These three concepts are all related to the fascinating phenomenon of how complex knowledge and behavior can

emerge from simpler processes. Here's a breakdown of each:

Emergentism:

The idea that systems composed of simple interacting parts can exhibit properties that are not present in the
individual parts themselves. These emergent properties arise from the collective behavior of the parts and cannot
be easily predicted from their individual characteristics.

Examples: An ant colony demonstrating complex foraging behavior, a flock of birds displaying coordinated
movements, or even the emergence of human consciousness from the interactions of billions of neurons.

Cross-situational learning:

A way of learning in which an individual extracts patterns and regularities from multiple, similar but not
identical situations. This allows them to generalize their knowledge to new situations without explicit
instruction.

Examples: A child learning the meaning of a word by hearing it used in different contexts, or a robot learning to
navigate a maze by exploring different paths within the maze.

Statistical learning:

A type of learning that involves identifying patterns and regularities in data (often large datasets) by analyzing
the frequency and co-occurrence of features. This allows systems to make predictions or decisions based on
these patterns.

Examples: Spam filters classifying emails, recommendation systems suggesting products, or language models
predicting the next word in a sentence.

Connections between the three:

Emergentism suggests that complex learning can arise from the interaction of simpler processes like cross-
situational and statistical learning.

Cross-situational learning allows individuals to extract statistical regularities from their environment, providing
the data for statistical learning algorithms to operate on.

Statistical learning can be used to model and understand the emergent properties of complex systems, including
those arising from cross-situational learning.

Source: Formulaic Language and Second Language Acquisition: Zipf and the Phrasal Teddy Bear by
Nick C. Ellis

• A review of second language acquisition, "Sequencing in SLA" (Ellis, 1996), argued that language acquisition
is essentially sequence learning.

• The article proposed that learners with better sequencing ability in phonological short-term memory (PSTM)
are more successful in acquiring vocabulary and grammar.

• The article argued that learners' long-term knowledge of lexical sequences in formulaic phrases serves as the
database for the acquisition of language grammar.

• The article also reviewed evidence that language processing is sensitive to the sequential probabilities of
linguistic elements, at all levels from phonemes to phrases.
• The article proposed a common pattern of developmental sequence in both first (L1) and second (L2) language
acquisition was from formulaic phrase, to limited-scope slot-and-frame pattern, to fully productive schematic
pattern.

• The article reviewed studies of individual differences (IDs) in PSTM and L2 vocabulary and grammar
acquisition.

• The article also summarized evidence that language processing is sensitive to the statistical properties of
formulaic language in terms of frequency and transitional probability.

• The article evaluated research into the putative developmental sequence, from formula to low-scope pattern to
creative construction, in L1 and L2.

• The article also considered the implications of the statistics of formulaicity in usage for developmental
sequences of language acquisition.

Understanding the Role of Pronunciation and Speech Memory in Language Learning

• Hummel (2009) found that aptitude, Pronunciation and Stance Memory (PSTM) predict 29% of the variance in
L2 proficiency. PSTM was a stronger predictor of success in the lower proficiency subgroup.

• Wen (2011) found that both PSTM and working memory were related to syntactic complexity and lexical
diversity measures of L2 learners’ oral speech. Higher PSTM scores were related to greater fluency, global
accuracy, lexical density, and syntactic complexity of the L2 learners’ oral speech.

• Three recent studies suggest direct effects of PSTM on grammar acquisition. Williams and Lovatt (2003)
demonstrated that individual differences in PSTM were related to adults’ ability to learn determiner–noun
agreement rules in semi-automatic microlanguages.

• French and O’Brien (2008) examined PSTM in L2 grammar learning in a group of native French-speaking
children undergoing a five-month intensive English program. PSTM significantly predicted L2 grammar scores
at Time two.

• Martin and Ellis (2012) analyzed PSTM and WM and their relationship with vocabulary and grammar learning
in an artificial mini-language. They found significant independent effects of PSTM and WM upon L2
vocabulary learning and upon L2 grammar learning.

