Cognitive approaches to second language learning (1): general, implicit learning mechanisms

We think this division is helpful in acquiring a good understanding of the logic of cognitive theory, a range of major constructs and the research methods typical of cognitively oriented SLL research. Inevitably however we have been selective, and in particular we have not dealt here with the wide-ranging new field of complexity theory (Larsen-Freeman and Cameron, 2008; LarsenFreeman, 2011a and b). We have also not dealt with proposals to synthesize cognitive thinking about language processing with forms of generative linguistic theory (for example, Towell and Hawkins, 1994; Sharwood Smith, 2008; Truscott and Sharwood Smith, 2011). We will revisit these attempts to integrate a wider range of theoretical perspectives in Chapter 10.