Cognitive theory

Cognitive approaches to second

language learning

Yaseen Taha

Schools of thought

cognitive approaches

Behaviourism

Learning strategies

Processing approaches

What are the Schools of thought?

Schools of thought

Structural linguistics and

behavioral psychology

1900s, 1940s, 1950s

Generative linguistics and

cognitive psychology

1970s, 1980s

Constructivism 1980s, 1990s,

2000s

What does cognitive theory mean?

A theory of learning processes that focuses on how people

think, understand, and know. It does not specifies

precisely what is learned, what content will be easiest (or

most difficult) to learn, or what learners will select to

learn at different stages of development or levels of

mastery of a complex skill. It came about as a reaction to

behaviorism.

A cognitive theory of learning sees second language

acquisition as a conscious and reasoned thinking process,

involving the deliberate use of learning strategies.

Important cognitive theorists

Allan Paivio, Robert Gagne, Howard Gardener, Benjamin Bloom.

Behaviourism

a highly influential academic school of psychology. It assumes

that a learner is essentially passive, responding to environment

stimuli. Believes that a learner starts out with a clean slate, and

behavior is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement.

Reinforcement, positive or negative increases the possibility of an

event happening again. Punishment, both positive and negative,

decreases the possibility of an event happening again.

It implies that the learner responds to environmental stimuli

without his/her mental state being factor in the learners' behavior.

Individual learns to behave through conditioning.

Comparison between BEHAVIORIST theory and COGNITIVIST

theory

Behaviorism is a learning theory

As a formation of habit,

conditioning

Practice is necessary, constant

repetition

Learner is passive

Behaviorists: teach, plan, present

language item, make Students

repeat

Errors are forbidden

Ignored thought and emotions

Cognitivism is a learning theory, based on how people think not a theory that specifies precisely what is learned what content will be easiest to learn, or what learners will select tolearn at different stages of development

Learning results from internal activity (mental processes)

Practice is necessary, but rote learning and meaningless repetition is out.

Learners process, store, and retrieve information

Cognitivists: creates opportunities for learning to occur

Errors can be. Through them one can learn

Universal Grammar theorists were interested in competence of second

language grammars, and in its construction. They are not centrally concerned

with how learners access this linguistic knowledge in real time, or in the

strategies they might employ when their incomplete linguistic system lets

them down, or why some individuals are substantially better than others at

learning other languages. For cognitive theorists, on the other hand, these

are central issues.

Dichotomy between linguistics

language

A separate innate module in the mind

Another form of information processed by

general mechanisms

Researchers

believe that there is a language-specific module for first languageacquisition, but that the learning of second languages is differentand relies on general cognitive mechanisms.

Even for first language acquisition, some researchers believe thatsome aspects of language acquisition are innate and other aspectsnot.

Cognitive theorists

Pienemann, or Towell and Hawkins belong to Processing approaches.

These approaches investigate how second language learners processlinguistic information, and how their ability to process the secondlanguage develops over time. They are focused primarily on thecomputational dimension of language learning, and might or might notbelieve that language is a separate innate module. (information-processing approaches)

N.C. Ellis, MacWhinney, or Tomasello belong to emergentism,constructionist approaches ( the acquisition of language from theconstructionist or emergentist point of view).

Processing approaches

they are interested in the way in which the brain's processing mechanisms deal

with the second language.

The first approach, information processing, investigates how different

memory stores (short-term memory (STM); long-term memory (LTM) -

declarative and procedural) deal with new second language information, and

how this information is automatized and restructured through repeated

activation.

The second approach, processability theory, looks more specifically at the

processing demands made by various formal aspects of the second language,

and the implications for learnability and teachability of second language

structure.

The multi-store model of memory

Information-processing models of second

language learning

McLaughlin's (1987, 1990) information-processing model

Anderson's Active Control of Thought (ACT*) model (1983 , 1985)

Second language learning is viewed as the acquisition of

a complex cognitive skill. To learn a second language is

to learn a skill, because various aspects of the task must

be practised and integrated into fluent performance.

These two notions - automatization and restructuring

- are central to cognitive theory. (McLaughlin, 1987, pp.

133-4)

Automatization

the way in which we process information may be either controlled orautomatic, and that learning involves a shift from controlled towardsautomatic processing.

Learners first resort to controlled processing in the second language.This controlled processing involves the temporary activation of a selectionof information nodes in the memory. Such processing requires a lot ofattentional control on the part of the subject, and is constrained by thelimitations of the short-term memory.

For example, a beginner learner wanting to greet someone in the secondlanguage might activate the following words: Good Morning How Are You?Initially, these words have to be put together in a piecemeal fashion, one at atime (assuming they have not been memorized as an unanalysed chunk).

Through repeated activation, sequences first produced by

controlled processing become automatic. Automatized sequences

are stored as units in the long-term memory, which means that

they can be made available very rapidly whenever the situation

requires it. So, in the above example, once a learner has activated

the sequence Good Morning How Are You? a large number of

times, it becomes automatic, that is, it does not require attentional

control. However, once acquired, such automatized skills are

difficult to delete or modify.

