Second Language Acquisition: Reconciling Theories PDF

Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 2013, 3, 404-412 Published Online November 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojapps) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojapps.2013.37050 Second Language Acquisition: Reconciling Theories Vera Menezes...

Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 2013, 3, 404-412 Published Online November 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojapps) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojapps.2013.37050 Second Language Acquisition: Reconciling Theories Vera Menezes Graduate Program in Linguistic Studies, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Email: [email protected] Received August 29, 2013; revised September 27, 2013; accepted October 11, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Vera Menezes. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT This article argues that previous attempts to explain SLA should not be disregarded. Instead, when they are put together, they provide a broader and deeper view of the acquisition process. There is evidence to support the claim that second language acquisition (SLA) is a complex adaptive system due to its inherent ability to adapt to different conditions pre- sent in both internal and external environments. Based on this understanding, widely discussed second language theo- ries, including behaviorism, will be treated as explanations of parts of a whole, since each captures a different aspect of SLA. In order to justify this assumption, excerpts from some English language learning histories are provided to exem- plify how learners describe their learning processes. The final claim is that SLA should be seen as a chaotic/complex system. Keywords: Second Language Acquisition; Complex Systems; Chaos; Language Learning Histories 1. Introduction 2.1. Behaviorism Larsen-Freeman and Long state that “at least forty Behaviorism gave birth to a stimulus-response (S-R) the- ‘theories’ of SLA have been proposed” (p. 227) and it is ory which understands language as a set of structures and my contention that none of these attempts to explain SLA acquisition as a matter of habit formation. Ignoring any present a thorough explanation for the phenomenon. Like internal mechanisms, it takes into account the linguistic any other type of learning, language learning is not a environment and the stimuli it produces. Learning is an linear process, and therefore cannot be deemed as pre- observable behavior which is automatically acquired by dictable as many models of SLA have hypothesized it to means of stimulus and response in the form of mechanic- be. Countless theories have been developed to explain cal repetition. Thus to acquire a language is to acquire SLA, but most such theories focus merely on the acquisi- automatic linguistic habits. According to Johnson , tion of syntactic structures and ignore other important as- “Behaviorism undermined the role of mental processes pects. and viewed learning as the ability to inductively discover In the next section, I present a brief review of the main patterns of rule-governed behavior from the examples SLA theories and then move to the current tendency to provided to the learner by his or her environment (p. 18)”. see SLA as an emergent phenomenon. Larsen-Freeman and Long consider that S-R models offer “little promises as explanations of SLA, except for 2. Second Language Acquisition Theories perhaps pronunciation and the rote-memorization of for- mulae (p. 266)”. Although there is a huge number of SLA theories and This view of language learning gave birth to research hypotheses, I will briefly summarize only eight of them: on contrastive analysis, especially error analysis having behaviorism, acculturation, universal grammar hypothe- as the main focus the interference of first language on the sis, comprehension hypothesis, interaction hypothesis, target language. It also gave birth to interlanguage stud- output hypothesis, sociocultural theory and connectioni- ies, as the simple comparison between first and second sm. I consider that those are the ones which have caused language did not explain neither describe the language more impact in the field. produced by SL learners. Interlanguage studies are pre- Open Access OJAppS  V. MENEZES 405 sent in other SLA perspectives as the concern of the area acquisition to explain SLA. First, he named it as monitor has been mainly on the acquisition of grammatical mor- model, then he called it input hypothesis , focusing on phemes or specific language structures. the data which feed acquisition, and more recently, com- prehension hypothesis emphasizing the mental process as 2.2. Acculturation responsible for acquisition. According to Krashen , Another environmental-oriented theory is proposed by The Comprehension Hypothesis is closely related to Schumann. In his famous longitudinal investigation other hypotheses. The Comprehension Hypothesis of some syntactic aspects with six learners (2 children, 2 refers to subconscious acquisition, not conscious adolescents, 2 adults), Schumann used questionnaires, learning. The result of providing acquirers with com- observed spontaneous conversation during ten months, prehensible input is the emergence of grammatical and applied a quantitative treatment to