polyu第二语言学习讲座

after age 20 with 1) good instruction, 2) high exposure, 3) social
support, and 4) high motivation.
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Children benefit from all 4 of these.
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Polyglots continue to acquire new languages throughout
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Proposed mechanisms
Chomsky
UG - perhaps a single gene
Lenneberg
Lateralization, Myelination
Pinker
Metabolic Decline
Paradis, Ullman, Segalowitz
Loss of Automaticity, Dopamine
mechanism, not unique to the Special Gift.
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Entrenchment?
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Connectionist accounts do not depend on neurotransmitters, but on
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Problems with these accounts
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A single gene: One gene for all the neural areas and
processes involved? FoxP2? Biology doesn’t work that way.
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Multiple genes: More likely, but no real evidence yet.
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They are crucial in embryology through
epigenetic expression, but can also arise
in later periods, as in tadpoles, larvae,
cocoons, instars, etc.
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For adult mammals, the most obvious
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Pragmatics, Conversation: Adults do well.
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Syntax: Mixed picture.
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Morphology: Adults are weak.
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Audition: Adults miss some contrasts.
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Articulation: Adults fail to lose their (foreign) accents.
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Sexual Selection: People continue to reproduce past age 13.
Males can reproduce into old age. 30,000 years ago, people began
to survive and reproduce well past 30.
nap to regain implicit learning ability (SRT, statistical learning)
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Proceduralization:
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occurs in L2 learning – Presson, MacWhinney, Yoshimura,
Davy.
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ELAN arises after six weeks of mini-Nihongo training –
Friederici
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Basal ganglia supports extensive procedural flexibility –
Stocco, Kotz, Dominey
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More problems
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Байду номын сангаас
Shallow Processing: It is true that learners often fail to attend to
-> Complex genetic determination
3. Speech is special
-> Perceptual theory of audition
4. ***Critical Period Hypothesis
-> Age effects due to risk factors
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Sudden or Gradual Loss
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Johnson & Newport (1989) and Hakuta et al (2003) show a
smooth gradual decline in language learning attainment
(LLA) across age of arrival (AoA). No sharp drop at
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Limbic Support: Schumann was probably onto something, but is
it biological or social? Do older people have fewer emotions?
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Entrenchment: This definitely occurs, but it is a general
Clahsen, Van Patten
Shallow Syntax
Hurford, Novak
Reproductive Advantage < Cost
Schumann
Limbic Support
PDP, Kuhl, DevLex
Entrenchment, Gangs
Hensch
PV cell windows
critical period after infancy is the
transition arising at puberty
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However, puberty is about sex and risk
seeking (Luna), not language.
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Is Language an Instinct?
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what is the biological basis of consciousness?
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why do we sleep?
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why do we dream?
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why are there critical periods for language learning?
2
Consensus
After a certain age, second languages (and maybe first
puberty, although J&N say there is a “plateau”.
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Educational level is just as important as AoA.
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Adult Success
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Adult learners can achieve native speaker level competence
• Critical Period Hypothesis
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Ten Pillars of UG
UG
Emergentism
1. Sudden evolution of language
-> Gradual evolution of language
2. Simple genetic determination
5. Language as clausal syntax
-> Language involves all levels
6. I-Language / E-Language
-> I-language emerges from E-language
7. Rules
-> Cues and constructions
language specific areas – (Raichle, Luna 2012, Engvig et al
2012, Posner et al. 2014, Takeuchi et al. 2010 etc.)
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More problems
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Metabolic Decline: Karni shows that the elderly just need a
affixes and long-distance dependencies, but this can be trained.
Demonstrations (Clahsen, Grüter, VanPatten) typically just
illustrate cue validity effects.
8. Uniqueness of recursion
-> Recursion emerges from action
9. Modularity of mind
-> Levels are not modules
10. Poverty of the Stimulus
-> The stimulus is complete
Hypothesis (CPH) for second language learning (SLA).
Many (most?) SLA researchers accept the CPH.
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So why is this still an open
question?
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Some adults acquire L2 fully (Bongaerts 1999)
• Bee dance, cricket song as models
• Lorenz and imprinting
• Language as a Special Gift
• Deprivation, feral children
• Home signers, Nicaraguan
signers, Bedouin signers
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Crucially, we haven’t yet found any biological CP
mechanism.
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Critical Periods
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Critical Periods play an important (but
differing) role in embryology,
neurobiology, ethology, and evolution.
(Biological ?) Limits on
Success in Second
Language Learning
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Brian MacWhinney
CMU
Science: 125 big questions
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can the laws of Physics be unified?
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are we alone in the Universe?
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Lateralization: It begins at infancy, not at adolescence –
Molfese, Neville
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Myelination: White matter volume varies with exercise
and time of day. There is no tight linkage to adolescence or
adulthood.
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But: many adult learners do not reach native levels.
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And: adolescent learners often show retention of foreign
accent.
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By levels
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Lexicon: Adults outperform children.
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There is no sharp drop-off (Hartshorne et al 2018_
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Children can completely lose their L1 (Pallier 2003)
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Adults can maintain their L1 without using it (Schmid)
languages) cannot be acquired by “natural” methods.
(Chomsky, Bley-Vroman, Paradis).
Werker (2005) “The evidence for critical periods is
overwhelming”.
85% of CMU undergrads believe in the Critical Period