Second language acquisition
Why do people speak pidgins rather than just learn new language perfectly?
To what extent is there a critical period for second language acquisition?
How does learning L2 depend on L1?
Bilingual exposure as children:
No great difficulties in acquiring two languages
Proficiency in syntax and prosody in both languages
Code switching
Occurs at major linguistic boundaries
Occurs during difficult to explain concepts are encountered
Involves knowledge of participants in conversation
Some evidence that bilingual children often have a better understanding of general ways languages work
But what about later learning of L2?
Adults learning L2 start immediately trying to use it
Children learning L2 often take months before speaking L2
… but…
Children show higher levels of proficiency in L2
Johnson and Newport (1989) study
Native speakers of Chinese and Korean tested for proficiency based on their age of arrival in the U.S.
Explanations of second language acquisition
We have an innate grammar
Critical period (~6 years) for acquiring langauge
(but there seems to be different critical periods, 6 for phonology, 15 for syntax)
We are trying to set parameters for L2. If the parameters for L2 are sufficiently different from L1, then it is harder (interference).
Example: Head parameter
Japanese: Head last language
Picture wall on is hanging
verb and prepositional phrase go last (postpositional phrase)
In English we use prepositional phrases
Picture is hanging on the wall
As we get older, there is more interference between L1 and L2.for setting parameters
Question: Is this a critical period or just interference?
2) Cognitive processes interpretation
A psychologically based model
Interference because information learning using L1 does not transfer to L2
Competition model
Examples: Who is doing the action?
The waitress pushes the cowboys
The telephone pushes the cowboys
Kisses the table the apple
The baskets the teacher kicks.
What information did you use?
Position and animacy
Germans rely less on word order and more on animacy and morphological marking of subject-verb agreement to determine the actor.
Italians rely primarily on animacy
How does this affect learning L2?
Dominant processing strategies in L1.
The greater the discrepancy between L1 and L2 in relation to these processing strategies, the greater the interference.
Examples from priming
L1: English L2: Spanish
Cross-language priming
Cat Dog
Cat Book
Cat Perro
Cat Libro
Gato Perro
Gato Libro
Goal to fluency: inhibit the automatic activation of words in L2 to produce L2
Additional processing required to inhibit words in L1 can hinder use of L2
Which is correct? Nativist (innate) or cognitive interpretation of second language interpretation?
Both explain problems of L2 learning in terms of interference
Parameter setting only explains acquisition of syntax
Cognitive interpretation can apply to whole range of language
At this point, neither interpretation can be refuted.
Geschwind’s Model of Language Processing
Visual input à
visual region of the brain à
angular gyrus à
Wernicke’s area (creates meaningful units of linguistic input) à
Broca’s area (via the arcuate fasciculus ).
message translated to motor commands à
speech muscles and then articulated.
Injury
Injury to Broca’s area: disruption of process of translating sequences to motor commands
Injury to Wernicke’s area:
Disrupt comprehension but fluent speech if Broca’s area and Arcuate Fasciculus is intact.
Injury to arcuate fasciculus: deficit in relating what a patient heard to what the patient would say.
Speed reading
Claims:
• Brain is lazy
• Can take in more information for each fixation
• Eliminate inner speech
• Improve comprehension
Video claims:
11 pages in 16 secs = 1.4 secs/page= ~357 words/sec = 2.8 msec/word
80-90 pages/minute
8000 words/minute = 133 words/sec = 7 msec/word
Normal reading:
Leisure reading 280 wpm (~200 msecs/word)
Minimum time to identify a word around 40-60 msecs
Fixations 150-500 msecs
Saccades 20-35 msecs
But:
Eye movement studies of speed readers show:
• Speed readers and normals equivalent on general comprehension
• Speed readers could not answer detail questions
• When normal readers were told to skim, eye movement pattern was same as speed readers
• Eliminating inner speech reduces speed instead of increases it
Speed reading vs. motivation vs. practice
Motivation and practice help
Dyslexia
Normal to high intelligence but poor reading skills
Distinguished from poor reading
Myths:
Mirror, backward letter identification
Eye training will help
You can outgrow dyslexia
Smart people cannot be dislexic: Einstein, George
Patton, John Irving, Charles Schwab ...
Current evidence: Deficiency in processing of phonemes
Deficit impairs decoding which blocks access to higher order linguistic processes
Phonological awareness
Difficulty in segmenting words into phonemes
Connecticut study: Affects ~20% of school children
Auditory Analysis test: say "crack" without the "c" sound
Evidence for genetic factors for dyslexia
fMRI studies
Differences in processing the the area that does phonological processing
Overcoming dyslexia
Compensating through comprehension
Developing inferencing and conceptualization skills