ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

Cognitive Approaches to
4 Grammar Instruction

LESSON 1: WHAT IS COGNITIVE APPROACH?

Cognitive science is a relatively new field emerging in the mid-1950s with the work of cognitive psychologists,
linguists such as Chomskv (1957) and the establishment of artificial intelligence as a research area. It is
cross-disciplinarv, with contributions from psvchologv. philosophv, psvcholinguistics, neuroscience, artificial
intelligence, and cognitive anthropology but the shared focus of research is the working of the mind. Within
psvcholinguistics and applied linguistics are a number of cognitive approaches.

In a review article on cognitive approaches to second language acquisition (SLA), one major researcher (N.
Ellis 1999) notes that the studv of cognition in language learning deals with "mental representations and
information processing" (p. 22) and seeks to develop “functional and neurobiological descriptions of the
learning processes which, through exposure to representative experience, result in change, development
and the emergence of knowledge” (p. 23).

In this definition, both first and second language learning are seen to use the same general information-
processing mechanisms that are responsible for all forms of knowledge and skills development. Language
learning is thus placed within the context of cognitive development in general.

The Need for a Cognitive Approach

The usefulness of a cognitive approach to grammar instruction in ESL becomes clear when we consider the
problems with purely communicative approaches. These tend to be based on theories which distinguish
between language acquisition—an unconscious process similar to the wav children learn their first
language— and language learning, or formal instruction on rules, forms, and vocabulary. These theories
claim that the best way to learn a language, either inside or outside a classroom, is not by treating it as an
object for study but by experiencing it meaningfully, as a tool for communication— perhaps with target
grammar structures physically highlighted or embedded within communicative activities as recommended by
current “focus-on-form" approaches to grammar instruction.
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

Focus on form (FonF) is an approach to language education in which learners

are made aware of the grammatical form of language features that they are
already able to use communicatively. Focus on form is an instructional way
which draws learners’ attention to linguistic forms within communicative
contexts.

This yiew may be acceptable for many ESL. classrooms, although considerable research shows that when
students receive only communicative lessons, with no instruction on grammar points, their leyel of accuracy
suffers. However, such an approach is not useful by itself in ESL contexts because adequate access to
communicative use of English is usually not available. and students need to develop accurate English
grammar, vocabulary, and translation skills to pass high school and university entrance examinations. Thus,
in the ESL setting, formal grammar instruction is usually the norm, even though main teachers would like
students to develop communicative skills as well.

It is therefore not surprising that many ESL teachers look for a compromise between the two extremes of a
structure-based curriculum, with its teacher-led classrooms and formal instruction on a series of isolated
language forms, versus a purely communicative classroom, with its emphasis on group work and no focus
on linguistic forms whatsoever. Many teachers now prefer an eclectic approach, administering some type
of grammar instruction within a communicative framework, and this is reflected in the mixture of activities in
the newer multidimensional textbooks for ESL students.

There is considerable research support for this position, and it is common to distinguish between two types
of classroom activities: meaning-focused, referring to purely communicative practices where the goal is to
process meaning, and form-focused, referring to practices that draw attention to the wav language forms are
used in discourse. This distinction is very important in current pedagogy, and both meaning-focused and
form-focused activities are thought to be necessary for successful development of both fluency and accuracy
in second/foreign language learning.

The value of meaning-focused communicative activities that provide learners with comprehensible input
(also called "positive evidence”) and opportunities to improve and correct their own output through
interaction with others has been demonstrated repeatedly. However, form- focused activities emphasizing
the features of particular grammar points are also necessary in order for learners to develop accuracy.
Such activities range from indirect approaches to grammar instruction, such as the focus-on-form activities
mentioned above, to traditional formal instruction where students are presented with grammar rules,
examples, and practice exercises. Such form-focused approaches have been found to be effective in
developing the learner's ability to use grammar forms communicatively if instruction is then followed by
opportunities to encounter the instructed grammar point frequently in communicative usage.

Below are different views of the relationship of language to thought as a wav of understanding why a cognitive
approach to communicative grammar instruction is recommended.
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

LESSON 2: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

A major controversy has been the initial state of the mind. Is it blank at birth, a tabula rasa waiting for
experience to determine the structure of thought and language, as empiricists such as the philosophers Locke
and Hume have argued, or are there preexisting mental modules, inborn templates which organize language
and thought in the developing child, as suggested by rationalists (including Chomsky)? The empiricist-
rationalist debate continues to the present, and in our field of second language teaching/learning these two
general positions continue to influence grammar instruction.

