English 418 Second Language Acquisition Session Twenty Four ...

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knowledge • Learning involves integration of new knowledge with prior knowledge • One needs some sort of anchor on which to ground new knowledge • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • Prior knowledge factors can include: • Knowledge of the native language • Existing knowledge of the second language • Knowledge of other languages • World knowledge • <strong>Language</strong> universals • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • A final factor is that of attention • At a given point in time, does a learner attend to the input? • Attention is important because it allows a learner to notice a mismatch between what he or she knows about the second language and what is produced by speakers of the second language • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • Input can be apperceived (and is hence comprehensible), but may not be comprehended • Comprehensible input is controlled by the person providing the input, generally a native speaker of the language • Comprehended input is controlled by the learner • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • That is, it is the learner who is or who is not doing the “work” to understand • This distinction is crucial in the eventual relationship to intake, because it is the learner who ultimately controls that intake • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • Apperception can be conceptualized as a priming device • It prepares the learner for the possibility of subsequent analysis • In comprehending, however, the task facing the learner is to analyze the input in order to determine how to incorporate it into their grammars (interlanguage) • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • Therefore, there is another separation of components – that of comprehended input and intake
• This separation is important because not all input that is comprehended becomes intake • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • For example, input may be comprehended only for the immediate purpose of a conversational interaction • Or it may be used for purposes of learning – where the intake is incorporated into the learner’s grammar • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • In SLA theory, intake refers to the process of attempted integration of linguistic information • Thus, input that is only used in a conversation and for the sake of that conversation is not regarded as intake • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • Intake is the process of assimilating linguistic material • It refers to the mental activity that mediates between input and grammars and is different from apperception or comprehension as the latter two do not necessarily lead to grammar formation • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • Thus, input and intake refer to two fundamentally different phenomena • Intake is that component where psycholinguistic processing takes place • It is where incoming information is matched against prior knowledge • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • And where, in general, processing takes place against the backdrop of existing internalized grammatical rules • This is the place where generalizations and over-generalizations are likely to occur • It is where fossilization stems from • Building a Personal Theory of SLA • This is the component where several major processes occur, including: • Hypothesis formation • Hypothesis testing • Hypothesis rejection • Hypothesis modification • Hypothesis confirmation • Building a Personal Theory of SLA
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English 418 Second Language Acquisition Session Twenty Four ...

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