Attention, Awareness, and Foreign Language Behavior

Abstract

LeowThis study qualitatively and quantitatively addressed the role of awareness in relation to Schmidt's noticing hypothesis in second language acquisition (1990, 1993, 1994, 1995). It analyzed both the think-aloud protocols produced by 28 beginning adult L2 learners of Spanish (selected carefully from a pool of 85 people on the basis of relevant criteria) completing a problem-solving task and their immediate performances on 2 post-exposure assessment tasks, a recognition and written production task. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of learners' performances suggest the following conclusions: (a) Different levels of awareness lead to differences in processing, (b) more awareness contributes to more recognition and accurate written production of noticed forms, and (c) the findings provide empirical support for the facilitative effects of awareness on foreign language behavior.The role of consciousness and awareness in the human attentional system while learning a foreign (FL) or second language (L2) has been particularly controversial in the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and second language acquisition 467

The Innovated Writing Process (IWP) Approach: a Practical Bridge between Recent SLA and Applied Linguistics Theories

“…This supports Lightbown and Spada's (2006) theory which states that in Audio-Lingual approach there is little use of the first language, and learners are expected to learn mainly through repetition and habit formation: Audiolingualism is based on communicative approach where implicit learning is used (p.112).…”

“…Lightbown & Spada (2006) claim that teachers avoid giving opportunities for learners to speak freely because this would allow them to make errors (p.139). It is therefore better to give feedback directly and give the chance for learners to produce target-like language from the beginning.…”

Engagement with language: interrogating a construct

“…But the term has recently been used by Storch (2008) specifically to denote instances of noticing as evidenced in language related episodes (LREs). Drawing in particular on Leow (1997) and Kuiken and Vedder (2002) who refer to 'simple and elaborate noticing' (and also 'perfunctory' and 'substantive' noticing, Qi and Lapkin, 2001) she distinguishes between two levels of engagement, limited and elaborate. The term 'engagement with language' is thus used by Storch to "describe the quality of the learners' metatalk" (2008, p. 99) and is linked to the quality of attention on which, as Storch (2008) points out, little research has been done.…”

Teachability and bilingualism effects on third language learners' pragmatic knowledge

“…These are, of course, tentative hypotheses. To test these hypotheses further research is also needed to address how learners process pragmatic input concurrently (see Leow, 1997;Rosa &Leow, 2004 andLeow et al, 2011) …”