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Schumann, John H.

Chapter · November 2012

DOI: 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1039

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 Schumann, John H.
BOB JACOBS

If the field of applied linguistics were a kitchen, John H. Schumann (born May 23, 1943)
would be one of the master chefs. As one of the founding members of the field of second
language acquisition, it is not surprising that his interest in language learning began early.
He received both his BA and MA in Russian from Fordham University. Subsequently, he
worked in the Peace Corps as a volunteer teaching English and then as the director of
their Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) program in Iran. In 1975, he received
an Ed.D. in Human Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In this
same year, with this diverse background, he began his academic career when he joined
the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) TESL/Applied Linguistic Program,
which already had a well-established faculty (e.g., Clifford Prator, Donald Bowen, Russ
Campbell, Evelyn Hatch, and Marianne Celce-Murcia). For 16 years (1985–2001), Schumann
chaired the department, directing its focus on second language acquisition (SLA), assess-
ment, and discourse analysis. During this time, the UCLA doctoral program became one
of the preeminent applied linguistics departments in the world.
At UCLA, Schumann’s research evolved in several identifiable stages. The early focus
was on developing the pidginization hypothesis he had proposed in his dissertation, which
suggested that an individual’s restricted second language (or interlanguage) is a conse-
quence of psychological distance from speakers of the target language (Schumann, 1976,
1978b). This was essentially a descriptive linguistic approach for characterizing the early
stages of SLA. A logical extension of this hypothesis was to expand the perspective to
include not only affective but also social factors, in what became known as the accultura-
tion model (Schumann, 1978a, 1986). Acculturation was seen as a causal variable in SLA
insofar as social-psychological integration into a target language culture could facilitate
SLA. This second phase in Schumann’s research went beyond linguistic descriptions of a
learner’s interlanguage and began an explanatory endeavor that opened up a broader view
of language acquisition, one that eventually incorporated neurobiology.
This venture into neurobiology evolved out of his definition of applied linguistics.
Rather than accepting the field as the narrow application of linguistic theory to language
acquisition, Schumann adopted a much broader, eclectic perspective: applied linguistics
is the application of diverse fields of inquiry (e.g., psychology, neurobiology, anthropology,
linguistics) to language-related issues. Schumann thus encouraged his students to explore
language from a variety of different perspectives, one of these being neurobiology. It was
this kind of inquisitive, supportive environment that led to some of the early neurobio-
logically oriented publications about language acquisition (Jacobs, 1988; Jacobs & Schumann,
1992), speculative work that went well beyond the original neurofunctional foundations
laid a decade earlier by Lamendella (1977). In this vein, Schumann founded the UCLA
Neurobiology of Language Research Group. Part of this undertaking involved working
with the well-known neuroscientist Dr. Arnold B. Scheibel of the UCLA Brain Research
Institute. Together, they provided graduate students with a solid neurobiological founda-
tion from which issues in language acquisition could be addressed. In this way, Schumann
and his students outlined important areas of neurobiological research that could shed light
on the language acquisition process.

The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Edited by Carol A. Chapelle.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1039
2 schumann, john h.

This neurobiological stage of investigation was no minor undertaking for an established