• PSTM affects the efficiency of learning novel word forms and the retention of sequences of forms,
contributing to grammatical development through processes of analysis.

Study on Statistical Learning, Verbal Working Memory, and Language Comprehension

• Misyak and Christiansen (2012) found strong interrelationships between statistical learning ability, verbal
working memory (vWM), and language comprehension.

• Adjacent statistical learning was strongly associated with both vWM and STM performance, while
nonadjacent statistical learning was more associated with vWM than STM.

• The learning and memory skills involved in vWM tasks may be more closely related to the learning of
nonadjacencies than adjacencies, whereas STM may be more closely associated with mechanisms subserving
the learning of adjacent dependencies.

• Martin and Ellis (2012) found that the contributions of PSTM and WM to grammar learning were separable.

• The short-term representation of lexical items and lexical sequences promotes their long-term consolidation,
allowing statistical learning of grammatical patterns and dependencies.
• Future research should scrutinize interrelations between PSTM and WM, implicit and explicit learning, and
statistical learning of adjacent and discontinuous dependencies as individual differences.

• Sensitivity to formulaic sequences in comprehension and production processing has been investigated.

• Phonetic processing and lexical perception are affected by formulaic knowledge.

• Experiments showed that larger units and their parts compete when the whole-form is of sufficient frequency.

Understanding Reading Time and Formulaic Knowledge

• Reading time is influenced by formulaic knowledge, with native speakers processing high-frequency three-
word sentences faster than low-frequency sentences.

• Lexical decision tasks show that native speakers preferentially process frequent verb-argument and
booster/maximizer-adjective two-word collocations.

• The first word of low-, middle-, high-frequency, and psychologically associated collocations primes the
processing of the second word in native speakers.

• Comprehenders are also sensitive to the frequencies of compositional four-word phrases. More frequent
phrases are processed faster than less frequent ones.

• Lexical bundles (LBs), frequently recurring strings of words, are stored and processed holistically. LBs and
sentences containing LBs are read faster than control sentence fragments.

• Parsing time reflects the more frequent uses of a word. Phrase frequency affects parsing in a similar way.

• Measures of surprisal account for the costs in reading time that result when the current word is not predicted
by the preceding context.

• Knowledge of formulaic sequences affects maintenance of material in short-term memory and accurate
subsequent production. Two- and three-year-olds are more likely to repeat frequent sequences correctly than to
repeat infrequent sequences.

Language Processing and Priming

• Language processing exhibits recency effects, where a construction recently experienced in discourse is reused
in the "dance of dialogue."

• Syntactic priming refers to using a particular syntactic structure given prior exposure to the same structure.

• Learning occurs after just one incidental exposure, with adult native speakers recognizing full sentences they
have been exposed to only once in noninteractive texts of 300 words.

• Verbatim memory occurs even when lexical content and memory for gist is controlled for.

• All lexical items are primed for grammatical and collocational use, making it part of our knowledge of the
word that it regularly co-occurs with particular other words or grammatical functions.

• Experiments have shown that both native and nonnative speakers respond to formulaic sequences significantly
faster and with fewer errors than to nonformulaic sequences.

• Four experimental procedures were used to determine how the corpus-linguistic metrics of frequency and
mutual information (MI) are represented implicitly in native and nonnative speakers, affecting their accuracy
and fluency of processing of the Academic Formulas List.
• Frequency was the major determinant for nonnative speakers, but for native speakers, it was predominantly the
MI of the formula which determined processability.

Priming and Language Acquisition in Second Language Acquisition

• Priming refers to the influence of prior exposure to specific language forms or meanings on a speaker's
subsequent language comprehension or production.

• Extensive exposure to formulaic sequences increases fluency of speech production.

• A study by Taguchi (2007) showed that students who received extensive practice on grammatical chunks
produced twice as many grammatical chunks in the second data-collection session, with a wider range of chunk
types.