Currently, there are four main views of the relationship between language and thought

1. One view derives from the attempts of structural linguists to characterize cultures by the features
and complexity of their languages. This is represented by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which suggests
that both thought and language are determined by culture.

For example, culturally determined phenomena such as the time of events or the
color or shape of objects might become especially important for grammar
learning in a given language, and, by extension, in thinking as well. Known as
linguistic determinism, this position refers to the idea that people's thought
processes are culturally determined by the features of the language they speak.

2. The second view of the relationship between language and thought is held by researchers such
as the child psychologist Piaget (1967) and suggests that cognitive development in the infant
occurs in clearly defined stages and precedes language. Thus, before infants can learn language
forms such as nouns, they must possess certain cognitive prerequisites such as an understanding
that objects have a permanent existence.

3. Third theory was from the rationalist concept of innate mental structures and views language and
cognition as separate. This approach is represented by the work of Chomsky (1957) and, more
recently, by Pinker (1994) who argue that language is an innate, human- specific ability which is not
dependent on other cognitive processes. Children are genetically equipped to acquire language in
infancy, when they are not capable of complex thought, and therefore instinctively do so without
extensive exposure to a variety of language forms. Thus, some type of language template must
already exist in the mind—an autonomous module of "universal grammar,” awaiting minimum input
for activation and "setting” according to the rules of the specific language.

4. The fourth view comes from interactionists such as Vygotsky, who hold that thought and
language are initially separate but become interdependent during acts of communication,
since meaning is created through interaction. Empirical support for the sociocultural position is not
yet abundant; however, current research on the formation of “communities of practice” in second
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

foreign language classrooms suggests that such collaborate construction of meaning promotes
proficiency gains.

Related social interaction theory researches recommend a language socialization approach to grammar
acquisition, where sociocultural contexts, rather than innate structure or grammatical frequence, are
suggested to guide grammar development.

For example, very common grammar structures may not be used by

children if these structures are not socially or culturally appropriate, whereas
grammar structures seldom used in general may be used often by children
if such use is expected and appropriate.

LESSON 3: THREE COMPONENTS OF A COGNITIVE MODEL OF SECOND/FOREIGN LANGUAGE

LEARNING

A. Input

In a cognitive approach to second/foreign language learning, access to target language input is seen as
perhaps the most critical requirement for language development. In fact, one influential researcher asserts
that "second language acquisition is shaped by the input one receives" (Gass 1997, p. 161).

Input provides essential positive evidence, the language data that

allows acquisition to occur.

Although a direct relationship between language learning and input has yet to be determined, there has been
considerable work on manipulating input to make it easier for students to understand.

For example, teachers have simplified the grammar and vocabulary

of written or audio material, decreased sentence length, decreased
the speed of audio material, provided clarifying interaction during the
input process, and physically highlighted important grammar points
and vocabulary. or repeated them mam times during communicative
activities.

These operations make it more likely that the learners will be able to selectively perceive or notice the input—
a necessary step since people cannot take up and process all of the input they constantly receive, but rather
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

can select only certain input for attention, uptake, and processing. Since the brain's input processing capacity
is limited, ESL students, especially those at lower levels of proficiency, cannot process target language input
for both meaning and form at the same time. Therefore, it is suggested that students have to be able to
selectively perceive or notice target forms in input before processing can take place. This is a cognitive
explanation for the research finding that a purely communicative approach to language instruction for all but
the youngest learners will usually not develop high levels of accuracy. The students process input for meaning
only and do not attend to specific forms. Thus, the forms are not taken up and processed and are
consequently not acquired.

The stages for processing selected noticed input are:

(1) the encoding stage, where existing knowledge located in long-term memory is activated and used
to interpret the new input and construct meaning from it;
(2) a transformation stage, where the input is transformed to meaning, this taking place in short-term
or working memory; and
(3) a storage stage, in which the meaning is rehearsed and then transferred for storage in 1 о n g-
term memory.

B. Information Processing

Information processing refers to the man’s complex mental transformations which occur between input and
output. Two basic psychological concepts are used to understand the mind’s construction of meaning from
language input: bottom-up and top-down processing.

The first refers to the process of decoding specific bits of information from input.

For example, a reader recognizes the individual letters that make up words
and the syntactic rules which organize the words into sentences, or a listener
recognizes the individual sounds which make up words and the words which
make tip sentences.

In contrast, top-down processing refers to the use of world knowledge, past experience, expectations,
predictions, and intuitions stored in the individual’s mind in order to make sense of input.