Learning in this view is seen as the movement from controlled to

automatic processing via practice (repeated activation). When this shift

occurs, controlled processes are freed to deal with higher levels of

processing (i.e. the integration of more complex skill clusters), thus

explaining the incremental (step by step) nature of learning. It is

necessary for simple sub-skills and routines to become automatic before

more complex ones can be tackled. Once our learner has automatized

Good Morning How Are You?, he or she is free to deal with the

learning of more complex language, as the short-term memory is not

taken up by the production of this particular string.

This continuing movement from controlled to automatic processingresults in a constant restructuring of the linguistic system of thesecond language learner. Second language learners often start bymemorizing unanalysed chunks of language, which will later beanalysed and give rise to productive rules . For example, a learnermight first memorize a question as an unanalyzed chunk, forexample Have you got a pet?, without having a productive rule forinterrogatives, involving inversion. When this learner startsgenerating interrogatives that are not rote-learned chunks, he or shemight produce an alternative, uninverted form, such Has you havepet?

Anderson's Active Control of Thought (ACT*) model (1983 ,

1985)

Another processing model from cognitive psychology, which has also beenapplied to aspects of SLL.

It enables declarative knowledge (i.e. knowledge that something is the case) tobecome procedural knowledge (i.e. knowledge how to do something).

One of the major differences is that Anderson posits three kinds of memory: aworking memory, similar to McLaughlin's short-term memory and thereforetightly capacity-limited, and two kinds of long-term memory - a declarative long-term memory and a procedural long-term memory. Anderson believes thatdeclarative and procedural knowledge are different kinds of knowledge that arestored differently.

Declarative Knowledge (i.e. knowledge that something is the case)

Procedural Knowledge (i.e. knowledge how to do something).

For example: If you are learning to drive, you will be told that if the engine is

revving too much, you need to change to a higher gear; you will also be told how

to change gear. In the early stages of learning to drive, however, knowing that

(declarative knowledge) you have to do this does not necessarily mean that you

know how (procedural knowledge) to do it quickly and successfully. In other

words, you go through a declarative stage before acquiring the procedural

knowledge linked with this situation. With practice, however, the mere noise of

the engine getting louder will trigger your gear changing, without you even

having to think about it. This is how learning takes place in this view: by

declarative knowledge becoming procedural and automatized.

Let us illustrate with an example how the notions of declarative and

procedural knowledge could apply to SLL. If we take the example of the

third person singular -s marker on present tense verbs in English, the

classroom learner might initially know, in the sense that she has

consciously learnt the rule, that s/he + Verb requires the addition of an -s to

the stem of the verb. However, that same learner might not necessarily be

able to consistently produce the -s in a conversation in real time. This is

because this particular learner has declarative knowledge of that rule, but it

has not yet been proceduralized. After much practice, this knowledge will

hopefully become fully proceduralized, and the third person -s will be

supplied when the context requires it.

According to Anderson, the move from declarative to

procedural knowledge takes place in three stages

1. The cognitive stage: a description of the procedure is learnt.

2. The associative stage: a method for performing the skill is

worked out.

3.The autonomous stage: The skill becomes more and more rapid

and automatic.

In the examples outlined above, in the cognitive stage, the learner would learn

that the clutch pedal has to be pushed down and the gear lever moved to the

correct position, or, in the case of the language example, that an -s must be

added to the verb after a third person subject.

In the associative stage, the learner would work out how to do it, that is, how

to press the pedal down and how to get the gear lever in the correct position, or

how to add an -s when the context requires it. In other words, the learner learns

to associate an action (or a set of actions) with the corresponding declarative

knowledge.

In the autonomous stage, our learner's actions (changing gear or adding an -S)

become increasingly automatic, to the point that the corresponding declarative

knowledge may even be lost; in other words, our learner might not be able to

explain or even be conscious of what they are doing.

When tasks become proceduralized, they are accessed automatically, withouthaving to resort to the working memory, which is limited in its processingcapacity.

Here, we see the basic suggestions that the learner's speech becomes morefluent as more knowledge becomes proceduralized, and is thereforeaccessed more quickly and efficiently. We can also see how, as knowledgebecomes proceduralized, the working memory is freed to work on higherlevel knowledge.

What do Learning strategies mean?

procedures undertaken by the learner, in order to make their ownlanguage learning as effective as possible. Learning strategies arespecial ways of processing information that enhancecomprehension, learning or retention of information. They mayinclude:

Learning strategies must not be confused with communicationstrategies, although there is some overlap; their focus is onfacilitating learning.

communication strategies are used in order to overcome a specificcommunicative problem.

