CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

PSYCHOLINGISTIC ASPECTS OF INTERLANGUAGE

Psycholinguistic is the study of the mental structures and processes involved in the acquisition and use of language. Here we will focus on a small number of major issues L1 transfer, type role of consciousness, process operations, and communication strategies.

L1 TRANSFER

L1 transfer refers to the influence that the learners of L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2, as we noted in the section on error analysis in chapter 2, the learners of L1 is one of the sources of errors in learner language. This influence is referred to as negative transfer. While the opposite one is called as positive transfer.

L1 transfer can also result in avoidance, when they attempt to avoid such kinds of grammatical system in L2.Overuse is somehow found in L2 learners, when they always use the formal language in the non formal conversation.

According to Eric Kellerman, learners have perceptions regarding the linguistic features of their own language. They treat some features as potentially transferable and others as potentially non-transferable.

It is clear, then, that transfer is governed by learners’ perception about what is transferable and by their stage of development. It follows that interlanguage development cannot constitute a restructuring continuum. That is, the starting point is not the learners’ L1, and learners do not proceed by replacing L1 rules. Rather they construct their own interim rules.

THE ROLE OF CONSIOUSNESS IN L2 ACQUISITION

When children acquire their L1 they seem to do so without conscious effort. In contrast, L2 learners, especially adults, seem to have to work hard and to study the language consciously in order to succeed.

The term “consciousness” is often used very loosely in SLA and argues that there is a need to standardize the concept that underlies its use. For example distinguish between consciousness as “intentionally” and consciousness as “attention” “ Intentionality” refers to whether a learner makes a conscious and deliberate decision to learn some L2 knowledge. It contrast with “incidental learning”, which takes place when learners pick up L2 knowledge through exposure. This distinction is important and helpful. It helps us to see that when Krashen talks about “acquisition” being “incidental” acquisition mightin fact still involve some degree of conscious “attention” to input.

Schimdt argues that learning cannot take place without what he calls noticing- the process of attending consciously to linguistic features in the input.

Schimdt also points to a third sense in which we can talk about consciousness in language learning. He uses the term “awareness to refer to whether learners are conscious of acquiring new L2 elements.

Irrespective of whether learners learn implicitly or explicitly is widely accepted that they can acquire different kind s of knowledge.

Krashen’s view is that most learners are only capable of learning fairly simple rules.

Explicit knowledge may aid learners in developing implicit knowledge in a number of ways. First, contrary to the claims of Krashen, a direct interface may occur. Second, explicit knowledge may facilitate the process by which learners attend to features in the input. Third, explicit knowledge may help learners to move from intake to acquisition by helping them to notice the gap between what they observe in the input and the currents state of their interlanguage as manifested in their own output.

PROCESSING OPERATIONS

a.      Operating principles, is the study of the L1 acquisition og many different languages has led to the identification of a number of general strategies which children use to extract and segment linguistic information from the language they hear.

b.      Processing constraints, govern when it is possible for a learner to move from one stage to another.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Are seen as part of the planning phase. They are called upon when learners experience some kind of problem with an initial which prevents them from executing it.

TWO TYPES OF COMMUNICATIONAL MODEL

One type involves the idea of serial processing. That is, information is processed in a series of sequential steps and results in the representation of what has been learned as some kind of rule.

The alternative type of apparatus involves the idea of parallel distributed processing. This credits the learners with the ability to perform a number of mental tasks at the same time.

QUESTIONS

1.      What is meant by ga[p on page 57

2.      Could you mention kinds of communication strategies that learners do?