Changing Perspectives on Universal Grammar and Crosslinguistic Variation in L2 Acquisition
Lydia White professor of McGill University
In this paper, I will discuss developments in how generative second language acquisition research has approached the issues of Universal Grammar (UG), crosslinguistic variation and parameter resetting. I will show that there have been changes in how crosslinguistic variation is accounted for, leading to changes in claims about effects of the mother tongue in L2 acquisition. In the 1980s, research centred on the availability of principles of UG to adult learners, as well as the question of whether or not parameters of UG can be reset. In the 1990s, focus narrowed to a consideration of grammatical features (such as tense, agreement, number, gender, etc.), particularly the question of whether new features can be acquired. More recently, there has been yet another shift, current emphasis being on interfaces between the linguistic system and grammar external components (e.g. syntax/discourse), or between different modules of grammar (syntax/morphology; morphology/phonology; syntax/semantics; etc.). These changes in focus have led to revisions in how researchers account for successes and failures in L2 acquisition.
Attention, Awareness, ‘Noticing’ and Foreign Language Learning
Richard Schmidt professor of The University of Hawaii at Manoa
The Noticing Hypothesis—the idea that SLA is largely driven by what learners pay attention to and notice in target language input (Schmidt 2001)—has been around for approximately two decades now, and continues to generate suggestions for language pedagogy, experimental studies of learning that are reported in journals and at conferences, and controversy. In this presentation, I will review the evidence that led to formulation of the Noticing Hypothesis, and discuss its connections to several related hypotheses, including Stephen Krashen’s Comprehensible Input Hypothesis, Michael H. Long’s Interactionist Hypothesis, Merrill Swain’s Pushed Output Hypothesis, and Lyster and Ranta’s Counterbalance Hypothesis.
Following a review of the empirical evidence for and against the Noticing Hypothesis, as well as the major objections that have been raised against it from a variety of linguistic, psychological, sociocultural, and philosophical perspectives, I will summarize what we know now and what we don’t know, presenting an agenda for future research. I will conclude by presenting some practical implications that can be derived from the Noticing Hypothesis that may be helpful to both language learners and language teachers.
Towards a Construction-Based View of SLA
丁言仁 南京大学外国语学院教授
The view of language as both analytic and formulaic has been put forward in opposition to the view of language as unitarily analytic.
This presentation questions this dual-mode view for its weaknesses in explaining the ontogenetic development of these two modes and in separating these two modes in research. Proposed in its place is a construction-based view of language, seeing language as being made up of constructions of various levels of abstraction, from formulaic sequences to abstract patterns. This view, it is argued, provides better explanations for the development of the knowledge of abstract patterns and for overcorrections frequently found in learner performance. Pedagogically, this view calls on learners to pay close attention not only to formulaic sequences and grammar rules, but also to patterns that lie in between.
Current Developments in Corpus-based Research of SLA in China
王立非 对外经济贸易大学英语学院教授
This paper gives an overview of the current developments in corpus-based studies of SLA in China in four parts. First, it describes the theories of learner corpus studies as an important contribution of a new perspective to SLA studies. Second, it reviews China’s recent construction of learner corpus, including the written, spoken and parallel L2 corpora. Third, it reports the national projects on L2 corpus studies and the related findings. Lastly, it identifies the problems in the corpus approach to SLA research and proposes some possible solutions to future studies.
From “Whither Transfer” to “Teaching for Transfer”: An Overview of Language Transfer Research from the Perspective of Educational Linguistics
俞理明 上海交通大学外国语学院教授
This paper presents an overview of language transfer research from its early days to the present time, spelling out the theories, empirical studies of and existent problems with current language transfer research at different linguistic levels as well as the emerging research on language transfer. In tracing the course of development of language transfer research over a span of more than half a century, I argue that the real nature of transfer in and its significance to second/foreign language learning can only be properly understood in the context of language education, rather than in the context of purely linguistic research.
Strategic Learning in SLA: Reopening the Research Agenda
顾永琪博士 新西兰惠灵顿维多利亚大学高级讲师
Second language acquisition (SLA) is at best haphazard without the learner’s active engagement in the learning process. Over the decades, we have seen applied linguists suggesting the right amount of comprehensible input, opportunities for output, corrective feedback, task-based presentation, and contextual scaffolding in the classroom. This presentation attempts to reassert the central role of strategic learning in the SLA process, review 30 years of research on language learning strategies and learner autonomy, reflect upon the critiques of language learner strategies (LLS) research, and outline a new research agenda that I hope will bring forth theoretical depth, empirical rigor, and practical utility.
Critical Period Hypothesis and World Englishes:
Implications for ELT in China
刘骏 美国亚利桑那大学教授
Critical Period Hypothesis is not unknown to SLA researchers, but the results of its application as the joint effort of policy makers, school administrators and classroom teachers over the last decade in Asia are less than ideal. In light of the movement of World Englishes where accuracy and standard pronunciation and intonation are no longer considered as a priority for assessing communicative competence, the expected outcome in early English education at the potential cost of L1 literacy development is more questionable. In this plenary, Dr Liu is going to draw implications from research in both SLA and World Englshes, discuss future possibilities of English language teaching in China, and make recommendations to improve the current practice strategically as well as pedagogically.
Restorying Foreign Language Education and the Role of English Language Teachers in China
许世静博士 加拿大温莎大学助理教授
English language education needs to restory its context in order to foreground Chinese culture as a framework for Chinese learners to learn, interpret and understand Western cultures. In this way English helps Chinese learners adapt to the globalized world and, more importantly, recover and reconstruct their Chinese identity in the globalized world.
A Neurobiological Perspective on the Study of SLA
贾冠杰 苏州大学外国语学院教授
Traditionally, second language acquisition has been studied for about fifty years in the world from various perspectives. SLA mirror has reflected the “blank slate” theory and the behavior back into the “black box” of theoretical mechanisms with little concern for the neurobiological plausibility of those mechanisms. Traditional theories of SLA operate by observing linguistic behavior in experimental and naturalistic settings, and based on patterns in those data, mechanisms are inferred, these inferences are speculations. This paper, based on some recent studies, discusses a relatively neurobiological account of certain aspects of SLA, which is quite different from traditional studies, i.e. on the basis of well-researched neural mechanisms, the researchers try to speculate what language learning behavior could be subserved by these mechanisms. Then some implications of this theory are discussed.
我国中、高级英语学习者在实际语言使用中仍存在各种各样的困难，其中一个突出问题是对英语时态的选择表现出盲目性。这个问题从根本上讲是中国英语学习者的心理时间架构（mental time framing）在向英语语篇的映射过程（mapping process）中对时间视点的选定以及不同时间视点的协调方面出现了问题，由此造成偏离常规的语误。
