     Negative transfer

: occurs when previous performance disrupts or inhibits the performance of a second task.

➔can be referred to as interference

A)   Interference

- previously learned material conflicts with subsequent material.

- a previous item is incorrectly transferred or incorrectly associated with an item to be learned.

 

- the effect of the first-learned native language on the second.

- the saliency of L1-L2 interference has been so strong that it was once fashionable to view second language learning as exclusively involving overcoming the effect of the native language.

- one of the goals of your teacher is to help you and your classmates to do positively transfer various strategies, mindsets linguistic tricks, and cross-cultural knowledge to this newest language.

- acquiring pieces of the language that have a cumulative effect on your current lessons.

 

●        Retroactive transfer: the effect of a current act of learning on previously learned material.

- among some bilinguals whose home language is the nondominant language of their country of residence.

e.g. Spanish in the United States

 

Overgeneralization

*Generalization involves inferring or deriving a law, rule, or conclusion from the observation of particular instances.

- a form of negative transfer.

- a process that occurs as the L2 learner acts within the target language, generalizing a particular rule or item in the L2—irrespective of the L1—beyond legitimate bounds.

- e.g. regular past tense endings (walked, opened) as applicable to all past tense forms (goed, flied) until they recognize a subset of verbs that belong in an “irregular” category.

 

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

- two polar aspects of the generalization process.

●        Inductive reasoning

: one ①stores a number of specific instances and ②induces a general law or rule or conclusion that governs or subsumes the specific instances.

●        Deductive reasoning

: movement from ①a generalization to ②specific instances

-L1 learning and natural or untutored SLA involve a largely inductive process

: learners must infer certain rules and meanings from all the data around them.

: most of those rules are learned implicitly, without “conscious,” explicit ability to verbalize them.

- classroom language learning tends to rely on deductive reasoning.

- much of the evidence in communicative L2 learning points to the overall superiority of an inductive approach.

 

 

Language Aptitude

- a related and somewhat controversial issue in SLA

- a number of questions emerge:

1)     Is there an ability or “talent” that we can call foreign language aptitude?

2)     If so, what is it, and is it innate or environmentally nurtured?

3)     Is it a distinct ability or is it an aspect of general cognitive abilities?

4)     Does aptitude vary by age and by whether learning is implicit or explicit?

5)     Can aptitude be reliably measured?

6)     If so, do such assessments predict success in learning an L2?

 

- anecdotal evidence would suggest that some people are indeed able to learn languages faster and more efficiently than others.

- one way of looking at such aptitude is the identification of characteristics of successful language learners.

: risk-taking behavior, memory efficiency, intelligent guessing, willingness to communicate

-historically, research on language aptitude has been a roller-coaster ride.

a.      John Carroll’s pioneering work on aptitude

:the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT)

-the predictability of number learning, sound discrimination, pattern discernment, memorization for future success in a foreign language.

 

+The Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB)     

+The Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB)

 

⇨       Slowly, their popularity waned, even in the absence of alternative measures of language aptitude

⇨       Two factors accounted for the decline.

①     They more that likely reflected the general intelligence or academic ability of a student in any instructional setting.    

    : ability to perform focused, analytical, context-reduced activities that occupy a student in a traditional language classroom.

→ crucial in the acquisition of communicative competence in context-embedded situations.

②     How is one to interpret a language aptitude test? Both student and teacher are led to believe that they will be successful or unsuccessful, depending on the aptitude test score.

 

b.     Skehan (1998) 's proposal to look at aptitude from a broader view of SLA that incorporates input processing, inductive language learning, output strategies, and fluency.

c.      Grigorenko, Sternberg, and Ehrman (2000) proposed an aptitude battery based on   Sternberg's theory of intelligence, the CANAL-F test (Cognitive Ability for Novelty in Acquisition of Language -Foreign)

d.     Dörnyei and Skehan (2003) suggested that aptitude may be related to varying process of SLA   

: aptitude - attention, short-term memory, phonemic coding ability, inductive learning, chunking, and retrieval ability  

: aptitude is relevant not simply for conventional, explicit, rule-focused teaching contexts but also when the learning is implicit [ in natural contexts ]

e.      Robinson (2001,2002, 2005) & Dörnyei (2005, 2009) suggested that aptitude refers to an unspecified mixture of cognitive variables.       

