Terrazzo Presentation

Module 10

Digital Tool

Kyrsten Matthews

Sociocognitive

ApproachCh. 6- Atkinson Text

The term ʻsociocognitive’ is proposed by Atkinson as the hybrid of the social and the cognitive.The social is related to what is going on in the outside world; the cognitive is related to what is going on in the inside world. Atkinson (2002) elaborated on how these two notions are intertwined in SLA, based on the belief that language and language acquisition are social and cognitive.Sociocognitive, made up from socio and cognitive, covers both the social(including cultural) and cognitive phenomena, which are closely related to language and language learning/acquisition as Atkinson argues. (Evans, Matsuoka, 2004) https://www.ncn.ac.jp/academic/020/2004/2004jns-ncnj04.pdf

"Any single perspective on something as complex as SLA, no matter how revealing, can describe only a small part of the overall phenomenon, so it is crucial for different approaches to interact directly "

-Atkinson, 2011

How is the sociocognitive approach different from others in the Atkinson text? Atkinson explains that the sociocognitive approach does not use mathematically driven concepts to explain human behavior, while Larsen Freeman’s complexity theory approach does often draw on mathematical ideas. Atkinson also explains that while complexity theory looks at SLA retrospectively, the sociocognitive approach attempts to look at SLA processes as they occur.While CA-SLA and sociogonotive approaches both agree that cognition occurs “in the world,” there is a marked difference in that sociocognitive theory “draws no hard boundary between “inner” and “outer processes, preferring to envision them as occurring in an integrated sociocognitive space” (Atkinson, 2011).

SLA Afterthe Social Turn- The Pros

Looks at SLA beyond superficial dichotomiesNo longer sees language learners as "deficient" Language learning happens in the social and cognitive worlds (they are intertwined).Emphasizes the importance of individual variability in language development.

Interactive question

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