Connectionist models of language learning: implications for writing pedagogy

摘要

Connectionism -an interdisciplinary approach that draws heaüly from hard science- promises to be the new paradigm shift for linguistics and psychology, and has important implications for both composition studies and the teaching of writing. The models are innovative primarily because -in a manner extendable to neurobiological reality- they process in a parallel rather than a serial manner and address subsymbolic rather tan symbolic representations. As neuroscientific knowledge expands, such models may be amended and developed to mirror learning of all types. Even at their current level of development, they proüde several important insights into the nature of cognition. This investigation uses connectionist assumptions as analytical tools to explain much about past theoretical frameworks in written composition, and -more significantly- to suggest some important Considerations for writing pedagogy.