Lesson 7: Waring Article

Robert Waring's article   Connectionism and Second Language Vocabulary was very understandable.  In connectionism our minds are like maps or a maze, all of our in information is interconnected.  We learn by making connections with previous knowledge.  The more well known a word is that word will have a more complicated network of interconnections, words that are less well known will have a less complicated network of interconnections.   If a particular word if forgotten the system (brain) compensates by retrieving a different word from a different area.  This forgetting is referred to as Graceful Degradation.  Waring's description of connectionism is very straight forward.   He also mentions the generalization that comes from the connectionist system.  New language learners do this often,  "if pianist, then computerist", etc.  I definitely agree with his point that knowing a word or information better, then that area of the brain that holds that information will be stronger.  Items that are more relevant or needed in everyday language has a stronger connection.