: Robinson - processing speed, short- and long-term memory, rote memory, planning time, pragmatic abilities, interactional intelligence, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy

: Dörnyei - motivation, learning styles, learning strategies, anxiety, and other individual difference.

f.      DeKeyser and Koeth (2011) - "aptitudes" in plural for learning a second  language.

          ⇒ dynamic systems theory     

: "one of complexity, with all parts of the system being interconnected and of ongoing change that results from the multiple interacting influences”

 

 

Intelligence And Language Learning

-Intelligence has traditionally been defined and measured in terms of linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities.

-Success in educational institutions and in life in general has been shown repeatedly to correlate with high IQ scores.

 

Q. Does IQ correlate equally well with successful SLA?

- A. Not according to a good deal of research and observation over the last few decades.

          It appears that our “language learning IQs” involve more than simply academic                                     “smart.”

 

-Howard Gardner (1983, 1999, 2006, 2011) was the first psychologist to help us to see why IQ is too simplistic a concept to account for a whole host of skills and abilities.

-Gardner’s eight multiple intelligences.

1)     Linguistic

2)     Logical-mathematical

3)     Musical: the ability to perceive and create pitch and rhythmic patterns.

4)     Spatial: the ability to find one’s way around an environment, to form mental images of reality, and to transform them readily.

5)     Bodily-kinesthetic: fine motor movement, athletic prowess.

6)     Naturalist: sensitivity to natural objects (plants, animals, clouds)

7)     Interpersonal: the ability to understand others, how they feel, what motivates them, how they interact with one another.

8)     Intrapersonal intelligence: the ability to see oneself, to develop a sense of self-identity.

-Gardner (1983) initially posited seven different intelligences that provided a comprehensive picture of intelligence. He later added one more intelligence, naturalist (Gardner, 1999, 2004) but has rejected adding spiritual or moral intelligence.

-He showed that our traditional definitions of intelligence are culture-bound.

 

-In his triarchic view of intelligence, Sternberg proposed 3 types of “smartness”

1)     Componential ability for analytical thinking

2)     Experiential ability to engage in creative thinking, combining disparate experiences in insightful ways.

3)     Contextual ability or “street smartness” that enables people to “play the game” of manipulating their environment (others, situations, institutions, contexts)

-measure insight, real-life problem-solving, “common sense,” getting a wider picture of things and other practical tasks that closely related to success in the real world.

-1), 2) → components of the "knack" that some people have for quick, efficient, ostensibly "effortless"

 

- Emotional intelligence

: Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence is persuasive in placing emotion, or what might be called EQ (Emotional Quotient), at the seat of intellectual functioning.

: “the emotion mind is far quicker than the rational mind, …”

: Goleman has also more recently followed up with work on social as well as ecological intelligence, in an effort to apply emotional management to practical life situations.

- far more important than any other factor in accounting for second language success

 

-by expanding our understanding of intelligence, we can more easily discern a relationship between intelligence and second language learning.

          - Gardner's musical intelligence  → the intonation patterns of a language

          - Bodily-kinesthetic → the phonology of a language

          - Interpersonal intelligence → the communicative process

          - Spatial  intelligence ( sense of direction )→ growing comfortable in a new                                     environment

-Educational institutions have recently been applying multiple intelligence theory to a variety of school-oriented contexts

-P.S: John Oller suggested that language is intelligence. According to Oller, arguments from genetics and neurology suggest "a deep relationship between intelligence and language ability”

→ Effective L2 learning links surface forms of a language with meaningful experiences, as we have already noted in cognitive learning.