Top-down processing is necessary to understand the implications, context, and pragmatic meaning of input.
In an information processing approach, top-down and bottom-up processing are suggested to operate
simultaneously to interpret incoming information. Here, the individual combines the new information from
input with existing information stored in long-term memory—new knowledge being developed from the
interaction of input with prior knowledge.
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

From the language teaching perspective, it is clear that ESL students can use top-down processing to
understand the general meaning of communicative input without needing to understand all of the
grammar forms or vocabulary. This is another reason that purely communicative approaches often fail to
develop accuracy in producing the target language, even though students appeal to comprehend it
reasonable well.

a. Short-Term and Long-Term Memory Cognitive scientists make a distinction between short-term,
or working memory, and long-term, or secondary memory. Short-term memory receives input but is
limited in storage capacity. Research suggests that generally only seven items can be stored for
about a minute in short-term memory, whereas long-term memory is limitless. Transfer from working
memory to storage in long-term memory is therefore very important, and has been suggested to be
facilitated by noticing an item in input, a process that recently has become very important in
second/foreign language pedagogy. Two types of long-term memory are distinguished—

semantic memory, which is the organized knowledge an individual possesses, considered

to exist in hierarchies or schemata, and

episodic memory, the global memory of a particular event.

However, both types of memory, short- and long-term, are important in the development of
knowledge about a language.

b. Two Forms of Knowledge Knowledge has been diyided into two general types:

(1) declarable or explicit knowledge and

(2) procedural or implicit knowledge.

Declarable or explicit knowledge is knowledge about something. It is factual information which is

conscious, and is thought to consist of propositions (language- based representations) and images
(perception- based representations).

For example, when students are able to remember grammar rules, they
are drawing on their explicit knowledge.

In contrast, procedural or implicit knowledge is knowing how to do something and is usually

unconscious. Like any other skill, such as driving a car, singing a song, or playing the piano, the
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

ability to speak a second, foreign language fluently is a skill that is dependent on procedural
knowledge used automatically.

When discussing the difference between the two forms of knowledge, one language researcher
suggests that

declarative knowledge is factual knowledge, for example . . . knowing

that most English verbs take “s” in the third person. Procedural
knowledge encodes behaviour. It consists of condition-action pairs
that state what has to be done under certain circumstances or with
certain data . . . Fully automatized procedural knowledge means, for
instance, that one uses the 3rd person "s" . . . without having to think
about it (DeKevser 1998, pp. 48-49).

These two types of knowledge are suggested to exist in long-term memory as different systems.

For example, a student may have formal knowledge of the grammar rules
for English indirect object placement but be unable to use indirect objects
correctly in conversation. This is because formal grammar lessons develop
only explicit/declarative knowledge, or the ability to talk about grammar rules,
whereas the ability to use the form correctly depends on the operation of
implicit procedural knowledge.

In the past, many advocates of communicative language teaching argued that these two knowledge
systems lacked any interface, so to teach students the grammar rules of a second/ foreign language
only gives them explicit knowledge and does not develop their ability to use the grammar points in
real communication. However. recent research (X. Ellis 1999; DeKevser 1998: Skehan 1998; and
Schmidt 1990) suggests that the two language knowledge systems are, in fact, connected by noticing
or awareness, a connection which has been referred to as the 'Noticing Hypothesis" (Schmidt
1990).

c. Noticing and Awareness Noticing works as follows. Once a student becomes aware of a
particular grammar point or language feature in input — whether through formal instruction, some
type of focus-on-form activity, or repeated exposure to communicative use of the structure— he or
she often continues to notice the structure in subsequent input, particularly if the structure is used
frequently (Fotos 1993; Schmidt 1990).
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

Repeated noticing and continued awareness of the language feature is important because it appears
to raise the student’s consciousness of the structure and to facilitate restructuring of the learner's
unconscious system of linguistic knowledge. Thus, when a student pays attention when receiving a
grammar lesson and doing practice exercises, he or she becomes aware of the grammar feature.

When that feature is subsequently encountered in communicative input, the student often tends to
notice it, recalling that he or she learned about it previously. When this happens frequently, his or
her unconscious language system begins to develop new hypotheses about language structure,
altering his or her existing language system or interlanguage. The student tests the new
hypotheses—again unconsciously—by noticing language input and by getting feedback on the
accuracy of his or her own output when using the form. In this way, explicit knowledge developed by
formal instruction about a language feature has led to the acquisition of that feature although
indirectly and over time.

Schmidt's Noticing Hypothesis has stimulated the development of teaching methods which are
"consciousness raising" in that they promote noticing and continued awareness of the target
language form.

A good example of this approach to teaching is the "focus on form" approach, a term defined
in the words of its originator, as "Overtly drawing students' attention to linguistic elements as
they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication"
(Long 1991. pp. 45-46).