• The study suggests that memorized chunks serve as a basis for the creative construction of discourse.

• The findings argue against a clear distinction between linguistic forms stored as formulas and those computed
or openly constructed.

• Grammatical and lexical knowledge are not stored or processed in different mental modules but form a
continuum from heavily entrenched and conventionalized formulaic units to loosely connected but collaborative
elements.

• Language users are sensitive to the sequential statistics of these dependencies, large and small.

• The phenomenon is entirely graded, with all linguistic material being represented and processed in a similar
fashion.

• The results encourage an emergentist view whereby all linguistic material is represented and processed in a
similar fashion, where learners are sensitive to the frequencies of occurrence of constructions and their
transitional probabilities.

• Language learning is implicit learning, based on frequency and probabilistic knowledge, but it does not deny
the importance of noticing in the initial registration of a pattern recognition unit.

Defining Formulaic Language

• Formulaicity is defined in terms of the strength of serial dependencies at all levels of granularity and at each
transition in a string of forms.

• Formulaic units are heavily entrenched, while creative constructions consist of strings of slots each potentially
filled by many types.

• The more frequent and the more coherent a string, the faster it is processed.

Operationalizing Formulas

• Formulas need to be operationalized in statistical terms that measure frequency and coherence.

• Factors such as the frequency of the whole n-gram, the length of utterance, the coherence of the string, the
frequency of each of the words involved, and whether a tune goes with it are considered.

Corpus-Linguistic Techniques
• Corpus-linguistic techniques can provide methods for the quantification of recurring sequences and for
gauging the strength of association between the component words.

• Three broad options for the basis of determination of formulaic sequences are frequency, association, and
native norms.

Frequency

• Formulas are recurrent sequences, and identifying strings that recur often is based solely on frequency.

• High-frequency strings like How are you, Nice day today, and Good to see you are formulaic sequences.

• High-frequency n-grams occur often but do not necessarily have clearly identifiable or distinctive functions or
meanings.

Understanding Association in Psycholinguistic Sequences

Statistical Measures of Association

• Psycholinguistically salient sequences cohere more than expected by chance, making association measures
more relevant.

• MI is a statistical measure used in information science to assess the degree to which words in a phrase occur
together more frequently than expected by chance.

• MI privileges coherent strings constituted by low-frequency items, like longitude and latitude.

Cross-Sectional Analysis of Association

• Gries and colleagues are developing measures for collostructional analysis of the degree of association
between a word and a construction based on the Fisher-Yates exact probability test.

• There is interest in determining the best measure of association of cue and outcome to predict learning, known
as contingency learning.

• Cognitive science approaches to rational cognition based upon Bayesian probabilistic reasoning are the fastest
growing area.

Native Norms

• Definitions purely in terms of frequency or association might reflect that language production makes use of
sequences that are ready-made by the speaker or writer, but these need not necessarily be native-like.

• Nonnative academic writing can often be identified by the high-frequency of use of phrases that come from
strategies of translation or formulas that occur frequently in spoken language but are frowned upon as informal
in academic writing.

• The formalization of L2 language by how well it uses the formulaic sequences and grammatico-lexical
techniques of the norms of its reference genre is also a criterion for formulaicity.
The Potential Developmental Sequence from Formulaic Phrase, to Limited-scope Slot-and-Frame Pattern, to
Fully Productive Schemetic Pattern

• Assessing the degree to which formulas feed into the acquisition process entails searching for developmental
sequences for particular constructions which are seeded by particular memorized formulaic phrases.

• Learners typically do not achieve native-like idiomaticity due to the low-frequency, low-transparency formulas
being targets for learning, rather than seeds of learning.

Formulaic Seeds in Language Acquisition: A Longitudinally Contended Question

• The debate in child language research revolves around whether children's early language uses abstract
categories and principles or consists of concrete constructions or formulas.