the data. He found structure in a predictable order. A strong affective out that “the subject who acquired the least amount of filter (e.g. high anxiety) will prevent input from English was the one who was the most socially and psy- reaching those parts of the brain that do language chologically distant from the TL group” (p. 34). acquisition. (p. 1) In his view, SLA is the result of acculturation which Krashen’s model views acquisition in a linear perspec- he defines as “the social and psychological integration of tive which not only establishes a cause and effect relation the learner with the target language (TL) group” (p. 29). between input and acquisition but also states that the The acculturation model argues that learners will be suc- grammatical structure is acquired in a predictable order. cessful in SLA if there are fewer social and psychology- In addition to that, as in the other theories discussed so cal distances between them and the speakers of the sec- far, his theory does not go beyond the acquisition of gram- ond language. matical structures. Krashen’s model lacks research evidence. As Cook 2.3. Universal Grammar Hypothesis points out “it makes sense in its own terms but is As a counterpoint to the environmental perspective, Chom- note verifiable” (pp. 65-66). sky’s followers try to understand SLA in the light of his The next three theories can be named Interactionist universal grammar (UG) theory, a human innate endow- SLA theories as all of them conceive language and lan- ment. Chomsky is interested in the nature of language guage learning as social practices. and sees language as a mirror of the mind. Although he is not concerned with SLA, his work has been influencing 2.5. Interaction Hypothesis studies in our area. According to his theory, every human Other attempts to explain SLA are the different versions being is biologically endowed with a language faculty, of the interaction hypothesis defended by Hatch and the language acquisition device, which is responsible for by Long [12,13], to name but two who did not accept the initial state of language development. The UG theory Krashen’s Input Hypothesis. Both Hatch and Long considers that the input from the environment is insuffi- [12,13] consider that input alone is not sufficient to ex- cient to account for language acquisition. In the same plain SLA. Hatch disagrees that learners first learn perspective, White says that “if it turns out that the structures and then use them in discourse. She considers L2 learner acquires abstract properties that could not the reverse possibility. “One learns how to do conversa- have been induced from the input, this is strongly indica- tion, one learns how to interact verbally, and out of this tive that principles of UG constrain interlanguage gram- interaction syntactic structures are developed” (p. 404). mars, parallel to the situation of L1 acquisition” (p. 22). Based on an empirical study, Long observed that As Mitchel and Myles remind us, “The universal Gram- in conversations between native and non-native speakers, mar approach is only interested in the learner as a proc- there are more modifications in interaction than in the essor of a mind that contains language” (p. 94) and not as input provided by the native speakers. He does not reject a social being. the positive role of modified input, but claims that modi- The research supported by UG theory works mainly fications in interactions are consistently found in suc- with experiments in the form of grammaticality and ac- cessful SLA. Long suggests that ceptability judgments. negotiation for meaning, especially negotiation work that triggers interactional adjustments by the NS or 2.4. Comprehension Hypothesis more competent interlocutor, facilitates acquisition Influenced by Chomsky’s assumptions on language as an because it connects input, internal learner capacities, innate faculty, Krashen , developed an influential pro- particularly selective attention, and output in pro- posal with emphasis on the contrast between learning and ductive ways. (pp. 451-452) Open Access OJAppS 406 V. MENEZES Larsen-Freeman and Long argue that the interac- being” (p. 217-218). It is in the social world that the lan- tionist views are more powerful than other theories “be- guage learners observe others using language and imitate cause they invoke both innate and environmental factors them. It is also with the collaboration of other social ac- to explain language learning” (p. 266). I would add that tors that learners move from one stage to another. they are the first to view language not only as a matter of One of the main concepts borrowed from Vygotsky is syntactic structures but also as a matter of discourse. “scaffolding”, understood as the assistance one learner The interactionist research uses data recorded from gets from another person (e.g. teachers, relatives, class- free conversation or controlled conversation tasks. mates) and which enables him or her to perform a learn- ing task. This phenomenon has been in the agenda of 2.6. Output Hypothesis or Lingualization collaborative learning research and the data has been Swain [14,15] also goes against Krashen’s radical posi- mainly collected by means of audio and video recordings tion towards the role of input and argues in favor of the of classes and peer interaction. Recall protocols and