As mentioned earlier, focus-on-form activities (Doughty and Williams 1998) usually constitute implicit
grammar instruction only, and include "flooding" communicative material with target forms, physically
highlighting them within purely communicative activities in such a way that students' attention is
drawn to them, and structuring communicative activities so that students must use the forms for
successful performance/completion.

d. Serial and Parallel Processing A final point concerns the distinction between serial and parallel
processing of information.

Serial processing is linear or sequential and takes place one step at a time, whereas
Parallel processing is a special model of cognition based on the idea that many processes occur
simultaneously and are interconnected, forming neural networks of various levels of activation
depending on what is being processed.
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

Initial processing steps are usually done serially; input is received and selectively taken into short-
term memoir with the aid of attention and various strategies. However, the encoding or organization
of input is complex since some items are encoded consciously, with effort, attention, and other
strategies, whereas other items are encoded unconsciously, and it is evеп possible for a particular
item to be encoded both consciously and unconsciously at the same time. Thus, a parallel processing
model of language input better represents the nature of this complex co-occurring process.

C. Output

In second/foreign language learning theory, it has been suggested that giving learners the opportunity for
output is just as important as giving them input (Swain 1985) because output serves critical functions in the
learning process. When language learners experience difficulties as they attempt to use the target language
to communicate, they often become aware of what they need to know to express themselves effectively.

They mav ask their fellow students or their teacher for help, or use their textbook or
dictionary to locate the required phrases or forms.

Such effort tends to focus attention on the difficult language form and promotes noticing of it. Comprehension
alone does not produce this favorable result since, as mentioned, it is possible for students to understand
the general meaning of what is being said by using top-down processing—guessing, predicting and world
knowledge—without fully understanding all the grammar or vocabulary.

Furthermore, according to the Interactionist view of the relationship of language to thought, when students
produce the target language or ask answer questions about grammar points or vocabulary, thev are focusing
on form, which assists them in extending their knowledge of the target language. This is particularly true
when learners are forced to deal with their own problematic utterances and modify or elaborate them so that
listener understanding is facilitated, a process called "negotiation of meaning”.
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

PRACTICE IN A SKILLS-BASED APPROACH

Another pathwav for concerting explicit to implicit knowledge is suggested by skill acquisition theory, a
branch of cognitive science studying how people develop skills. In this theory, knowledge is first seen to be
declarative (although not all knowledge starts off as conscious knowledge); then, through practice and the
application of learning strategies, declarative knowledge becomes proceduralized, so that it becomes
automatic.

Automatic processes are quick and do not require attention or conscious awareness.

For example, many second/foreign language learners memorize and practice

vocabulary items or "chunks” of language such as greetings or collocations.
Frequent practice in using these forms helps the language items to become
automatic in the sense that the learner can use them quickiv and unconsciously.

Automatization can take place with both implicit and explicit knowledge.

An example of nonautomatic explicit knowledge is monitoring, paring conscious

attention to the use of correct forms during language production, whereas
nonautomatic processing of implicit knowledge can be seen in the use of
hesitation phenomena during the English speech produced by an ESL learner
as he or she unconsciously searches his or her long-term memory for the
correct form.

From the automatization perspective, practice drills and repetitions of instructed grammar points — methods
now yen- much out of favor in communicative ESL pedagogy because they remind people of the behaviorist
Audiolingual Approach of the 1950s and early 1960s — are useful in that they facilitate both automatization
of the practiced form and noticing (DeKevser 1998), so that the form can make its way into the implicit
knowledge system.

THE TEACHABILITY HYPOTHESIS

.An important consideration relates to the Chomskian concept of a natural or pre-determined "universal" order
for language acquisition.

Is there a set order for language development in the brain, in which case formal
instruction mav be ineffective if the student is not at the appropriate stager?
ELT 225 – Teaching and Assessment of Grammar (BSEd II-English)

This question has been investigated since the 1960s and has received new attention recently as a
Teachability Hypothesis (Pienemann 1989), proposing that second, foreign language learners will not
acquire a new structure until they are developmentally ready to do so.

If there were no connection between the development of explicit knowledge about a grammar point and the
eventual restructuring of the unconscious linguistic system to accommodate the point in the learner's internal
interlanguage, then, indeed, grammar instruction would not be of much use. However, it has been suggested
that there is a connection, so grammar instruction is ultimately useful. Further, practice of language points
can lead to automatization, thus bypassing natural order teachability considerations.

References:
Murcia, M.C. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.
Bandar, F., Gorjian, B. Teaching Grammar to EFL Learners through Focusing on Form and Meaning