• Theoretical positions suggest children don't need to learn grammar as the principles and categories of grammar
are innate.

• The process of syntactic development consists of acquiring a large repertoire of constructions and formulas
and statistically inducing increasingly abstract categories based on experience hearing the types of items that fill
the sequential slots of language usage.

• Dense longitudinal corpora of naturalistic language development capture about 10% of the child’s speech and
the input they are exposed to.

• The traceback method of analyzing adult–child conversation shows that when a child produces a novel
utterance, the ingredients for that utterance are often found earlier in the transcript.

• Children are initially conservative in their language in that their production is more formulaaic than openly
combinatorial.

• Observations contradict this, with children showing more variety in the ways in which they use verbs from
their very first uses than one would expect if first use is entirely supported by formulas based on memorized
strings of input.

• Infants can acquire considerable knowledge about the patterns of language, including abstractions from the
input. These abstract categories and formulaic patterns interact in the comprehension and production of
language.

Longitudinally Observing Formulaic Seeds in Second Language Acquisition

• Longitudinal studies support the existence of formulaic seeds in second language acquisition.

• A study by Myles (2004; Myles, Mitchell, & Hooper, 1999) found that multimorphemic sequences beyond
learners' grammatical competence are common in early L2 production.

• These sequences contain forms like finite verbs, wh-questions, and clitics, but these properties are not present
outside chunks initially.

• Early grammars consist of lexical projections and formulaic sequences, showing no evidence of functional
categories.

• The development of chunks within individual learners over time shows a clear correlation between chunk use
and linguistic development.

• Do-negation learning was initially reliant on one specific instantiation of the pattern, I don't know, which later
expanded to be used with other verbs and pronouns.
• A longitudinal case study of a 12-year-old Spanish learner of English, Ana, showed that Ana began by
producing only a few types of complex constructions that were lexically selected by a small set of verbs which
gradually seeded an increasingly large range of constructions.

• Acquisition of Japanese tense-aspect morphology in L1 Russian learner Alla showed that some verbs were
produced exclusively with imperfective aspect marker -te i-(ru), while other verbs were rarely used with -te i-
(ru).

• Intermediate learners begin with item-based learning and low-scope patterns, and these formulas allow them to
gradually gain control over tense-aspect.

• Linguistic knowledge should be considered a formulaic-creative continuum.

Study on Future Expression in Second Language Acquisition

• Bardovi-Harlig (2002) found that future will emerges first and outnumbers the use of tokens of going to in a
longitudinal study of 16 adult learners of ESL.

• The rapid spread of will to a variety of verbs suggests that for most learners, there is either little initial
formulaic use of will or it is so brief that it cannot be detected in this corpus.

• Evidence of formulaicity in early use of going to was found in five of the 16 learners, with the formula
breaking down into smaller parts, from the full I am going to write about to the core going to.

• However, other learners showed greater variety of use of going to, with different verbs and different person-
number forms, from its earliest appearance in the diary.

• Eskildsen (2009) analyzed longitudinal oral L2 classroom interaction for the use of can by one student, Carlo.

• Hall (2010) reported that formulas were minimally present in the learner output and that constructions and
formulas of similar structure coexisted, but a developmental relationship between formulas and constructions
was not clearly evident.

• Factors determining the outcomes of such studies include methodological factors, L1 acquisition versus L2
acquisition, recognition of formulas, transfer from L1, and types of exposure.

Source: The role of feedback and instruction on the crosssituational learning of vocabulary and
morphosyntax: Mixed effects models reveal local and global effects on acquisition

Understanding First and Second Language Acquisition

• First language acquisition impacts theories of second language acquisition.

• Learners must understand utterance meanings and grammatical roles through vocabulary and sentence
structure.

• This issue affects both first and second language learners.

• The 'chicken and egg' problem arises when vocabulary needs to understand grammar and grammar needs to
determine vocabulary meaning.

• One solution is to focus on acquiring one aspect of the language.

