Week 6 EDPY Notes

EDPY 416/516 Lecture Notes - Week 6

Course Information

• Instructor: Jennifer A. Foote
• Term: Fall 2025
• University: University of Alberta
• Faculty: Education
• Course Code: EDPY 416/516

Sample Questions

• What are the three stages of the process model of motivation? Briefly describe each.
  1. Choice Motivation: Engaging in goal-setting and deciding to start a task.
  2. Executive Motivation: Implementing the necessary tasks to maintain motivation over time.
  3. Motivation Retrospection: Evaluating and reacting to one's performance post-task.
• What is the difference between a field independent and field dependent learner?
  • Field Independent learners tend to work autonomously and process information analytically, while Field Dependent learners prefer collaborative environments and are more reliant on external cues in learning processes.

Lecture Focus

• Objectives
  • Finish discussing Individual Differences (IDs) in learning.
  • Explain second language learning and its classroom implications.
  • Simplify the presentation of complex information (utilizing references from Karate Kid and Cobra Kai as metaphors).

Process-Oriented Model (Dörnyei, 2001)

• The model encapsulates three phases of motivation:
  1. Choice Motivation
  2. Executive Motivation
  3. Motivation Retrospection

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory

• Overview: This theory challenges the traditional view of individual differences (IDs) as fixed traits, instead positing that motivation and other learner attributes are fluid and influenced by a dynamic interplay of continually changing internal (e.g., mood, prior knowledge) and external (e.g., classroom environment, teacher behavior) factors. It suggests that learning is a non-linear process, with learners adapting and reorganizing their systems over time.
• Research: Dörnyei & DeBolt (2014) conducted longitudinal studies observing motivation in classroom settings. Their findings highlighted the rapid everyday fluctuations in learners' motivation, demonstrating that motivation is not a static trait but rather constantly shifting and influenced by immediate contextual factors, echoing the complex and unpredictable nature of learning environments.

Learner Characteristics

• Key characteristics affecting learners include:
  • Intelligence/Aptitude: Refers to a learner's general cognitive abilities and specific talents for language acquisition, often measured through tests that predict potential for success in learning.
  • Learning Styles: The preferred and habitual ways individuals process information and approach learning tasks (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic, field independent/dependent).
  • Personality Traits: Individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving (e.g., extroversion, introversion, anxiety, risk-taking), which can influence interaction and willingness to communicate.
  • Motivation and Attitudes
  • Identity & Ethnic Group Affiliation
  • Learner Beliefs/Strategies
  • Age

Identity and Ethnic Group Affiliation

• The dynamics of power relationships exist between majority and minority language learners. Specific examples include:
  • Learning English vs. Thai in Canada, illustrating the impact of learners’ backgrounds on their language experiences.

Investment and Identity (Norton, 1995)

• Discusses how various power imbalances impact learners' willingness to participate in language use, highlighting that language learning is not just about acquiring linguistic competence but also about social relations and the right to speak. For example:
  • Eva: Came to Canada for economic opportunities but faced judgment on her accent and perceived discrimination, which eroded her confidence and led to a reluctance to engage in English, thus limiting her opportunities despite her initial "investment."
  • Mai: Concerned about job security and management's perceptions of her English proficiency, felt uncomfortable interacting in English with her boss. This illustrates how institutional power dynamics and the fear of negative evaluation can inhibit language use, even when the learner has a strong instrumental motivation.

Learner Beliefs

• Preferences for Instruction Types:
  • Form-based vs. Communicative Approaches
  • Corrective Feedback Mechanisms
• It is vital for teachers to elicit and understand learners' instructional preferences, especially among adult learners, to optimize their learning strategies.

Age Factors in Language Learning

• Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH): Suggests that younger learners generally outperform older learners in acquiring second languages due to biological and cognitive factors.
• Older learners may rely more on their general learning skills but often lack the innate language abilities available to younger learners.

Support for the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)

• Several studies support the CPH, indicating that:
  • Patkowski (1980): Evaluated language mastery across different age groups, concluding that younger learners were judged more native-like than older learners.
  • Johnson and Newport (1989): Explored grammatical intuitions across age groups, finding better performance among those starting younger.
  • Snow & Hoefnagel-Höhle (1978): Investigated language acquisition rates, observing that younger learners ultimately surpassed older ones despite initial advantages for the latter.

