PSYCHOLINGUISTICS BY AYSHA MOHD SHARIFWHAT IS PSYCHOLINGUISTICS?Psycholinguistics is defined as the study of language and mind.A definition of psycholinguistics is provided by Kess (1991:1): The field of study concerned with psychological aspects of language studies. It is broadly divided into 3 parts:- 1. First language learning. 2. Second language learning. 3. Language, mind and brain.It accounts for the selection ,organization process of the incoming messages into the mind and determine the cognitive processes that generate the formation of linguistics hypotheses.

LANGUAGE AND MINDChomskys version of universal grammar talks about the universality of logic and about the interdependence of language and thought.There are four theories in regard to the dependence of thought on language and culture: 1. Speech is essential for thought. 2. Language is essential for thought. 3. Language determines or shapes our perception of nature. 4. Language determines or shapes our cultural world view.

APPLIED LINGUISTICS & PSYCHOLINGUISTICSThe second language acquisition seem to be one of the appropriate chunk of applied linguistics in the context.The psycholinguists interest would be in the processing mechanisms involved in using more than one language and the acquisition of additional language.The applied linguistic in this context would be in understanding why language learners behave the way they do or what mechanisms are for L2 use and acquisition.The interest of the Applied linguistics also lies in interventions that change and improve mechanisms. Language transfer, overgeneralization, simplification and fossilization represents some psychological mechanism.The intersection or shared interest across psycholinguistics and applied linguistics is defined as Multilingual processing.SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITIONLanguage acquisition involves a dynamic process within constantly active mind that organizes the verbal material for storage.Factors involved in second language acquisition are divided into two categories:-Psychological:- It includes intellectual processing, memory, motor skills, motivation and attitude.Social:- The types of situations, settings and interactions which an individual experiences can affect the learning of a second language. It includes natural situation in contrast to the classroom situation, EFL VS ESL situation.ESP AND PSYCHOLINGUISTICSLanguage and MindPSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS1. Intellectual Processing: Explication & Induction

Explication is the process where the rules and structures of a second language are explained to the learner. This is given in the first language of the learner. The learners is expected to understand and apply the rule in the second language.

Note:- It is impossible to learn the language entirely by explication Simple rules can be taught by explication.

Learning rules by self discovery is the essence of the process of induction.The student is exposed to second language speech and remembers what he/she heard and will be able to analyze and discover the generalization or rule that underlines that speech.The second language learner is always trying to figure out language by induction.

2. MEMORYMemory is crucial to learning. The learning of the simplest word requires memory. The greater the number of related occurrences needed for learning, the poor the persons memory.Second language learners and teachers talk about practice and review because of some lack in memory ability.It is only through memory that a learner can accumulate the vast amount of speech and relevant situations data that serves as the basis for analyzing structures and formulating rules.The type of memory that involves situations is what TUVLING (1983) and others referred to as EPISODIC MEMORY.

3. MOTOR SKILLSMotor skills is the term given by psychologists to describe the use of muscles in performing different skills from general ones to the fine ones like writing and speech.Articulators of speech:- Good pronunciation is an important part of language learning and the creation of speech sounds is related to the ability to control the muscles that manipulate the organs of speech.The earlier the age at which acquisition of the second language begins, the more the native like the accent will be (Asher and Garcia, 1969).

PSYCHOLOGICAL VARIABLESMOTIVATIONA child of 1-2 years needs no motivation and will learn on its own where 5-6 year child needs motivation.In a planned learning situation as classrooms has an element of choice whether they want to listen, participate or not.There are lot of variables involved in second language learning which may affect any motivation like climate, social situation, personality, self confidence etc.

ATTITUDEA negative attitude toward the target language or its speakers affects ones determination.Many variables such as status and cultural background become more potent with the age of learner.Attitude also play an important role in the natural situation. They know how people react to different languages.ESP AND PSYCHOLOGYESP students should be taught how to guess word meanings from the context.Emotion, attention and distraction contribute to configures the psychological context that characterizes L2 learning process.Imitation and memorization represents learning strategies which reflect a reproductive nature as summarization which implies a reproductive activity.ESP also promotes critical and logical thinking.Hutchinson and Waters (1988) claimed that, "learning needs constituted a fundamental principle of learning because these should be regarded at every stage of the learning process due mainly to their potential sources of information.REFERENCESDanny D. Steinberg & Natalia V. Sciairin, An Introduction to psycholinguistics, second edition, 2006.Danny D. Steinberg, An introduction to psycholinguistics, 2001.Language and linguistics, 2000.Nicholas Howard, Language education and applied linguistics, 2014.http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=58EBD826511E156FBA77CC3E98C2C42B.journals?fromPage=online&aid=168371 http://www.sid.ir/En/VEWSSID/J_pdf/87620080205.pdf http://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5gIvAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=vocabulary+and+applied+linguistics+schmitt&ots=LWdqCN9UOF&sig=6S91RcmnRPJFqX8g3YlcZ-IOseY#v=onepage&q=vocabulary%20and%20applied%20linguistics%20schmitt&f=false

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