• Previous studies have exposed learners to vocabulary first, then presented it in sentences to support grammar
development.
• The necessity and usefulness of this separation of vocabulary and grammar training for language learning are
unclear.

Cross-Situational Learning in First Language Acquisition

• Infants hear words in multi-word utterances and are surrounded by multiple possible referents.

• Children do not receive explicit pre-training in vocabulary before they receive the vocabulary embedded in the
utterance.

• Defining how each word in the utterance refers to aspects of the environment is a complex problem due to the
infinite possible referents.

• Yu and Ballard (2007) found that multiple potential objects were present when the child heard each word.

• Over multiple occurrences of the word, particular words tended to co-occur with particular objects that were
within the child’s view.

• Adults and infants could learn particular word-referent mappings from these cross-situational statistics.

• This cross-situational learning is a powerful mechanism for acquiring vocabulary from multiple words and
multiple objects presented simultaneously.

• However, this experimental situation does not reflect the complexity facing the learner of vocabulary and
grammar in an unknown language.

• Monaghan and Mattock (2012) showed that adult language learners could cope with the added complexity of
words occurring without referents for all words present in the environment.

• Studies of cross-situational word learning for verbs have shown that child learners can acquire word-action
mappings in a similar manner to acquisition of nouns.

• Both the nouns and the verbs could be learned from these cross-situational statistics, without participants
needing prior information about the grammar of the language.

Cross-Situational Learning and Vocabulary Acquisition

• Previous studies on cross-situational learning focused on vocabulary acquisition, but did not consider the
acquisition of grammar alongside vocabulary.

• Vocabulary can be acquired from utterances that include more than lists of words from the same grammatical
category.

• Previous studies have been extremely simple, focusing only on intransitive sentences, which do not address the
complexity of natural language grammar.

• Walker et al. extended the cross-situational paradigm to a more complex design using a language with
transitive sentences and complex scenes.

• Despite the complexity, learning in an adult population was successful, with vocabulary in each grammatical
category being acquired greater than chance.

• Walker et al. also tested the ability to recognize grammatical versus ungrammatical word sequences, finding
this successful.

• The problem of acquisition of vocabulary and grammar was resolvable through cross-situational statistics, with
learners tracking multiple possible mappings between words and aspects of complex scenes.
Effects of Feedback and Explicit Information on Language Learning

• Previous studies show that learners are adept at detecting complex co-occurrences between words in utterances
and multiple features of scenes.

• Feedback on whether the learner is making correct assumptions is not necessary for acquisition.

• In second language learning, feedback is known to provide a boost to learning, especially for more explicit
types of feedback.

• The role of explicit feedback about correct selection of referents in cross-situational learning tasks has not been
comprehensively tested.

• The study aimed to determine how minimal feedback, without providing information about particular words or
grammatical structures, may help guide the learner.

Study on Explicit Information and Language Acquisition

• Cross-situational learning studies show that vocabulary and grammar can be learned simultaneously without
explicit instruction about either.

• Explicit information about language structure supports learning, but its impact on language representation in
second language acquisition is not fully understood.

• Monaghan et al. (2019) made progress in addressing this question by instructing participants about the role of
function words or leaving them to acquire the language cross-situationally without information about the
grammar.

• The study only tested acquisition of vocabulary, and was limited in the range of grammatical categories
included in the language.

• The study aimed to test the role of explicit instruction about the grammatical structure of a more complex
artificial language, taking into account tests of grammatical structure and different vocabulary types.

• The study used mixed effects modelling approaches to investigate the contingency of learning based on
previous performance as learning proceeds.

• The analysis involved comparing groups given explicit information about the grammatical structure to groups
given no such information and had to derive this knowledge from information provided in the input.

• The study also included fixed effects the participants’ responses to the previous utterance containing the same
verb, noun, or adjective as the current trial.

• The experimental study varying feedback and instruction conditions in learning a complex artificial language
from cross-situational statistics was conducted.

