construct one’s own model of language.
One of the differences between structuring and restructuring is, as the prefix
implies, a matter of sequence. Structuring is formulating a hypothesis for the first time
while restructuring is formulating successive hypotheses (Batstone: 1994,41)
In the present project, the participants did not report any case of structuring because
it was not the first time that they dealt with the assigned grammatical forms (as it was
stated above, in the last section we were merely talking about renoticing). For this
reason, the discussion about the data gathered in Oaxaca/97 will be carried out in the
section for restructuration (see further section 7.2.3).
7.2.3 Practising: Restructuring and Proceduralising
As the reader must have noticed, in the operational model that I presented to the
learners (Fig. 7.3) restructuring is followed by practice and practice is followed by use,
as if it was a sequence of steps. The purpose of describing it this way was purely
analytic. Basically, I wanted the learners to be aware of the existence and importance of
these elements. In fact, in reality, there are two facts to take into account. First, language
practice and use cannot be separated from each other because both
employ the same psycholinguistic mechanisms, they are essentially
inseparable and often indistinguishable.. .(and because).. .analytic and
reflective activities designed to facilitate second language learning
inevitably involve language use, however deficient (Little; 1997b, 227)
Second, practice is a learning stage that encompasses two important psycholinguistic
processes: restructuring and proceduralising. Let me say more about the latter issue.
There are some differences between the way I conceive these learning processes
and the frameworks that I have been making reference to. In Batstone’s scheme (1994),
restructurating is a process that happens after structuring, through the formulation that
successive hypotheses that replace previous ones. According to him, restructuration is a
grammar issue that he places, therefore, in what he calls, the product perspective of
language learning. On the contrary, proceduralisation as
a process
that requires sustained practice in using grammar when the reins have been loosened,
and when learners are negotiating their own meanings (1994,73)
Is related to practice and placed within a process perspective.
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