1. The competition model
1.1. It's an explanation for both first and SLA that takes into account not only language form but also language meaning and use.
1.1.1. The relationship between words in a sentence may be signalled by word order, grammatical markers and the animacy of the nouns in the sentence.
1.1.1.1. SLA requires that learners learn the relative importance of the different cues appropriate in the language they are learning.
2. Language and the brain
2.1. Are first and second languages acquired in the same areas of the brain?
2.1.1. Recent brain imaging studies show activation in different locations in both hemispheres of the brain during language processing.
3. Second Language Applications
3.1. The Interaction Hypothesis
3.1.1. Michael Long argued that conversational interaction is an essential condition for SLA. That modified interaction is necessary for making language comprehensible. Learners need to interact with other speakers.
3.1.2. Conversation checks, to ensure that the learner has understood. Clarification resquests, to get the native speaker to clarify something that wasn't understood. Self-repetition, the proficient speaker repeats the sentencer again.
3.1.3. The comprehensible output hypothesis is when learners produce language, they are most likely to see the limits of ther SLA and need to find better ways to express themselves.
3.2. The Noticing Hypothesis
3.2.1. Richard Smith proposed nothing is learned unless it has been noticed, it's the essential starting point. Comprehensible input does not lead to growth in language unless the learner becomes aware of a language feature.
3.2.2. Certain features of language that had been present in the environment began to enter his own second language system only when he noticed them.
3.3. Input Processing Hypothesis
3.3.1. Many cases of students learning foreign languages were shown to have misinterpreted the sentences.
3.3.2. This problem arosed in part of the fact that learners have limited processing capacity and can't pay attention to meaning and form at the same time.
3.3.3. They give priority to meaning, overlooking features of the language. If the context of a sentence helps them make sense of it, it's a good strategy for understanding the general idea but it may interfere with learner's progress in acquiring the language.
3.4. Processability Theory
3.4.1. Research with learners of different languages, settings, both instructional and informal were part of this theory. One of the most important things of this, is the integration of developmental sequences with 1L influence.
3.4.2. Learners do not simply transfer features from their 1L at early stages of acquisition. They have to develop a level of processing capacity in the 2L before they use the features of their 1L.
3.5. The Role of Practice
3.5.1. Practice is an essential component of language learning. The practice is only effective if one practises the behaviour that one wishes to learn. Like listening and reading.
3.5.2. Practice converts declarative knowledge to procedural knowledge and then to automatic performance. The practice needed for lang. development is not mechanical.
3.5.3. Practice should be interactive, meaningful and should focus on task-essential forms.
4. Information processing
4.1. Sees SLA as the building up of knowledge that can be recalled automatically. Through experience and practice the new information becomes easier to process.
4.1.1. Proficient speakers rely more on meaning. Any acquired knowledge is called declarative until it becomes procedural knowledge which is the ability to use it correctly.
4.1.1.1. Burst of progress happen naturally, when you understand something. And the transfer-appropriate processing happens when we remember something we learned depending on the context.
5. Usage-based learning
5.1. Learners develop a stronger network of connections between features as well as language features and the contexts in which they occur.
5.1.1. The presence of one situational or linguistic feature will activate the other(s) in the learner's mind.
5.1.1.1. Connections may be strong because the language features have occurred together frequently, much of the language we use is predicatable.