• The study predicts that feedback about performance will improve learning of both vocabulary and grammar as
training proceeds.

• Explicit instruction will have a direct influence on representation of the grammatical information, but also an
indirect influence on acquisition of vocabulary within this grammar due to the interdependency of vocabulary
and grammatical structure in early stages of learning.

Language Acquisition Study

• The study focuses on the acquisition of a complex, artificial language through co-occurrences between
utterances and scenes containing objects.

• Participants learn the meaning of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and grammatical role function words by tracking
cross-situational statistics between words and varying properties of the scenes they viewed.

• Participants also acquire the grammatical structure of the language, showing learning of the syntax in terms of
sensitivity to word order regularities of words in the speech.

• The study shows that the conditions under which children acquire language, where both vocabulary and
grammar are uncertain, are not an impossible obstacle to language acquisition.

• Learning is extremely rapid under these conditions, with participants better than chance at knowing the
meaning of the words and identifying the syntax within those utterances.

• The study predicts that both feedback and explicit information about the language structure ought to support
learners further in developing understanding of the language.

• Feedback improved learning during training, particularly in the intermediary stages of learning.

• For vocabulary learning, participants in the feedback condition scored higher overall than participants in the
other conditions.

• In terms of explicit instruction, no improvement in learning or testing performance was found compared to the
implicit condition.

Study on Language Learning and Grammar Acquisition

• Explicit instruction about grammatical structure improves performance compared to conditions without
advance information about grammar.

• This may be due to the inductive nature of the task, where explicit knowledge of language structure emerges
gradually during learning.

• The study aimed to determine which aspects of language are penetrated by feedback and instruction about
syntax.

• The study found that the general improvement in training and testing performance for the feedback condition
was not found in terms of accuracy on the syntax testing.

• Feedback seemed to support vocabulary acquisition but did not affect the acquisition of word order.

• The improvement may be focused on one property of the language – the acquisition of grammar and
acquisition of vocabulary.

• The study also found that the distinction between instructional effects on vocabulary and grammar learning is
due to differences in methods of testing.

• The study showed that the effects of local context during training in the study were complex and not generic
across all aspects of the language being learned.

• Responding correctly to a trial containing the same verb or the same adjective in the second position was more
likely to be correct in a trial containing the same information.

Local Effects on Learning

• The position of the verb and second adjective in an utterance can explain the accuracy of learning.
• The second adjective and verb are words immediately following high-frequency marker words in the speech.

• Previous knowledge of these words has the largest effect on learning as they appear in highly salient positions
within the utterance.

Two Theories of Language Learning

• Propose-but-verify theory: Language learners generate a hypothesis about a word-referent mapping and search
for confirmatory evidence. If the proposed mapping is incorrect, the information in future learning situations
will be weak.

• Associative learning theory: Participants gradually acquire associations between words and referents in the
environment. Co-occurring words and referents become stronger as a consequence of exposure.

Feedback and Learning

• Feedback can support inductively derived cross-situational information.

• Both theories are insufficient to account for the current effects of local context on learning.

• Identifying where in the utterance previous contextual knowledge affects performance enables us to show
which aspect of the utterance is being proposed and verified.

Results and Future Directions

• Inductively derived, associative learning between complex utterances and complex scenes can drive learning
of an artificial language.

• Acquisition of vocabulary and grammar are not affected in the same way by different instructions.

• Feedback affects global learning, and local context also affects learning in terms of the importance of previous
verb and final adjective knowledge on responses to utterances containing the same words.

• Future studies could combine explicit instruction and feedback to test whether both acquisition of word order
and vocabulary are supported by differential mechanisms during learning.

Source: Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar by R. Ellis

Challenges of Grammar Teaching:

 Gap between L2 learners and native speakers: Learners struggle to acquire formulaic sequences and
depth of knowledge that native speakers have.
 Traditional focus on isolated grammar rules: May not reflect how language is actually used and can be
demotivating for learners.
 Limited effectiveness of explicit instruction: Isolated grammar rules may not be easily transferred to
real-world usage.

