Restructuring
Abstract
This paper argues for a cognitive psychological approach to second language phenomena that emphasizes the importance of the development of automaticity and the process of restructuring. It is argued that practice can leadimprovement in performance as sub-skills become automated, but it is also possible for increased practice to create conditions for restructuring, with attendant decrements in performance as learners reorganize their internal representational framework. In the second case, performance may follow a U-shaped curve, declining as more complex internal representations replace less complex ones, and increasing again as skill becomes expertise. Examples are drawn from first and second language research, and from research on expert systems. The cognitive approach is not seen as competitive to, but as complementary with, linguistic approaches to second language development.
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The proceduralisation of rule-based declarative representations occurs through practice and feedback, which together move learners towards a restructuring of interlanguage representations.
“The proceduralisation of rule-based declarative representations occurs through practice and feedback (Anderson, Corbett, Koedinger and Pelletier, 1995), which together move learners towards a restructuring of interlanguage representations, enabling them to access a better organized representational system (McLaughlin, 1990;Skehan, 1998).”
From Research on form-focused instruction in immersion classrooms: implications for theory and practice (2004) · cites this paper as McLaughlin, 1990
Language acquisition is repeated cycles of integration and differentiation leading to a restructuring of knowledge.
“Language acquisition does not just rely on integration; it is repeated cycles of integration and differentiation leading to a restructuring of knowledge ~Karmiloff- Smith, 1979Smith, , 1992;;McLaughlin, 1990!+”
From AT THE INTERFACE: DYNAMIC INTERACTIONS OF EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE (2005) · cites this paper as McLaughlin, 1990
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- Authors
- MCLAUGHLIN, B.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- Corresponding author
- MCLAUGHLIN, B.
- Venue
- Applied Linguistics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1990-06-01
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 113-128
- ISSN
- 0142-6001 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-450X
- OpenAlex
- W4251107408
- Cited by
- 303
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 62.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Linguistics (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Keywords
- second language acquisition, cognitive psychology, restructuring, automaticity, practice, internal representations, U-shaped curve, expertise, expert systems
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