Abstract:

Compared to complexity, difficulty is not a popular term in applied linguistics (AL) and second language acquisition (SLA) research.  This is surprising, because key to understanding how second languages are learned is understanding the difficulties that are associated with it. There is ample evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, that second language acquisition is indeed difficult (at least when compared to some other types of human learning like first language acquisition) and that certain aspects of learning a second language (L2) are more difficult than others (DeKeyser, 2005; Graus & Coppen, 2015; Hawkins, 2014; Housen & Simoens, 2016). There is no consensus, however, on what the difficult aspects of an L2 are, and what it is that makes these aspects difficult, nor have the more fundamental question of what L2 difficulty actually entails and how difficulty can be measured been explicitly addressed.  In this presentation we will present an attempt to help address these gaps by proposing a definition of language difficulty as ‘cognitive complexity’, that is, as the demands that linguistic structures or texts place on human users, whether in production, reception or acquisition. Starting from this definition, we tehn propose methodologies for operationalising and measuring the difficulty construct while assessing their merits, drawbacks, and potential relevance to research in AL and SLA. In the spirit of enhancing replicability and knowledge accumulation in the field, we propose a concise selection of measures that, in our estimation,  effectively gauge the difficulty of both individual linguistic structures and productions or texts. Additionally, we discuss the interplay between the constructs of difficulty, complexity, proficiency, and developmental stages, elucidating their interconnectedness.

References

Bulté, B., & Housen, A. (2012). Defining and operationalising L2 complexity. In A. Housen, F. Kuiken & I. Vedder (Eds.), Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency: Complexity accuracy and fluency in SLA (pp. 21–46). Benjamins.

DeKeyser, R.  (2005). What makes learning second-language grammar diffcult? A review of issues. Language Learning, 55, Suppl. 1, 1-25.

Graus, J., & Coppen, P.-A. (2015). Grammatical difficulty: A student teacher perspective. Language Awareness, 24, 101–22.

Hawkins, J. (2014). Cross-linguistic variation and efficiency. Oxford University Press.

Housen, A., & Simoens, H. (2016). Introduction: Cognitive perspectives on difficulty and complexity in L2 acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 38(2), 163-175.