in- output hypothesis, later named as lingualization. She terviews are also used. claims that practicing the language helps learners observe their own production, which is essential to SLA. It is her 2.8. Connectionism contention that “output may stimulate learners to move Connectionism seeks to explain SLA in terms of mental from the semantic, open-ended non-deterministic, strate- representations and information processing while reject- gic processing prevalent in comprehension to the com- ing the innate endowment hypothesis. Elman et al. plete grammatical processing needed for accurate pro- agree that there are universal behaviors, but that does not duction (p. 128)”. She explains that “learners may mean that they are directly contained in our genes. Any notice a gap between what they want to say and what learning is understood as a matter of neural networks. they can say, leading them to recognize what they do not The networks learn in a Parallel Distributed Processing know, or know only partially” (p. 126). She high- where connections are strengthened or weakened. lights that “noticing” is essential to SLA and also hy- Language learning is understood as the processing of pothesizes that output has other two functions: to test experience and the repetition of experiences causing the hypothesis and to trigger reflection, a metalinguistic func- strengthening of the connections. Ellis explains that tion. She explains that learners “may output just to see “our neural apparatus is highly plastic in its initial state” what works and what does not” (p. 132) and that (p. 82), but “the initial state of SLA is no longer a plastic they reflect upon the language they produce when nego- system; it is one that is already tuned and committed to tiating meaning because the content of negotiation is the the L1” (p. 83). He adds that “in the L2 situation, forms relation between the meaning they are trying to express of low salience may be blocked by prior L1 experience, and the language form. and all the extra input in the world may not result in ad- As far as research is concerned, the investigations in vancement” (p. 84). this perspective have been using experiments with con- In contrast with the linearity of behaviorism, connec- trol groups, pre-tests and post-tests. Think-aloud was also tionism presupposes that some mental processes can oc- used in Swain and Lapkin to see the impact of out- cur in a parallel or simultaneous way and that knowledge put upon the learners’ thought processes. is distributed among the various interconnections. Thus, learning does not occur in sequenced stages, but rather in 2.7. Sociocultural Theory parallel, i.e., in different parts of the brain simultane- The sociocultural theory (SCT), based on Vygotskian ously. thoughts, claims that language learning is a socially me- Connectionism, along with other attempts to explain diated process. Mediation is a fundamental principle and SLA, can be situated in the philosophical and scientific language is a cultural artifact that mediates social and tradition known as emergentism, whose studies are in- psychological activities. As highlighted by Mitchell and spired in the studies of the complex systems. Ellis Myles , “from a social-cultural perspective, children’s explains emergentism as language representations which early language learning arises from processes of mean- emerge “from interactions at all levels from brain to so- ing-making in collaborative activity with other members ciety” (p. 631). He adds that “simple learning mechanisms, of a given culture” (p. 200). Lantolf and Thorne operating in and across the human systems for perception, defend that the principles of the SCT can also apply to motor-action and cognition as they are exposed to lan- SLA. They explain that “SCT is grounded in a perspec- guage data as part of a social environment, suffice to tive that does not separate the individual from the social drive the emergence of complex language representa- and in fact argues that the individual emerges from social tions”. interaction and as such is always fundamentally a social Connectionism studies have been employing computer Open Access OJAppS  V. MENEZES 407 technology either by simulating neural networks in com- tween chaotic states and states of relative stability. puters or by resorting to computerized corpora. In the (p. 48) first case, researchers create artificial networks, feed them There is evidence to support the claim that SLA is a with linguistic input and then compare their output to complex adaptive system due to its inherent ability to human output. Corpora, such as CHILDES, an electronic adapt to different conditions present in both internal and corpus of child language that is freely available on the external environments. As pointed out by van Lier , internet (http://www.cnts.ua.ac.be/childes/), have also been used in the study of the acquisition of lexical items. we can neither claim that learning is caused by en- In the next section, I present my own interpretation of vironmental stimuli (the behaviourist position) nor SLA acquisition as an emergent phenomenon, namely as that it is genetically determined (the innatist posi- a chaotic/complex system. tion). Rather, learning is the result of complex (and contingent) interactions between individual and en- 3. Second Language Acquisition as a vironment (p. 170). Chaotic/Complex System A complex model can accommodate apparently op- Despite all the research, we still do not know how lan- posed elements in an effort to explain SLA. Figure 1 guages are learned. It is difficult to reject any of the partially describes the way I see SLA. I say partially be- aforementioned theories as all of them seem reasonable, cause it does not show the dynamic interaction among but they also seem incomplete, as they do not describe the elements and neither shows the changes. Besides that, the whole SLA phenomenon, but just parts of it. many other factors (e.g. motivation, learning strategies, Language learning, like any other type of learning, is political constraints, etc.) are in interaction in a SLA not a linear process and therefore cannot be deemed as system and they are not represented in Figure 1. predictable as some of these models of acquisition have At the same time a complex model can admit the exis- hypothesized it to be. Minimal differences in initial con- tence of innate mental structures and sustain that part of ditions can cause very different results. Nevertheless, I the language is acquired by means of repetition and the consider that the previous attempts to explain SLA should creation of automatic linguistic habits. It can acknowl- not be disregarded because when they are put together edge the importance of language affiliation1 understood they provide a broader view of the phenomenon. In this new perspective, a SLA model should be considered as a set of connections within a dynamic system that moves in the direction of the “edge of chaos” considered as a zone of creativity with the maximum potential for learning. Chaos theory and the studies on complexity have been influencing many different research fields, including Ap- plied Linguistics. Larsen-Freeman , in her inaugural work in this new perspective, sees “many striking simi- larities between the science of chaos/complexity and lan- guage and SLA” (p. 141). She presents several argu- ments for the understanding of language and SLA as com- plex, non-linear dynamic phenomenon, dynamic meaning growth and change. Larsen-Freeman sees complex- ity as “a metaphorical lens through which diverse per- spectives can be accommodated, indeed integrated” (p. 173). Thornbury also argues that language and language learning share some features with other complex systems. It is dynamic and non-linear; adaptive and feedback sen- sitive; self-organizing; and emergent. He observes that (…) the learner’s grammar restructures itself as it responds to incoming data. There seems to be peri- ods of little change alternating with periods of a great deal of flux and variability, and even some Figure 1. Second Language acquisition as a complex system. backsliding. In this way, process grammars are not unlike other complex systems which fluctuate be- 1 I prefer affiliation due to the derogatory meaning of acculturation. Open Access OJAppS 408 V. MENEZES as the level of relationship between the learner and the SLA consists of a dynamic interaction among different second language. Cultural or personal affiliations with individual and social factors put into movement by inner the second language work as a potent fuel to move the and social processes. The random interaction among all SLA system. In addition, in such a model, input, inter- the elements of the acquisition system yields the changes action and output are also considered of paramount im- responsible for acquisition. The rate of change is not pre- portance for language acquisition as they trigger both dictable and varies according to the nature of the interac- neural and sociocultural connections. Each component tions among all the elements of the system. A live acqui- works as a subsystem embedded in the SLA system. sition system is always in movement and never reaches In this perspective, language must be understood as a equilibrium, although it undergoes periods of more or non-linear dynamic system, made up of interrelated bio- less stability. cognitive, sociocultural, historical and political elements, In the next section, I will provide some empirical evi- which enable us to think and act in society. Language is dence for acquisition as a chaotic/complex system. In not a static object, but a system in constant movement. order to do that, I will resort to a corpus of English lan- Its interacting elements influence and are influenced by guage learning histories (LLHs) each other. As language is in evolution, so too is SLA (see http://www.veramenezes.com/amfale.htm) collected and any change in a subsystem can affect other elements by researchers in Brazil, Japan and Finland. in the network. It develops through dynamic and constant interaction among the subsystems, alternating moments 4. Language Learning Histories and SLA of stability with moments of turbulence. As complex Theories systems are in constant movement, after chaos, under- As pointed out by Larsen-Freeman language learn- stood here as the optimal moment for learning, a new ers have been seen from an etic perspective. By choosing order arises, not as a final static product, but as a process, to work with language learning histories (LLHs) and i.e., something in constant evolution. listening to language learners, we aim at changing the Human beings are different, their contexts are different