Customer Reviews

A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning (Oxford Applied Linguistics)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It seems the other reviewer (only one at this point - Charles Januzzi) defines psycholinguistics differently than I do. As Skehan writes himself, psycholinguistics is "the study of the psychological processes underlying language learning and use" (Skehan, 1998, p.1). Based on this definition, Skehan's entire book IS about psycholinguistics. As a student of second language acquisition and an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher myself, I have found this book a great resource. The first half of the book discusses psycholinguistics as it relates to instruction and testing. The second half of the book then discusses task-based learning (TBL) and how you can employ it in the classroom to support the psycholinguistic aspects of second language acquisition (SLA). Since TBL is a relatively new and promising area of research in the field of SLA, its investigation would not be complete if you overlooked Skehan's thoughts and contributions to TBL development.

In the end, I would probably give this book a 4-star rating since some of Skehan's ideas on how to implement task-based learning are not supported by current SLA research. However, since the other reviewer unfairly rated this book (in my opinion), I'm trying to "even the score" so to speak. Just because Mr. Januzzi's expectations for this book differed from the actual content, it does not mean the content itself is not worthwhile and informative.

This book was a major disappointment. The publisher (Oxford University Press) promises that it redresses a supposed imbalance between sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic ones in Language Teaching and Language Learning. Now one has to suppose that means this volume emphasizes psycholinguistics (since the word 'cognitive' is used in the title). That's interesting because (1) often sociolinguistic volumes say they redress an imbalance the other way and (2) there is very little about psycholinguistics or cognition in language learning in this rather long book (what there is comes from Second Language Acquisition research and is not cross-disciplinary in nature) .

If you teach a foreign language and want a book that reviews the the SLA research around the all-important concept of the 'task', this is a worthwhile read--though don't expect much that is directly applicable to teaching. (Unsurprisingly, a lot of the research cited comes from Skehan himself, so if you've read his papers, you don't need the book.)

Outside of that, it's a waste of time. It also fluctuates stylistically from very well written to turgid and nearly unreadable.

This is a very unimpressive effort from Skehan. The "cognitive" part consists of rather idiosyncratic linguistic theories, for which no evidence is provided. Indeed, his evidence about individual differences among learners does not offer any significant support for his theories. As noted by another reviewer, the main focus is on experiments in which small numbers of language learning subjects completed language learning tasks. Skehan eventually provides suggestions about what tasks should be like. However, rather famously, the actual tasks he employs in his experiments do not at all fit with his eventual recommendations. The unintentional humor only slightly enlivens turgid prose

My point was not about my expectations of what psycholinguistics is or is not. I could, however, point out to the other reviewer that most research from that field does not cover L2 acquisition, but rather languages that are acquired 'naturally', from birth.

My main point is about what a cognitive approach to SLA should be. I don't think or expect it to be so behaviouristic. Nor do I expect a book marketed as drawing on psycholinguistics to be so lacking in citations of research from psycholinguistics.

As it is, this book is more a recapitulation of a lot of SLA research about tasks, much of it from Skehan himself. The title and the blurb are misleading. As for its applicability, that is, like so many things, what sort of 'stone soup' the ELT practitioner wishes to make. I highly doubt if Skehan teaches a SL or FL.

The Robinson book which Amazon pairs this with for selling is a far superior collection of research and analysis, by the way. I will try to get around to reviewing it.