Consciousness and Second Language Learning

By (author) John Truscott

Publication date:

13 November 2014

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781783092666

This book explores the place of consciousness in second language learning. It offers extensive background information on theories of consciousness and provides a detailed consideration of both the nature of consciousness and the cognitive context in which it appears. It presents the established Modular Online Growth and Use of Language (MOGUL) framework and explains the place of consciousness within this framework to enable a cognitively conceptualised understanding of consciousness in second language learning. It then applies this framework to fundamental concerns of second language acquisition, those of perception and memory, looking at how second language representations come to exist in the mind and what happens to these representations once they have been established (memory consolidation and restructuring).

1. Introduction: Setting the Problem

Part I. Consciousness in Mind: Building a Framework

2. The Mind: Representation and Processing

3. Theories of Consciousness

4. MOGUL: A Framework for Understanding Consciousness and Learning

5. Consciousness in the MOGUL Framework

Part II. Consciousness in Second Language Learning: Applying the Framework

6. Consciousness in Second Language Learning: A Selective Review

7. Perception: Processing Input

8. Memory Consolidation and Restructuring

9. Conclusion: Consciousness in Second Language Learning

References

This is a masterly and enlightening treatment of the challenging topic that is consciousness. It is informed by cutting-edge research from within cognitive science which is then applied, in clear and concise terms, to the vexed but vital question of how conscious processes might influence the acquisition and use of second languages. Highly recommended.