Benefits of Formulaic Sequences:

  Increased vocabulary size and fluency: Knowing common word combinations can improve
comprehension and production.
 Enhanced comprehension of figurative language: Formulaic sequences often carry specific meanings
beyond individual words.
 Improved oral proficiency and range of expression: Frequent use of formulaic sequences can lead to
more natural and confident speaking.

Pedagogical Interventions:

 Drawing attention to formulaic sequences: Highlight common phrases and patterns in authentic
materials.
 Stimulating lookups and practice: Encourage dictionary and corpus use to explore formulaic sequences.
 Helping learners memorize and internalize: Use spaced repetition, role-playing, and storytelling
activities.

Emerging Research Areas:

 Psychological status of formulaic sequences in L2 learners: Understanding how learners process and
store these sequences.
 Effectiveness of interventions for specific types of formulas: Tailoring instruction to different language
features.
 Individual learner factors in formulaic sequence acquisition: Exploring the role of motivation, aptitude,
and learning styles.

Overall:

 Formulaic sequences are crucial for L2 learners but pose a significant acquisition challenge.
 Pedagogical interventions should focus on awareness, practice, and internalization of these sequences.
 Further research is needed to refine instruction and understand individual learner differences.

Source: Distinctions in the acquisition of vocabulary and grammar: An individual differences approach

Individual Differences in Vocabulary and Grammar Acquisition

• Early stages of second language learning involve ambiguity, requiring learners to detect word boundaries,
decode meanings, identify lexical categories, and understand syntax relations.

• Individual variation in the ease of language acquisition is a critical question in cognitive sciences.

• Cross-situational learning, where vocabulary is presented across multiple ambiguous situations without
feedback, is possible for both children and adults.

• Studies show that 12 to 14-month-old infants can learn novel nouns and verbs by tracking cross-trial statistics.

• Function words can aid cross-situational learning of nouns and verbs, compared to an artificial language where
function words do not co-occur with grammatical categories.

• Learning mechanisms underlying cross-situational learning are still a debate, with some theories proposing
associative, accumulation of statistical probabilities and others hypothesis-testing accounts.

• Studies have shown that with more ambiguity in the learning environment, learning is more associative.
• A novel paradigm, involving a verb-final syntax and nouns, verbs, adjectives, and case markers, was
demonstrated for adults to learn a more complex artificial language under cross-situational learning conditions.

• This paradigm may be a useful proxy for early stages of language learning under immersion settings for L2
adults in future research.

Understanding Natural Language Acquisition

Key Questions about Natural Language Acquisition

• The study by Rebuschat et al. lacked a comprehensive understanding of the long-term retention of syntactic
and vocabulary knowledge.

• The durability of learning complex language through cross-situational learning conditions is yet to be
explored.

• The study tests learners' knowledge of vocabulary and syntax immediately after training and after a 24-hour
delay.

• The relationship between learning syntax and vocabulary is underexplored, with potential differences in
individual differences in learning and memory.

Relations Between Vocabulary and Syntax

• The learning of syntax and vocabulary has led to proposals for independence or inter-relatedness.

• Previous studies have trained participants on vocabulary before testing them on grammatical structure.

• Some models treat vocabulary and syntax as distinct, while others suggest they depend on a single, domain-
general learning mechanism.

Individual Differences in Cross-Situational Learning

• Acquisition of vocabulary and syntax may be sensitive to individual differences in memory.

• Types of memory considered include phonological short-term memory (PSTM), working memory capacity,
declarative memory, and procedural memory.

• Working memory capacity has been linked to noticing grammatical regularities in language and online
language processing.

• A consensus on the role of working memory capacity under incidental learning conditions is yet to be reached.

Understanding Language Learning: Declarative, Procedural, and Statistical Memory

Declarative Memory:

• Long-term memory system for storing episodic and semantic knowledge.

