Cognitive Processing in Second Language Acquisition: Inside the Learner's Mind (Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research (Celcr))

385 Pages·2010·2.89 MB·English

by  Martin Putz

Cognitive Processing in Second Language Acquisition
Converging Evidence in Language
and Communication Research (CELCR)
Over the past decades, linguists have taken a broader view of language and are
borrowing methods and findings from other disciplines such as cognition and
computer sciences, neurology, biology, sociology, psychology, and anthropology.
This development has enriched our knowledge of language and communication,
but at the same time it has made it difficult for researchers in a particular field of
language studies to be aware of how their findings might relate to those in other
(sub-)disciplines.
CELCR seeks to address this problem by taking a cross-disciplinary approach
to the study of language and communication. The books in the series focus on a
specific linguistic topic and offer studies pertaining to this topic from different
disciplinary angles, thus taking converging evidence in language and communi-
cation research as its basic methodology.
Editors
Marjolijn H. Verspoor Wilbert Spooren
University of Groningen Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Advisory Board
Walter Daelemans Leo Noordman
University of Antwerp Tilburg University
Cliff Goddard Martin Pütz
University of New England University of Koblenz-Landau
Roeland van Hout
Radboud University Nijmegen
Volume 13
Cognitive Processing in Second Language Acquisition.
Inside the learner’s mind
Edited by Martin Pütz and Laura Sicola
Cognitive Processing in
Second Language Acquisition
Inside the learner’s mind
Edited by
Martin Pütz
University of Koblenz-Landau
Laura Sicola
University of Pennsylvania
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cognitive processing in second language acquisition : inside the learner’s mind / edited by
Martin Pütz, Laura Sicola.
p. cm. (Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, issn 1566-7774 ;
v. 13)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Second language acquisition. 2. Cognitive learning. I. Pütz, Martin, 1955- II. Sicola,
Laura.
P118.2.C635 2010
418.001’9--dc22 2010000584
isbn 978 90 272 3902 0 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8832 5 (Eb)
© 2010 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Cognitive processing in second language acquisition 1
Martin Pütz and Laura Sicola
Section i. Cognitive theoretical foundations of language and learning
1. Concept stretching and model merging: An attempt to better account
for L2 processing and acquisition of grammatical constructions 9
Mark Fifer Seilhamer
2. Construction learning as category learning 27
Nick C. Ellis
3. The role of relevance theory in SLA studies 49
Maria Jodłowiec
4. Distinct mechanisms in the processing of English past tense morphology:
A view from L2 processing 67
Bilal Kırkıcı
5. Third language acquisition, macrocategories and synonymy 85
Ksenya Filatova
Section ii. Mental processes and acquisition procedures followed
by language learners
6. First exposure: Converting target language input to intake 99
Rebekah Rast
7. On the stability of representations in the multilingual lexicon 117
Kees de Bot and Wander Lowie
8. Conceptual representations in the multilingual mind:
A study of advanced Dutch students of English 135
Wander Lowie, Marjolijn Verspoor and Bregtje Seton
9. Formulaic language in L2: Storage, retrieval and production
of idioms by second language learners 149
Anna Cieślicka
vi Cognitive Processing in Second Language Acquisition
10. A procedure for testing the Noticing Hypothesis in the context
of vocabulary acquisition 169
Aline Godfroid, Alex Housen and Frank Boers
11. Construal and the use of impersonalisation strategies in English
and Spanish in an FLL context 199
Juana I. Marín Arrese
12. Inside the attriter’s mind: A comparative exploration
of the cognitive constraints in Dutch L1 attrition in an L2 English
environment and advanced Dutch L1 acquisition 227
Merel Keijzer
Section iii. C ognitive language pedagogy: Classroom studies
with applications for teaching
13. Situating and distributing cognition across task demands:
The SSARC model of pedagogic task sequencing 243
Peter Robinson
14. Typology in the L2 classroom: Second language acquisition
from a typological perspective 269
Luna Filipović and Ivana Vidaković
15. Metaphoric competence in the first and second language:
Similarities and differences 293
Jeannette Littlemore
16. Figurative competence is better developed in L1 than in L2, or is it?
Understanding conversational implicatures in L1 and L2 317
Katarzyna Bromberek-Dyzman and Anna Ewert
17. Attention to phonological form: Modified output
in task-based negotiated interaction 335
Laura Sicola
18. Quality and type of corrective feedback, noticing, and learner uptake
in synchronous computer-mediated text-based and voice chats 351
Susana Sotillo
Index 371
Acknowledgements
This collection of 18 papers has its origin in the 33rd International LAUD Symposium,
held in Landau, Germany, at the University of Koblenz-Landau, in March 2008.
We owe a debt of gratitude to a large number of people who have contributed to
this volume. First of all, many thanks are due to the participants in the symposium for
the stimulating discussions in a very pleasant atmosphere, and to the contributors of
the present volume, who have responded with alacrity and professionalism to all the re-
quests that have been made of them. Furthermore, the editors of the volume would like
to thank all persons who kindly agreed to act as referees and linguistic experts: Salvatore
Attardo, Kees de Bot, Anna Cieślicka, David Deterding, René Dirven, Helen Fraser,
Stephan Gries, Beate Hampe, Michael Harrington, Juliane House, Jan H. Hulstijn, Ulrike
Jessner, Janice Johnson, Ronald Leow, Seth Lindstromberg, Jeannette Littlemore, Shawn
Loewen, Geoffrey Nathan, Shannon Sauro, Farzad Sharifian, Dan Slobin, Paul Toth and
Marjolijn Vespoor.
Thanks to the generous support by the DFG (German Research Council), the Univer-
sity of Koblenz-Landau, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Rhineland-Palatinate,
the Gillet Foundation (Edenkoben) and the Friends and Supporters of the University of
Koblenz-Landau (Landau Campus), many internationally well-known scholars were able to
participate in the symposium. We would also like to thank the organizing staff of the sym-
posium, in particular Isabel Zehfuß, Laura Bornemann, Ulrike Laux, and Jens Ruckdäschel
for their enthusiasm and kind assistance.
Thanks are also due to Carmen Fischer for proofreading major parts of the manuscript.
Finally, we owe a debt of gratitude to Hanneke Bruintjes (Acquisition Editor, John
Benjamins, Amsterdam), Martine van Marsbergen (Production Department, John Ben-
jamins, Amsterdam) and Marjolijn Verspoor (Editor of the CELCR series).
Martin Pütz University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau Campus
Laura Sicola University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