Advantages of Older Learners

• Some benefits include faster initial acquisition speed, often due to more developed cognitive strategies and prior learning experiences, and superior metalinguistic knowledge—the ability to analyze language explicitly. However, despite these initial advantages, older learners may ultimately struggle more with achieving native-like pronunciation and naturalistic language use compared to their younger counterparts, especially in unstructured, immersion-like environments, due to diminished access to implicit learning mechanisms.

Redefining CPH

• The Critical Period Hypothesis has been refined to suggest it primarily applies to the implicit learning of abstract linguistic structures, such as grammar and phonology, which are optimally acquired through naturalistic exposure during childhood. Adult learners, while capable of explicit learning (e.g., through classroom instruction, memorizing rules), often find it more challenging to fully access these implicit mechanisms, leading to differences in ultimate attainment.

Second Language Learning Explanations

• Approaches:
  • Behaviourism: Focuses on mimicry and memorization of language patterns through habit formation, reinforcement, and repetition. It views language acquisition as a process of responding to stimuli in the environment.
  • Innatism (Krashen’s Monitor Model): Proposes five hypotheses: a) Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis (acquisition is subconscious, learning is conscious), b) Monitor Hypothesis (learned knowledge acts as an editor or monitor for acquired language), c) Natural Order Hypothesis (language rules are acquired in a predictable sequence), d) Input Hypothesis (acquisition occurs when learners receive comprehensible input slightly above their current level, i+1), and e) Affective Filter Hypothesis (emotional factors like anxiety or low motivation can create a "filter" that blocks input).
  • Cognitive Perspective: Focuses on information processing, viewing language acquisition as a complex cognitive skill similar to other forms of learning. It involves stages such as controlled processing (conscious effort) shifting to automatic processing (fluent, effortless use) and emphasizes usage-based learning, where language structures emerge from repeated exposure to input. The competition model, for instance, suggests that learners pay attention to specific cues (e.g., word order, morphology) to interpret meaning, and the strength of these cues " competes" during processing.

Interaction and Noticing Hypotheses

• Interaction Hypothesis: Advocates that conversational interaction is essential for second language acquisition (SLA), emphasizing the negotiation of meaning.
• Noticing Hypothesis: States that learners must be aware of gaps between their interlanguage and target language to learn effectively.

Input Processing

• Learners face challenges when balancing the comprehension of meaning with linguistic form, which can lead to persistent errors (fossilization) due to insufficient focus on form during initial learning moments.

Practice and Automaticity

• Effective practice should foster automaticity—where learners can utilize language without conscious effort—while maintaining meaning in tasks.

Sociocultural Perspective

• Highlights that cognitive development occurs through social interaction. Central concepts include:
  • Learning occurs conversationally through mediation of thought, emphasizing the role of interaction.
  • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) vs. interaction emphasizes different developmental perspectives.

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST)

• Understanding language and its acquisition as complex and dynamic systems. Key facets include:
  • Interconnected components of language learning.
  • Non-linear language development trajectories.
  • The dynamic nature of how learning in one domain can affect other language areas.

Classroom Dynamics: Natural vs. Instructional Settings

• Natural Settings: Involve authentic language exposure in social environments with native speakers.
• Instructional Settings: Can be structure-based focusing on form, versus communicative/task-based focusing on interaction and meaning.

Research Approaches in Classrooms

• Observation schemes using pre-planned checklists, compared to ethnographic methods focusing on qualitative aspects of learning and teaching processes.

Corrective Feedback in Language Learning

• Categories of corrective feedback (Lyster & Ranta, 1997) are crucial for learners to notice and correct their errors, promoting interlanguage development. These include:
  • Recasts: An implicit form of correction where the teacher rephrases the learner's incorrect utterance by providing the correct form, typically without directly drawing attention to the error. For example, if a learner says "He go," the teacher might say, "Yes, he goes to the store."
  • Explicit Correction: A direct and overt indication that the learner's utterance was incorrect, often involving the teacher explicitly stating the error and providing the correct form. For example, "No, not 'he go,' you should say 'he goes'."
  • Clarification Requests: The teacher expresses confusion or asks for a repetition to prompt the learner to self-correct or reformulate their utterance, signaling that there was a problem in comprehension or form. For example, "Pardon me?" or "Could you say that again?"

Questions in Classrooms

• The balance between display questions (jury of comprehension that teachers already know the answers to) vs. referential questions (which truly seek learners' thoughts/responses) in fostering authentic communication.

Ethnographic Insights

• Participants engage in qualitative observations to reveal intricate classroom dynamics and broader social implications affecting