Chapter published in:
Usage-inspired L2 Instruction: Researched pedagogy
Edited by Andrea E. Tyler, Lourdes Ortega, Mariko Uno and Hae In Park
[Language Learning & Language Teaching 49] 2018
► pp. 211–234

Chapter 10
Do findings from artificial language learning generalize to second language classrooms?

| University of Basel
Usage-based approaches assume that language acquisition proceeds predominantly incidentally and implicitly, based on the processing of meaningful input during contextualized social interaction. By contrast, there is a tradition of investigating the mechanisms of second language (L2) processing and learning through tightly controlled artificial language learning studies in the laboratory. This raises the question to what extent and under which conditions findings from such artificial language learning studies generalize to (instructed) L2 acquisition (and may therefore inform L2 pedagogy). I present and discuss convergent and divergent findings across several domains, including brain imaging, learned attention, and frequency effects. The latter are given special attention, as they are crucial to a usage-based perspective. Comparisons between prior laboratory and classroom studies and data from current classroom research (Madlener, 2015) suggest that (1) not all task types used in artificial language learning studies reliably generalize to (classroom) L2 learning and that (2) artificial language learning models some aspects of L2 acquisition more readily than others.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Definition and types of artificial language learning experiments
  • Rationales for and against generalizing from artificial to natural languages
  • Converging evidence
  • Diverging evidence
    • Type frequency effects
    • Skewed input effects
  • Summary: Maximal generalization from minimal input
  • Understanding the limits of the generalizability from artificial language learning to SLA: Explanatory factors
    • General effects of laboratory settings
    • Learning mode and test mode
    • Interactions of variables
    • Meaning(fulness) and context(ualization)
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 13 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.49.10mad
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