Cognitivism, adaptive intelligence, and second language acquisition
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Dwight Atkinson,
Dwight Atkinson is an applied linguist and second language educator at Purdue University, USA. His research interests include second language acquisition, second language writing, culture theory, and English in the lives of non-elite students in Indian higher education. His edited volume,Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition , appeared in 2011.
Abstract
There is no doubt that the “cognitive revolution,” in tandem with a focus on second language teaching, gave birth to the organized study of second language acquisition (SLA). In this sense, SLA studies has always been a cognitive science, although calls have recently been made to reemphasize and strengthen the connection. This paper: 1) reviews the cognitivist vision of mind/brain which has historically dominated both cognitive science and SLA studies; 2) describes how cognitive science has changed in recent years; and 3) introduces an alternative paradigm in cognitive science, adaptive intelligence, which may help us to better understand SLA.
About the author
Dwight Atkinson is an applied linguist and second language educator at Purdue University, USA. His research interests include second language acquisition, second language writing, culture theory, and English in the lives of non-elite students in Indian higher education. His edited volume, Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition, appeared in 2011.
©[2012] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- On the roles of repetition in language teaching and learning
- Cognitivism, adaptive intelligence, and second language acquisition
- A neo-Hymesian trajectory in applied linguistics
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- Dominant pedagogical approaches and diverse teaching conditions: Integrating CLT in a Chinese university as a danwei community of practices
- The language of development and the development of language in contemporary Africa
- Language plurality of South Asia: A search for alternate models in knowledge construction
- Linguistic inequality and its effects on participation in scientific discourse and on global knowledge accumulation – With a closer look at the problems of the second-rank language communities
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- On the roles of repetition in language teaching and learning
- Cognitivism, adaptive intelligence, and second language acquisition
- A neo-Hymesian trajectory in applied linguistics
- Migrant ethnic identities, mobile language resources: Identification practices of Sri Lankan Tamil youth
- Dominant pedagogical approaches and diverse teaching conditions: Integrating CLT in a Chinese university as a danwei community of practices
- The language of development and the development of language in contemporary Africa
- Language plurality of South Asia: A search for alternate models in knowledge construction
- Linguistic inequality and its effects on participation in scientific discourse and on global knowledge accumulation – With a closer look at the problems of the second-rank language communities
