Awareness in (I)SLA

Dear colleagues:

The construct ‘awareness’ is undoubtedly one of the more challenging constructs to operationalize and measure in both (instructed) second language acquisition and non-SLA fields of research. As Leow and Donatelli (2017) pointed out, “the multi-faceted nature of awareness is clearly exemplified in concepts that include perception, detection, and noticing, and also in type of learning or learning conditions (implicit, explicit, incidental, subliminal), type of consciousness (autonoetic, noetic, anoetic), and type of awareness (language, phenomenal, meta-cognitive, situational).” (p. 189). The construct has also been methodologically approached from both a nonconcurrent product-oriented (e.g., Robinson, 1996; Williams, 2005; Rebuschat, Hamrick, Riestenberg, Sachs, & Ziegler, 2013) and concurrent process-oriented (e.g., Leow, 1997, 2000; Rosa & Leow, 2004) perspective.  However, while the beneficial role of awareness (operationalized and measured both concurrently and non-concurrently) in L2 learning has been well established (e.g., Leow, 2000; Kerz, Wiechmann, & Riedel, 2017), there remains controversy as to whether such a role is important, clearly warranting further research on the role of awareness in the L2 learning process. 

The purpose of this issue is to probe deeper into several unanswered issues associated with the role of awareness in L2 learning, from theoretical, empirical, methodological, and pedagogical perspectives.  Issues may include the need to establish whether the construct ‘awareness’ is a dichotomy (aware vs. unaware) or occurs on a continuum (Hulstijn 2015; Leow 2000).  Similarly, further research needs to investigate the potential co-occurrence of implicit and/or explicit learning during the L2 learning process leading to implicit and/or explicit knowledge (N. Ellis 2015; R. Ellis 2005; Rebuschat et al., 2013).  In addition, there is a paucity of studies addressing different types or levels of the participant population.  To robustly address these and other associated awareness issues, there is clear need for methodological innovations designed to allow a more sensitive operationalization and coding of concurrent awareness data when levels of awareness are considered during the process of learning.  Similarly, nonconcurrent measures need to be designed to gather (triangulated) data on whether L2 learners do possess lower levels of target grammatical rules that fail to attain the level of partial or full metalinguistic verbalization, as coded by offline verbal reports or questionnaires.  These procedures may address the important appropriateness of categorizing participants to (a) aware or unaware status or (b) accessing implicit or explicit knowledge while shedding important information that contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of awareness in L2 learning and L2 knowledge.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor ([email protected]) or to the Languages editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

The tentative completion schedule is as follows:

• Abstract submission deadline: 1 March 2021
• Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 April 2021
• Full manuscript deadline: 31 October 2021

References

Ellis, N. C. (2015). Implicit AND explicit language learning: Their dynamic interface and complexity. In P. Rebuschat (Ed.), Implicit and explicit learning of languages (pp. 3-23). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Ellis, R. (2005). Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: A psychometric study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 141-172.

Hulstijn, J. H. (2015). Explaining phenomena of first and second language acquisition with the constructs of implicit and explicit learning: The virtues and pitfalls of a two-system view. In P. Rebuschat (Ed.), Implicit and explicit learning of languages (pp. 25-46). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kerz, E., Wiechmann, D., & Riedel, F. B. (2017). Implicit learning in the cloud: Investigating the role of awareness in the acquisition of L2 knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 39, 711-734.

Leow, R. P.  (2001). Attention, awareness and foreign language behavior.   Language Learning, 51, 113-155.

Leow, R. P.  (2000). A study of the role of awareness in foreign language behavior: Aware vs. unaware learners.  Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 557-584.

Leow, R. P., & Donatelli, L. (2017). The role of (un)awareness in SLA. Language Teaching, 50, 189-211.

Rebuschat, P., Hamrick, P., Sachs, R., Riestenberg, K., & Ziegler, N. (2013) Implicit and explicit knowledge of form–meaning connections: Evidence from subjective measures of awareness. In J. Bergsleithner, S. Frota, & J. K. Yoshioka (Eds.), Noticing: L2 studies and essays in honor of Dick Schmidt (pp. 255–275). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Robinson, P.  (1996). Learning simple and complex second language rules under implicit, incidental, rule-search and instructed conditions. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 27-68.

Rosa, E. M., & Leow, R. P. (2004). Awareness, different learning conditions, and second language development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 269-292.

Williams, J. N. (2005). Learning without awareness. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 269-304.

Prof. Dr. Ronald Leow
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• awareness
• unawareness
• implicit learning
• incidental learning