Learning Strategies:

Metacognitive strategies

Cognitive Strategies

Social or Affective Strategies

Metacognitive Strategies

It is important but overlooked

Thinking about thinking in another words knowing what we know and what we do not know

They are techniques that help people become more successful learners

When you read something you have strategies so in thinking also

Before: developing a plan (you can ask yourself why am I doing this, what should I do first, how much time do I need to do this,,

During: monitoring the plan: how am I doing, am I on the right track, am I getting close to my goals, do I need to do if I do not get it

After: Evaluating the plan: how did I do,, did I do better or worse than I thought

Before beginning while working After completing

a task on a task the task

Set goals: plan the check on the task Assess how well you have

Content sequence task accomplish the task

Choose strategies check the how well you have used

comprehension the learning strategies

check the production Identify changes to be

made next time

Planning/ Organizing MonitoringEvaluating

Cognitive strategies

Rehearsal (repeating)

Organization (grouping, classifying)

Inferencing (Using information in text to guess meanings or

new linguistic items, predict outcomes or complete missing

parts)

Summarizing (restate most important points, condense key

words, remove repetition,

Deducing (applying rules to the understanding of language)

Imagery (using visual images)

Transfer (using known linguistic information to

facilitate a new learning task)

ex. Learning to drive a car helps a person to later drive

truck),

ex. mathematics; physics…

Elaboration (linking ideas contained in new information,

or integrating new ideas with known information)

Social or Affective strategies

Cooperation : working with peers to solve a problem, pool information,check notes or get feedback on a learning activity

Questioning for clarification: eliciting from a teacher or peer additionalexplanation, rephrasing or examples.

Self-talk: Using mental redirection of thinking to assure oneself that alearning activity will be successful or to reduce anxiety abouta task.

Theories of second language processing

Processability theory

Perceptual Saliency approach

Processability theory Processability theory is part of the cognitiveapproach to second language acquisition that attempts to increaseunderstanding of the ways L2 learners restructure their interlanguageknowledge systems.

LikeTowell and Hawkins, the Processability theory outlined by Pienemann(1998, 2003) also claims we need to use both a theory of grammar and aprocessing component in order to understand second language acquisition. Thetheory of grammar, titled Lexical Functional Grammar, also differs from theChomskyan theory. Suffice it to say that Lexical Functional Grammar,

unlike Universal Grammar, is a theory of grammar that

attempts to represent both linguistic knowledge and

language processing within the same framework. Unlike

Universal Grammar, which is exclusively a theory of

linguistic knowledge, Lexical Functional Grammar aims

to be psychologically plausible, that is, to be in line with

the cognitive features of language processing

Processability theory aims to clarify how learners acquire the

computational mechanisms that operate on the linguistic

knowledge they construct. Pienemann believes that language

acquisition itself is the gradual acquisition of these computational

mechanisms

The basic logic behind Processability theory is that learners

cannot access hypotheses about the second language that they

cannot process. They are claimed to have a Hypothesis Space,

which develops over time according to the following hierarchy of

processing resources

Level 1: lemma access; words; no sequence of constituents.

Level 2: category procedure; lexical morphemes; no exchange of

information - canonical word order.

Level 3 : phrasal procedure; phrasal morphemes.

Level 4: simplified S-procedure; exchange of information from

internal to salient constituent.

Level 5: S-procedure; inter-phrasal morphemes; exchange of

information between internal constituents.

Level 6: Subordinate clause procedure.

Teachability

Pienemann developed his Processability theory in order to explain thewell documented observation that second language learners follow afairly rigid route in their acquisition of certain grammatical structures.This notion of route implies that structures only become learnable whenthe previous steps on this acquisitional path have been acquired.

The predictions of the Teachability hypothesis are as follows:

• Stages of acquisition cannot be skipped through formal instruction.• Instruction will be most beneficial if it focuses on structures from 'the

next stage

Operating principles and first language acquisition

Slobin's (1973 , 1979, 1985) operating principles are based on the claim that 'certainlinguistic forms are more "accessible" or more "salient" to the child than others

Operating Principle A: pay attention to the ends of words.

Operating Principle B: there are linguistic elements that encode relations betweenwords.

Operating Principle C: avoid exceptions.

Operating Principle D: underlying semantic relations should be marked overtlyand clearly.

Operating Principle E: the use of grammatical markers should make semanticsense.

Operating principles in second language acquisition The one-to-one principle

an interlanguage system should be constructed in such a way that anintended underlying meaning is expressed with one clear invariantsurface form (or construction). Example: Learners of German initiallymaintain an SVO word order in all contexts, in spite of the fact thatGerman word order is not so consistent (Clahsen, 1984).

the one-to-one principle means that learners of English will often startwith just one form for negation (e.g. no the dog; he no go), but oncethis form has been incorporated into their interlanguage, they are able tonotice other forms and differentiate the environment in which theyoccur.

The relexification principle

when you cannot perceive the structural pattern used by the

language you are trying to acquire, use your native language

structure with lexical items from the second language. Example:

Japanese learners of English sometimes use Japanese SOV word

order in English in the early stages, with English lexical items.

Thanks For Listening