etic perspective into an emic approach. In doing that, we and so are SLA processes which are mediated by differ- try to make a shift from objectivism/subjectivism to ex- ent human agents and cultural artifacts. As a consequence, perientialism as we can count on learners’ experiences to unequal learning experiences may occur in very similar understand how languages are learned. situations. When we turn our observation to language I will present some LLHs to show some evidence for teaching practices, we see that no matter how much teach- different SLA theories. Different reports highlight dif- ers plan and develop their classes, students will react in ferent aspects of SLA, reinforcing my hypothesis that the different ways and unforeseen events will inevitably be theories explain only a certain aspect of a much more part of their learning experiences. The seemingly orderly complex process. world of acquisition is in fact chaotic and chaos seems to Behaviorism is present in the LLHs of Japanese (1), be fundamental in such a process. Finnish (2) and Brazilian (3) students: Out of chaos emerges a new language which is a product of all the elements involved in the process and (1) I memorized even complex sentences. Though it which can be placed in a cline which has first and second was very hard, it was worth doing it. I could im- language as two opposing poles (energies or forces), the prove my English. first language being the initial condition for SLA. First (2) The grammar and the most basic and important and second languages are both live complex systems words I’ve learned repeating them again and again. which change over time. As Larsen-Freeman and Cam- It was a good way to learn new language when I eron explain, “We change a language by using it” (p. was a bit younger and schoolbooks were easier. 96). (3) (…) my father was always bringing me back The first and second languages work as attractors. An tapes from the American MTV, which I watched attractor is “a region of a system into which the system one right after the other every day. I ended up memo- tends to move” (p. 50) and language development rizing most of them and I repeated the lines along swings between these two poles. The language learner is with the hosts. My mother thought I was going crazy, attracted or repelled by one of these poles and out of this but that trained my ears and improved my fluency. cycle of attraction and repelling emerges a third, namely, These three students seem aware that repetition and interlanguage. Interlanguage works as a strange attractor, memorization were important for their SLA. A different highly sensitive to initial conditions. Small changes in perspective can be inferred from narrative (4). the initial conditions result in unpredictable shifts in lan- guage development. Each interlanguage phase yields simi- (4) I am still learning English, from the books I read, lar but never identical patterns or strange attractors. from the music I listen to, from the movies and TV Open Access OJAppS  V. MENEZES 409 series I watch (and I try to watch them without sub- England are found in different narratives. Example (9) titles), and from all the unconscious (more than con- presents an excerpt from the LLH of a very successful scious) input I receive. (Brazilian student) English teacher who identifies himself with the United States and rejects his Brazilian identity. Example (4) leads us to Input Hypothesis and to UG as well. This Brazilian student is aware of the importance of (9) My objective, however, was very clear as a child: input and of the mental processes which transform input I wanted to be American. I used to think to myself into intake. The importance of input is also reported in (5) since I couldn’t actually be American, cause I was by a Finnish student who has the chance to listen to dif- born in the “wrong” place, I wanted to be as close to ferent accents, but what is more salient in the narrative is that as I could be. her awareness of the importance of speaking in SLA. In The LLHs reveal that neither the theories nor the (6) we can find a similar report by a Brazilian student LLHs can explain the whole SLA process, but they make and both (5) and (6) seem to confirm the interactionist us aware that SLA is not a homogeneous process and that theories. unpredictability is an important factor underlying it as we (5) I am very eager to speak English every time I will see in the next section. have an opportunity to do so. In my job in the Old Market Hall I meet a lot of tourists from all over the 5. The Edge of Chaos world. Naturally, most of them speak English. That Order and chaos coexist in a dynamic tension. According is why I also hear lots of different accents when to Ockerman , the system is capable of remarkable having conversations with people for instance from things when operating in the narrow zone between order Ireland, Canada and Australia. (…)The other goal is and chaos which is called “edge of chaos”. Ockerman to have courage to speak and do it properly. That I explains that can gain only by using the language as much as possible in different situations. (Finnish student) The edge of chaos is a paradoxical state, a spiral chance between order and chaos, a humming oscil- (6)The first place I remember fully using my little lation between the two extremes, characterized by knowledge