Review of the Studies abroad and in China Using Microgenetic approach

吕红红

【Abstract】More and more researchers switch their attentions on the study the path and mechanism of the changing cognitive development with a focus on variability with a group and within a subject by the microgenetic approach.The paper overviews the studies achievements of using microgenetic approach in second language acquisition both at abroad and home. By using microgenetic approach，it will provide us a new perspective to explore effective ways to modify our teaching and learning and could help us better to deal with the micro problems of Chinese students learning.

【Key words】microgenetic approach； Second Language Acquisition

Microgenetic approach was a kind of research method which has appeared in recent 20 years in the field of cognitive psychology and can be traced to 70 years ago， in which Vygotsky and Werner put forward the basic idea of Microgenetic analysis. This approach was mainly used to explore trajectory and mechanism of cognitive development and focus on the group or individual's variability during development process.

Microgenetic approach has been proved to be applicable in various fields， such as cognitive science， social science， applied linguistics， pragmatics， as well as second language acquisition and has been used to study development in diverse content areas： language， arithmetic etc. The main reason was closely related to the continuous development of the theories， from Chomsky innate language acquisition dominated in second language acquisition to “learning language was just like to learn other cognitive skill” proposed by Valdman（2002）， from Piagets children cognitive development theory to the overlapping waves model by Siegler （1996）. The former only reflected the macro change and trend in population， while ignoring micro development and its diversity and difference， to some extent， which could not reflect the true fact of the children cognitive development. The later emphasized the unbalanced nature of childrens cognitive development and variability， recognizing the complexity of development from the microscopic perspective， including Dynamic System Theory in 21st century， which coincided with the nature of microgenetic approach and was contributed to the development of the method. It has also been shown to be applicable to people in different age： Infant， toddlers， school-age children， adolescents， and adult （Siegle & Svetina 2002）.

Many researchers have done some investigations about how children discovered new strategies （e.g.， Alibali， 1999； Chen & Klahr， 1999； Goldin-Meadow & Alibali， 2002； Granott， 2002； Kuhn， Garcia-Mila， Zohar， & Anderson， 1995）. We could get some results from these studies that discovering a strategy was often considered to be only the first step in strategic change. Even when the newly discovered strategy had clear advantages and even when children can describe those advantages prior strategies often persist， （Siegler & Jenkins， 1989）. Thus， the adoption of new strategies for learners was often quite slow. De Guerrero and Villamil （2000） mainly studied to build the scaffold by using mutual cooperation to complete the task of writing in second language writing class. The study done by Platt and Brooks （2002 ）， based on the frame of the social and context of language learning， investigated language learning from a micro point， Belz and Kinger（2002）employed the microgenetic approach to examine change of second language learner s pragmatic competence in the remote network cooperative teaching environment. Kim and Hall （2002） conducted a study that focused on the role of the interactive reading in second pragmatic competence development. Chetland and Fluck （2007） showed information which illustrates the path of childrens development in understanding the cardinality principle of counting. By undertaking a microgenetic study， domestic researches mainly focused on frequency in second language acquisition. Zhou Dandan （2006） conducted an experimental study of the effects of input and output frequency on the oral story telling done by Chinese tertiary-level English majors. Zhou Weijing （2005） explored that the visual input and auditory input could product different effects on oral English. Bei Xiaoyue （2009） explored the effects of task repetition and teachers feedback on writing quality and fluency of the different level students and so on.

All in all， the studies using microgenetic approach are comparatively less than the other approaches in second language acquisition. By using microgenetic approach，it will provide us a new perspective to explore effective ways to modify our teaching and learning and could help us better to deal with the micro problems of Chinese students learning.

References：

[1]Flavell，J.H.（1971）.An analysis of cognitive development sequences.Genetic Psychology Monographs[J].86，279-350.

[2]周丹丹.應用语言学中的微变化研究方法[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2012.