Second Language Acquisition and Social

Coordination

Seán RobertsLEC,

University of Edinburgh

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Second Language Acquisition

Child Acquisition

Rapid

Effortless

Implicit

Universal

Adult Acquisition

Slow

Difficult

Explicit

Rarely native competence

Why?

Adult SLAWhy are adults worse at SLA?Constraints on Memory

Paradis (2004), Ullman (2001)

Hagen 2008: Memory changes to fit social structure (interactions between groups)

BUT: Language Changes to fit social structure(social structure of learners)Christiansen & Chater, 2008, Lupyan & Dale, 2010

Procedural and Declarative Memory

Procedural Memory for GrammarDeclarative Memory for Lexicon

Paradis (2004), Ullman (2001), DiGiulio (2004)

The ability to incorporate knowledge into procedural memory atrophies in adults

So they compensate by using declarative memory

Procedural Declarative

Age

Child vs. Adult Acquisition

Linguistic capacities provide insights into the evolutionary pressures acting on our ancestors

Hagen (2008):

Atrophy of procedural memory suggests that language acquisition was useful for children,but not for adults

Adult SLA was not selected for propagation.

Adult SLA erodes due to drift

Human nature

Linguistic capacities provide insights into the societies of our ancestors

Adults are not good at SLA:Hobbesian competitiveness

Children are good at bilingualism:

Rousseauian egalitarianism

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Procedural Memory Declines in adulthood

Linguistic diversity suggests isolation

Not much opportunity for trade

Conquering another group is easier and more rewarding than learning their language

SLA and Social Structure

Decline of Procedural Memory starts late in the life of early humans.

Gareth Roberts (2010): Linguistic diversity may stem from competition

Nettle and Romanie (2000): Social investment when trade is redundant

Hirchfield (2008): Exogamous marriageNot much warfare if there is little contact

Alternative Hypothesis

Languages change much faster than genesLanguages adapt to the cognitive niche of its

learnersChristiansen & Chater (2008)

HYP If children (the learners) are still developing declarative memory, then language will adapt to procedural memory.

So language is not adapted for adults using declarative memory

Languages adapt to Social Structure

Lupyan & Dale (2010):

Esoteric populations:

Few speakers, small dispersal, little contact with other communities:

Language is Morphologically complex

Exoteric populations

Many speakers, widely dispersed, many second language speakers:

Language uses Lexical strategies

Log PopulationEnglishFirst Language: 300-400 millionSecond Language: 200 - 14,000 million

(Ethnologue, SIL International)

Lupyan & Dale(2010)

Com

plex

ity S

core

Summary

If there are many child learners(procedural memory users)the language will adapt to use morphological strategies of distinction which are easier to learn using procedural memory

If there are many adult learners (declarative memory users)the language will adapt to use lexical strategies of distinction which are easier to learn using declarative memory

Conclusion

Hagen: Inferring social structure from the structure of memory: Memory adapts to small, isolated populations.

Alternative: Inferring social structure from language structure: Language adapts to learners

Inferences about past social structures may not be possible because of rate of change in languages