Kees de Bot

A Dynamic Systems Theory approach to second language acquisition

In this article it is argued that language can be seen as a dynamic system, i.e. a set of variables that interact over time, and that language development can be seen as a dynamic process. Language development shows some of the core characteristics of dynamic systems: sensitive dependence on initial conditions, complete interconnectedness of subsystems, the emergence of attractor states in development over time and variation both in and among individuals. The application of tools and instruments developed for the study of dynamic systems in other disciplines calls for different approaches to research, which allow for the inclusion of both the social and the cognitive, and the interaction between systems. There is also a need for dense data bases on first and second language development to enhance our understanding of the fine-grained patterns of change over time. Dynamic Systems Theory is proposed as a candidate for an overall theory of language development.

Producing words in a foreign language: Can speakers prevent interference from their first language?

Two picture-word interference experiments were conducted to investigate whether or not words from a first and more dominant language are activated during lexical access in a foreign and less dominant language. Native speakers of Dutch were instructed to name pictures in their foreign language English. Our experiments show that the Dutch name of a picture is activated during initial stages of the process of lexical in English as a foreign language. We conclude that bilingual speakers cannot suppress activation from their first language while naming pictures in a foreign language. The implications for bilingual speech production theories are discussed.

TOWARD A LEXICAL PROCESSING MODEL FOR THE STUDY OF SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

A major requirement for theory development in L2 vocabulary acquisition is an adequate model of L2 lexical organization and processing. At present, there is no widely accepted model of this kind, but recent research has demonstrated the potential usefulness of Levelts (1989, 1993) L1 speech processing model (de Bot & Schreuder, 1993; Green, 1993; Poulisse, 1993). This paper explores the relevance of the model as adapted for L2 lexical processing of written texts, with particular attention to its mental lexicon components (concepts, lemmas, and lexemes) and organization. The model is first discussed in terms of its relevance to L2 lexical access, retrieval, and acquisition processes. Findings of an introspective L2 vocabulary study follow, detailing how university ESL learners reported dealing with unfamiliar words while carrying out L2 reading tasks. The information provided on their lexical inferencing strategy and varied knowledge sources used in the process provide support for the lexical components and organization proposed by Levelt. It is argued in this paper that the process of inferring the features of unknown words in a reading passage can be described in terms of lemma construction, as defined in the model.

A 16‐year longitudinal study of language attrition in Dutch immigrants in Australia

In this article a description is given of a longitudinal study of language attrition in Dutch migrants in Australia. In the 1970s, Clyne conducted linguistic research on German‐English and Dutch‐English bilinguals in Australia. In 1987 those informants who were still fluent in Dutch were retested, using the same type of tests and elicitation procedures. All the speech material of the informants from 1971 and 1987 has been transcribed and analysed. It appears that for this selected set of informants there is no evidence of attrition over the 16‐year period. In addition, they show hardly any of the linguistic characteristics of the larger group of informants in the 1971 sample. It is concluded that first‐language attrition does not necessarily take place in an immigrant setting and that those immigrants who manage to maintain their language in the first years of their stay in the new environment are likely to remain fluent speakers of their first language.

The Teaching of Intonation: Fundamental Research and Classroom Applications.

This article reports on research carried out in the Netherlands showing that training in the perception of intonation resulted in a statistically significant improvement in the production of English intonation patterns. The materials used for the experiment were then adapted for the teaching situation and applied in Kodak-Pathes in-company English courses in France. Results tended to confirm the Dutch findings, but student feedback was suggestive of possible alternative directions to be taken in intonation teaching.

Language Reversion Revisited.