introduction
Cognitive processing
in second language acquisition
Martin Pütz and Laura Sicola
The present volume grew out of the 33rd International LAUD Symposium, held in March
2008 at the University of Koblenz-Landau in Landau, Germany. This edited volume repre-
sents state of the field research linking cognition and second language acquisition. The aim
of the volume is to offer new and insightful research on cognitive issues from the learner’s
perspective as can be observed in second language acquisition contexts. Its unique per-
spective reflects the experience of the learner when engaged in noticing, input/output
processing, retrieval, and even attrition of target forms. Contributions are both theoretical
and practical; they include a range of target forms in the areas of lexis, morpho-syntax,
phonology and pragmatics; and represent more than a dozen L1, L2 and L3 combinations
from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Spoken and written languages are investigated in
face-to-face, paper-based, and computer-mediated contexts.
The psycholinguistic and cognitive processes underlying the learning of a foreign or
second language have always been a subject of major interest to both (i) Second Language
Acquisition (SLA) researchers and (ii) practitioners involved in language pedagogy, i.e.
second and foreign language teaching. Most SLA theories have thus far assumed a top-
down operation from Universal Grammar to L1 and L2 grammars. Just as for first lan-
guage acquisition, it has historically been assumed that, given sufficient input, a second
language system develops in the mind automatically. The L2 input is said to trigger the
language acquisition device, which is seen to operate quite autonomously, that is, inde-
pendently from and without any interaction with other cognitive abilities or faculties such
as bodily experiences, image schemas, perception, attention, categorization, emotion, or
still other mental faculties.
In contrast, most of the chapters in this volume take a radically opposing view in the
sense that they focus more on the essential role of bottom-up processing in SLA. It is ar-
gued that language acquisition and learning can, like all human learning processes, only
be understood and explained if they are seen as bottom-up, exemplar-based and usage-
oriented processes. These can and have to be accommodated in a much broader frame-
work of how people interact with the world around them, store and acquire knowledge
in some symbolic form or other, and thus establish a link between cognitive development
and language acquisition.
The book explores the even more complex process of L2 learning and acquisition
from three different inroads: