ABSTRACT
Various approaches to second language (L2) acquisition can be labeled as “usage-based.” Connectionism is one strand of research in L2 acquisition that seeks to investigate how simple associative learning mechanisms such as the kind of contingency analysis mentioned earlier meets the complex language evidence available to a learner in their input and output. Children learning their native language only acquire the meanings of temporal adverbs quite late in development. Under normal first language circumstances, usage optimally tunes the language system to the input; under these circumstances of low salience of L2 form and blocking, however, all the extra input in the world can sum to nothing, with interlanguage sometimes being described as having “fossilized”. The effect of a learner’s L1 is no longer considered the exclusive determinant of L2 acquisition as proposed in the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis.