In the 1970s, Clyne conducted linguistic research on German-English and Dutch-English bilinguals in Australia. In the course of the study, he found evidence for second language attrition and first language reversion among his elderly informants (Clyne, 1981). In 1987, some 40 of the 200 Dutch informants tested in 1971 were retested in order to get longitudinal data on language maintenance and loss. The data show surprisingly little loss of proficiency in both Dutch and English over the years. This calls for a revision of the language reversion hypothesis as stated by Clyne in 1981. In the present article the hypothesis is modified to the extent that there seems to be some kind of “critical threshold” (Neisser, 1984) that has to be reached in order to retain the second language. First language reversion seems to be a common phenomenon among those immigrants who did not reach this threshold, but not among immigrants who did.

Triggered codeswitching : A corpus-based evaluation of the original triggering hypothesis and a new alternative

In this article the triggering hypothesis for codeswitching proposed by Michael Clyne is discussed and tested. According to this hypothesis, cognates can facilitate codeswitching of directly preceding or following words. It is argued that the triggering hypothesis in its original form is incompatible with language production models, as it assumes that language choice takes place at the surface structure of utterances, while in bilingual production models language choice takes place along with lemma selection. An adjusted version of the triggering hypothesis is proposed in which triggering takes place during lemma selection and the scope of triggering is extended to basic units in language production. Data from a Dutch–Moroccan Arabic corpus are used for a statistical test of the original and the adjusted triggering theory. The codeswitching patterns found in the data support part of the original triggering hypothesis, but they are best explained by the adjusted triggering theory.

Foreign Language Attrition.

Compared to research on language acquisition, research on the maintenance and loss of language skills is a relatively recent development. There is, of course, a longstanding sociolinguistic tradition of research on language shift, but work in the field of attrition really started in the US in the late 1970s (Lambert and Freed 1982). Since then, research on language attrition has grown rapidly in different countries, as is witnessed by special issues devoted to the topic in the journals Applied Psycholinguistics in 1986, ITL-Review of Applied Linguistics in 1989 and Studies in Second Language Acquisition in 1989, as well as by three recent volumes: Weltens, de Bot and van Els (1986), Weltens (1989), and Seliger and Vago (1991).

Lexical Processing in Bilinguals.

In this article data from an auditory lexical decision experiment with English-Dutch bilinguals are compared with data from a similar experiment using visual lexical decision. The aim of the experiments was to investigate three factors that may play a role in lexical processing: level of proficiency in the second language, mode of presentation (visual vs. auditory) and cognate- ness of lexical items. The structure of this article is as follows. In the first part a description is given of current theoretical models of the bilingual lexicon. In the second part we present a summary of an experiment on visual lexical decision (Kerkman, 1984; Kerkman and De Bot, 1989), and in the third part we report on the auditory lexical decision experiment. In the last part these two sets of data are discussed in the light of recent theorizing on the bilingual lexicon.

Review Article: The Imaging of What in the Multilingual Mind?.

In this review article it is argued that while the number of neuro-imaging (NI) studies on multilingual processing has exploded over the last few years, the contribution of such studies to enhance our understanding of the process of multilingual processing has not been very substantial. There are problems on various levels, which include the following issues: ownership of the field of NI and multilingualism, whether relevant background characteristics are assessed adequately, whether we consider variation as a problem or a source of information, what NI tells us about multilingual development, whether the native speaker is the norm in NI research, the added value of NI data, what information NI provides, and what the contribution of NI research is to theories about the multilingual brain. The conclusion is that as yet NI has not fulfilled the high expectations raised by the technical progress and the large number of studies that have been carried out.In this review article it is argued that while the number of neuro-imaging (NI) studies on multilingual processing has exploded over the last few years, the contribution of such studies to enhance our understanding of the process of multilingual processing has not been very substantial. There are problems on various levels, which include the following issues: ownership of the field of NI and multilingualism, whether relevant background characteristics are assessed adequately, whether we consider variation as a problem or a source of information, what NI tells us about multilingual development, whether the native speaker is the norm in NI research, the added value of NI data, what information NI provides, and what the contribution of NI research is to theories about the multilingual brain. The conclusion is that as yet NI has not fulfilled the high expectations raised by the technical progress and the large number of studies that have been carried out.