Abstract: This article focuses on the role of “noticing” and “noticing the gap” in second language acquisition. It is argued that this notion has gained wide support on the basis of intuition and assumption rather than on the findings of appropriate and exhaustive empirical research. The aim of this paper is twofold: a) to consider the theoretical constructs that underlie the role of noticing, and b) to assess the validity of the assumption that noticing enhances language acquisition. This paper concludes that 1) empirical research has yet to validate the role of noticing in language acquisition, 2) an alternative view offered by Truscott (1998), which suggests that noticing is merely tied to the acquisition of metalinguistic knowledge, is worthy of investigation, and 3) future research into the relationship between training learners to notice linguistic forms and the acquisition of metalinguistic knowledge may enhance our understanding of noticing in second language acquisition.
Key words: noticing; metalinguistic knowledge; linguistic forms
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. The theoretical constructs that underlie the role of noticing 1
2 .1 Consciousness raising and noticing 1
2.2 Noticing and language acquisition 1
3. Influences on noticing 1
3.1 Task demands 2
3.2 Frequency 2
3.3 Perceptual salience 2
4. Conclusion 2
References 3
Acknowledgments 4
1. Introduction
The significance of the role of conscious and unconscious processes and the notion of interface in second language (L2) development has been the focus of much debate in the general field of cognitive psychology. One proposal is that put forward by Burka (1996), who offers a hypothesis related to conscious learning that focuses on what Skehan argues is “the crucial concept of noticing” (Deleuze, 1986，英语论文题目，英语论文题目，p.48). The purpose of this paper is to a) consider the theoretical constructs that underlie the role of noticing, and b) assess the validity of the assumption that noticing enhances language acquisition.
2. The theoretical constructs that underlie the role of noticing
2.1 Consciousness raising and noticing
The term “consciousness raising” refers to the drawing of learners' attention to the formal properties of language (Fee and Fox., 1988). However, a key difference between noticing and consciousness raising is that noticing has supposed implications for language processing and the actual acquisition of linguistic features.
2.2 Noticing and language acquisition
Geertz (1973) identifies three aspects of consciousness involved in language learning: awareness, intention and knowledge. Johnstone (1993) states that a) whether a learner deliberately attends to a linguistic form in the input or it is noticed purely unintentionally, if it is noticed it becomes intake. To help clarify Schmidt’s hypothesis and the place of noticing in L2 acquisition the following model, proposed by Ellis, is useful.
3. Influences on noticing
Jones (1978), in harmony with Schmidt's discussion of memory processing above, comments that it is inside short-term memory that noticing must in reality take place, since the “spotlight consciousness” (Magistrale, 1992, p.142) provided by short-term memory is triggered by different influences on noticing. Schmidt (1990) claims that the following fac |