• Fast-learning, flexible system that can learn both explicitly and implicitly.

• Linked to vocabulary acquisition and initial stages of grammar learning.

• Slower-learning procedural memory is involved in pattern recognition and habit formation.

• Hypothesized to be involved in grammar learning, including non-idiosyncratic aspects of vocabulary learning.

• Procedural memory takes over from declarative memory at later stages of the acquisition process.

Procedural and Declarative Memory Systems:

• Items can be learned using either or often both systems simultaneously.

• Learning conditions can affect which system takes a lead role.

• Explicit learning conditions may encourage reliance on the declarative memory system, while more implicit
conditions may force the use of procedural memory systems.

Statistical Learning Ability:

• Capacity to implicitly keep track of statistical information in the input to acquire linguistic information.

• Predicts success in a number of aspects of language learning.

• Predicts vocabulary development, sentence processing, and the acquisition of syntax.

• Question remains about the extent of overlap between statistical learning, procedural memory, and implicit
learning constructs.

Study on Adult Learners' Acquisition of Syntax and Vocabulary via Cross-Situational Learning

• The study replicated and extended Rebuschat et al.'s research by investigating adult learners' acquisition of
syntax and vocabulary of a novel language via cross-situational learning.

• The study used a combination of statistical learning mechanisms, syntactic and semantic bootstrapping, and a
propose-but-verify procedure.

• The order of acquisition was similar to Rebuschat et al.'s findings, with verbs and basic word order learned
first, followed by nouns, adjectives, and case markers.

• The study suggests that the order of acquisition in this study can be generalised to first language acquisition,
despite differing levels of pre-existing knowledge and cognitive development.

• The study found that learning effects can be retained overnight, and performance improved with tests for
verbs, word order, and case markers, albeit for the latter non-significantly.

• The study recommends future studies into cross-situational learning include delayed post-tests to show that
learning is robust and to catch any learning effects brought on through consolidation.

• The study found that acquisition of word order and verb learning were interdependent, suggesting that
participants first learned one referent for the final position, and therefore its word category, before going on to
learn the referents for the other actions.

• Nouns, adjectives, and case markers were also interdependent but acquired somewhat independently of verbs
and word order.

• The results support a view of language where the syntactic knowledge associated with case markers begins to
develop only after the syntactic roles and semantic meanings of a core vocabulary of content words have been
learned.
Study on Individual Differences in Cross-Situational Learning

• The study investigates the role of short and long-term memory systems (PSTM, working memory capacity,
declarative memory, and procedural memory) in the acquisition of artificial language under cross-situational
learning conditions.

• Working memory capacity and PSTM did not predict success on lexical test scores, suggesting that working
memory capacity is primarily used when language is learned under explicit conditions.

• For tests 1 to 4, component 1, which included nouns, adjectives, and case markers, was predicted by SRT,
assessing procedural memory.

• Component 2, which included verbs and word order, was predicted by MLAT-V, assessing declarative memory.

• The results do not align with proposals that associate vocabulary learning primarily with declarative and
grammar learning with procedural memory.

• An alternative explanation is that acquiring the lexical categories which comprised the noun phrase required
more pattern learning than for verbs and for completion of the grammaticality judgment task, which tested
knowledge of basic word order.

• In the 24-hr delayed test 5, component 1, which contained adjectives, nouns, and markers, was predicted by
MLAT-V, the measure of declarative memory.

• The study suggests that a delayed post-test on the SRT task could be better predictors for performance on
delayed tests for nouns, adjectives, and case markers.

• The study confirms that it is possible for adults to learn syntax and vocabulary simultaneously under cross-
situational learning conditions and that the order of acquisition follows verb-dominant language acquisition.

• The study also suggests that the patterns of results do not neatly correspond with a distinction between
grammar and vocabulary learning. Future studies should continue to investigate individual differences and how
they cohere.