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PROCESSING APPROACHES Mustafa KEKE

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LEARNING DEVELOPMENT MODELS UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR COGNITIVE MODELS INTERACTIONAL SOCIOCULTURAL MODEL

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UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR (UG) applies the Chomskyan paradigm claims that humans inherit a mental language faculty which highly constrains the shape that human languages can take limits the kind of hypotheses that children can entertain regarding the structure of the language they are exposed to.( This is why children acquire their first language easily and speedily) the innate UG constrains L2 development

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INTERACTIONIST SOCIOCULTURAL MODELS pays particular attention to the nature of the interactions L2 learners typically engage in negotiation of meaning following in the footsteps of Vygotsky who believed that all learning was essentially social Use of recast for error correction Learners first need the help of experts in order to 'scaffold' them into the next developmental stages before they can appropriate the newly acquired knowledge.

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COGNITIVE MODELS Second language learning is the acquisition of a complex cognitive skill. Language learning is no different from other types of learning Learner process the linguistic input (reconstruction) Language is abstract in nature Learning is not transfer of knowledge from one source to receiver Learners reshape the input

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Some of the sub-skills involved in the language learning process are applying grammatical rules, choosing the appropriate vocabulary, following the pragmatic conventions governing the use of a specific language (McLaughlin, 1987:134) These sub-skills become automatic with practice During this process of automatisation, the learner organizes and restructures new information that is acquired. Through this process of restructuring the learner links new information to old information and achieves increasing degrees of mastery in the second language

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Evidence against the cognitivist theory is provided by Felix (1981) who describes the general cognitive skills as useless for language development (Felix, 1981). The only areas that cognitive development is related to language development is vocabulary and meaning, since lexical items and meaning relations are most readily related to a conceptual base (Felix, 1981).

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Some of the notable cognitive theories of second-language acquisition include the nativization model, nativization model, the multidimensional model the multidimensional model processability theory, processability theory, emergentist models, emergentist models, the competition model, the competition model, skill-acquisition theories. skill-acquisition theories.

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PROCESSING APPROACHES These approaches are interested in the way in which the brains processing mechanisms deal with the second language Information processing model Processability theory

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INFORMATION PROCESSING MODELS originate from psychology and neurolinguistics see learning as the shift from controlled processes (dealt with in the short term or working memory and under attentional control) to automatised processes stored in the long term memory (retrieved quickly and effortlessly) declarative knowledge (knowing 'that') becomes procedural knowledge (knowing 'how') through repeated practice

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INFORMATION PROCESSING MODELS Sensory memory perceives information The perceived information is transferred to the second memory component -- short-term memory, which, with a limited capacity, can hold information for only about thirty seconds.( Sometimes referred as working memory) After rehearsal and coding, the maintained information is transferred to long-term memory. Once information is stored in long-term memory, it can last for quite a long time, even for a lifetime although we may lose the ability recall the information.

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INFORMATION PROCESSING MODELS Mc Laughlins information processing model Andersons Active Control of thought model

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MC LAUGHLINS INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL Complex behavior builds on simple processes These processes are modular (can be studied independently) Autonomous and active learners Processes take time The mind is a limited-capacity processor Learn a second language is to learn a skill Learning is a cognitive process

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The way in which we process information may be either controlled or automatic Learning involves a shift from controlled towards automatic processing

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Controlled processing constrained by the limitations of the short term memory turns into automatic response through repeated activation Automatized sequences are stored as units in the long-term memory (they can be made available very rapidly whenever the situation requires it and with minimal attentional control on the subject)

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Learning is seen as the movement from controlled to automatic processing via practice in this view This continuing movement from controlled to automatic processing results in a constant restructuring of the linguistic system of the second language learner

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RESTRUCTURING May lead to the appearance of second language errors (fossilization) It is the result of exemplar-based representations becoming rule-based

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ACTIVE CONTROL THOUGHT MODEL (ACT) Andersons model from cognitive psychology Similar to Mc Laughlins model ( practice leads to automatization) a distinction between procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge.

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DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE is knowledge of what PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE is knowledge of how We go through a declarative stage before acquiring the procedural knowledge linked with this situation Learning means that declarative knowledge turns into procedural knowledge

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According to Anderson, the move from declarative to procedural knowledge takes place in three stages: Cognitive Stage: A description of the procedure is learnt Associative Stage: A method for performing the skill is worked out Autonomous Stage: The skill becomes automatic

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Step by step nature of learning When tasks become proceduralized, they are accessed automatically without having to resort to the working memory, which is limited in its processing capacity