of English language was in Ouro Preto, risk, exploration, experimentation. Here is where the this gorgeous historical city close to Belo, famous system operates at its highest level of functioning, for its history and lots of foreign tourists, so when- where the information processing takes place, where ever I went there I tried to dig a chance to speak. I risks are taken and new behavior is tried out. And wanted real life experiences, real usage of the lan- when new behavior emerges that is somehow bene- guage I loved to speak… (Brazilian student) ficial to the system, where the system’s primary task Connectionism can be exemplified by Brazilian stu- and operating rules are modified in such a way that dents in (7) and (8). the system’s overall levels of “fitness” is improved relative to other systems, we say that the change is (7) I developed a system to learn vocabulary. I innovative; the system has learned or evolved. (p. looked for all the words with the same routs and 222) learned them together, like this: employ, employ- ment, unemployment, employer, employee, etc. I Ockerman adds that compared the words in both Portuguese and English There are five factors, or control parameters, that dictionaries to understand their meanings. determine whether a system can move into the edge (8) I started learning from my direct contact with the of chaos (or beyond into disintegration): the rate of United States culture, mainly comics and movies. information flow, the degree of diversity, the rich- By making free association with cognates and by ness of connectivity, the level of contained anxiety, looking up words in the dictionary, I learned words and the degree of power differentials. In human and expressions. Later, the frequent use of video- systems, these factors combine into a kind of crea- games forced me to learn more in order to play them tive tension where people are linked to others in adequately. paradoxical relationships of cooperation/competi- tion, inspiration/anxiety, and compliance/individu- The narrators in (7) and (8) refer to mental connections, ality (group of initiative to illustrate the process) (p. but they also acknowledge the importance of the media- 222) tion of cultural artifacts (comic, cinema, and videogames) that leads us not only to the input hypothesis, but also to In an attempt to apply those five factors to SLA, we the sociocultural theory. might regard them as the rate of exposure to the target Affiliations to the language and to the United States or language, the diversity of authentic input, the richness of Open Access OJAppS 410 V. MENEZES interactions, the low level of anxiety, and the rate of videos with native speakers to learn accent and cul- autonomy or control of one’s own learning. tural environment, and every Friday we used to lis- In our corpus of LLHS, there is enough evidence to ten to music, fulfilling gaps, trying to understand the say that learners are led to the edge of chaos by factors meanings by the context. which are not usually described as part of the educational Different experiences can move the system towards context. One of our Brazilian narrators, for instance, re- SLA. In (10), the rate of exposure to the target language ports how skateboard competitions offered him relevant and the diversity of authentic input were augmented in experiences with the English language. I understand it skateboard competitions. The learner is in control of his was the passport for the edge of chaos. He says: own learning and rich interactions are provided by this (10) My first contact with English happened in 1987, new context. We can infer that anxiety is low as he when I was eleven years old. It was an English seems to enjoy this kind of experience. This example course in my neighborhood. Actually it was just an proves that his acquisition system is open, i.e., it is not introductory course, really focused on basic English. predictable and new elements may enter the system and The classroom activities followed a traditional method, transform it. In (11), the school also offers a good amount by using non authentic materials, and teacher cen- of authentic and diverse input and it seems to be enough tered all the time. Then I went to high school, where for that narrator. Kirshbaum explains that English classes are simply awful. Every year the The unpredictability that is thus inherent in the natu- same subjects were taught to us, such as verb to be, ral evolution of complex systems then can yield re- negative forms, interrogative forms etc. However, sults that are totally unpredictable based on knowl- the sport I have been practicing from that period so edge of the original conditions. Such unpredictable far is full of English words and expressions, what results are called emergent properties. Emergent made me more interested in English. In fact skate- properties thus show how complex systems are in- board has been a “catapult” to my English learning herently creative ones. process. It is common to meet native English speak- ers in skateboard contests, so I had to communicate Unpredictability is found in many LLHs. One student with them in order comment the contest, or even registers that her SLA was all of a sudden augmented about my turn in it, for instance. This first steps because she had to move to the USA to help a cousin where then, related to communicative learning proc- take care of her baby. Another narrator considers that his ess, since real use of language was required in order SLA was triggered by a Brazilian TV program teaching to communicate. Slangs and jargons were used all English through songs, etc. the time, and I did not know what exactly they Self-organization is another characteristic of complex meant, but I could get their meaning through the systems. Larsen-Freeman and Cameron explain that context we were in. After that, my interest have in- Sometimes self-organization leads to new phenom- creased in many aspects of English, such as music, ena on a different scale or level, a process called art and sports, what is just the continuity of the “emergence”. What emerges as a result of phase process that I began with when I was a child. shift is something different from before: a whole Narrative (10) exemplifies a recurrent pattern in EFL that is more than the sum of its parts and that cannot learning in Brazil. Narrators usually portray language be explained reductively through the activity of the learning in high school as a dull experience which offers component parts. (p. 59) impoverished input and focuses mainly on grammar. Then The LLHs indicate that a phase shift is achieved when they talk about other experiences beyond the classroom. students look for experiences outside their schools in Those experiences show the SLA system in its highest order to overcome the lack of the necessary conditions level of functioning as in the example reported in (10). for SLA in school and a new order, or new interlanguage In spite of a recurrent claim that language learning in phase emerges. This new phase is more than the sum of schools is a poor experience, our corpus also offers some school activities and experiences outside school. When positive examples. Some narrators describe rich experi- reading those LLHs, one realizes that the rate of expo- ences in school, as a Brazilian learner reports in (11). sure to the language can be increased by means of the (11) There were classes with 8 students, and 5 days mediation of cultural artifacts—television, radio, com- a week, 3 hours a day. We used to talk in English all puters, movies, magazines, newspapers, music, and online the time, even outside the class. On this course, interaction—in addition to face-to-face interaction, mainly writing skill was not very well explored. The pro- with proficient speakers. Some of these experiences are fessor was a kind of mediator, correcting mistakes reported by Brazilians in (12) and (13) and we can con- and making conversation go on. We used to watch clude that the narrators are aware that a new level of in- Open Access OJAppS  V. MENEZES 411 terlanguage organization, higher than the previous one, not have the same effects for all learners and that small emerged from those linguistic social practices. stimuli can have unpredictable consequences, dramati- cally negative or positive. Thus, in formal contexts, the (12) The one thing that helped me through my learn- teacher can not only activate learning mechanisms, but ing experience and later on to improve my English also construct insurmountable barriers. were the books. The time I was learning there was It is the role of the teacher to encourage constant con- no cable TV and no SAP on TV. So reading books tact of the student with as many forms of input as possi- and magazine in English were what kept me con- ble and to promote interactions among various speakers nected to the language outside the classroom. (learners, competent speakers and native speakers). Lan- (13) I just could improve my English, mainly my guage learning is also a social process and depends on oral skills, by studying on my own, through songs, interactions among speakers. In this way, our role is to movies and cartoons. “disturb” a zone of stability and provoke the chaos that results in a zone of creativity (edge of chaos) where The LLHs show that the edge of chaos will be reached small changes can occur, creating significant effects on if students can get rich input, interact with proficient learning processes. speakers, and if they can use the second language for social purposes, dealing with different oral, written or 7. Acknowledgements digital genres in formal and informal contexts. There is enough evidence to say that learners are led to the edge This work was supported by The National Council for of chaos by factors which are not usually described as Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and part of the school context. the Minas Gerais State Research Foundation (FAPEMIG). Some formal educational contexts try to keep equilib- rium and limit perturbations in order to keep the estab- REFERENCES lished order, teaching not the language itself, but about the language. By doing that, they deny the students the D. Larsen-Freeman and M. H. Long, “An Introduction to path to the edge of chaos. As Gilstrap points out, Second Language Acquisition Research,” Longman, New York, 1991. “control mechanisms are firmly in place to preserve or- der, oftentimes leading to strict policies, rigid hierarchies, M. Johnson, “A Philosophy of Second Language Acqui- sition,” Yale University Press, New Haven, 2004. resistance to change, and maintenance of the status quo” (p. 58). 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