researcher attempting to tackle an entirely new discipline. Nevertheless, Schumann began
intensively studying the intricacies of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. Over several
years, he developed sufficient expertise to extend his earlier links between affective factors
and SLA. Although he initially underscored the amygdala’s involvement in emotional
processing, he recognized that the amygdala did not work in isolation (Schumann, 1997).
He therefore proposed a tripartite stimulus-appraisal system that highlighted the interactions
between the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex, and the body proper. This stimulus-
appraisal system provided a neurobiological mechanism for an individual’s preferences
and aversions, which determine how an individual reacts in various language learning
situations, and helps us understand their ultimate language proficiency in such environ-
ments. Working with his students, Schumann pursued a broad neurobiological account of
learning from the perspective of language acquisition, resulting in a comprehensive over-
view where they clearly delineated fact from speculation and made insightful extrapolations
from current brain research (Schumann et al., 2004).
This focus on the neurobiology of affect led to an evolutionarily based reexamination
of how language is acquired. The resulting theory, known as the interactional instinct
(Lee, Mikesell, Joaquin, Mates, & Schumann, 2009), suggests that linguistic structures in
primary language acquisition are complex adaptive systems that emerge from conversa-
tional interaction, which is neurobiologically driven by affiliative reward systems in the
brain (Schumann, 2007). Because the brain detects and learns verbal interaction patterns,
grammar is epiphenomenal (i.e., a secondary consequence of the learning process), requir-
ing no reliance on an innate universal grammar (Chomsky, 1965; Pinker, 1994). In this
perspective, learning is viewed as being similar to a form of foraging (Schumann, 2001).
As such, learning is a biological imperative in infants and motivates their interaction with
conspecifics, resulting in the virtually inevitable acquisition of the primary language. In
adults, however, there is a great deal more variability in SLA success, in part because of
the affective and psychological factors previously outlined by Schumann (Schumann, 1978a,
1986, 1997), but also because of neurobiological factors (e.g., genetic variations and onto-
genetic changes in receptor density) on which Schumann and his colleagues have begun
to elaborate (Lee et al., 2009). The interactional instinct thus brings Schumann full-circle
by allowing him to integrate his earlier social-psychological work on affect with more
recent neurobiological investigations. This synthetic approach provides an evolutionarily
plausible mechanism for the acquisition of the culturally inherited artifact known as
language. Insofar as this area of inquiry is rich with possibilities, we can expect his future
work will continue to integrate neurobiology, evolution, and language acquisition.
As representative as these academic foci are, several of Schumann’s more “peripheral”
publications actually provide a deeper understanding of his broad philosophical palate.
In one of his earlier works, for example, Schumann (1983) drew parallels between quantum
physics and SLA research, noting that researchers create the reality they investigate, and
that philosophical flexibility is required to appreciate the aesthetic aspects of SLA theory
building. Certainly, SLA has long been driven by competing theories. In this regard,
Schumann (1993a) explained why the philosophical notion of falsification is problematic
for evaluating SLA theories. In a different vein, Schumann (1993b) merged his interests in
acculturation and neurobiology when he stepped outside SLA circles to explore the neural
underpinnings of diversity in multicultural environments. Finally, in a return to philosophy,
Logan and Schumann (2005) recently proposed that language is part of the symbolosphere
(i.e., the nonphysical world of symbolic relationships). In this view, language is an emer-
gent cultural artifact that arises from social interactions among brains and, as such, shares
much with other cultural constructs (e.g., religion, law). What characterizes all of these
 schumann, john h. 3

perspectives and his main research interests is a scholarly stretching of academic boundaries
to advance our understanding of what language is, and how it is acquired.
Indeed, Schumann’s academic and philosophical inquisitiveness is demonstrated by his
interdisciplinary contributions to the field of applied linguistics. Not only has he been a
prolific writer, he has also guided the careers of several generations of young scholars. On
a more personal level, he applies this same omnivorous inquisitiveness to his culinary
pursuits, often preparing elaborate dishes for colleagues as they discuss the latest research
in the field. Indeed, it is in these moments when new ideas are discovered . . . that one can
be sure there is a scholar in the kitchen.

SEE ALSO: Hatch, Evelyn; Motivation in Second Language Acquisition; Neurobiological

Foundations for Second Language Acquisition; Neurobiology and Motivation in Second
Language Acquisition; Selinker, Larry

References

Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jacobs, B. (1988). Neurobiological differentiation of primary and secondary language acquisition.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 10, 303–37.
Jacobs, B., & Schumann, J. H. (1992). Language acquisition and the neurosciences: Towards a
more integrative perspective. Applied Linguistics, 13, 282–301.
Lamendella, J. T. (1977). General principles of neurofunctional organization and their manifesta-
tion in primary and nonprimary language acquisition. Language Learning, 27, 155–96.
Lee, N., Mikesell, L., Joaquin, A. D. L., Mates, A. W., & Schumann, J. H. (2009). The interactional
instinct: The evolution and acquisition of language. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Logan, R. K., & Schumann, J. H. (2005). The symbolosphere, conceptualization, language, and
neo-dualism. Semiotica, 155, 201–14.
Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York, NY: Morrow.
Schumann, J. H. (1976). Second language acquisition: The pidginization hypothesis. Language
Learning, 26, 391–408.
Schumann, J. H. (1978a). The acculturation model for second language acquisition. In R. C. Gingras
(Ed.), Second language acquisition and foreign language learning. Washington, DC: Center for
Applied Linguistics.
Schumann, J. H. (1978b). The pidginization process: A model for second language acquisition. Rowley,
MA: Newbury House.
Schumann, J. H. (1983). Art and science in second language acquisition research. Language
Learning, 33, 49–76.
Schumann, J. H. (1986). Research on the acculturation model for second language acquisition.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 7, 379–92.
Schumann, J. H. (1993a). Some problems with falsification: An illustration from SLA research.
Applied Linguistics, 14, 295–306.
Schumann, J. H. (1993b). The brain looks at diversity. Journal of multilingual and multicultural
development, 14, 321–8.
Schumann, J. H. (1997). The neurobiology of affect in language. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Schumann, J. H. (2001). Learning as foraging. In Z. Dornyei & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Motivation in
second language acquisition (pp. 21–8). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i.
Schumann, J. H. (2007). A linguistics for the evolution and neurobiology of language. Journal of
English Linguistics, 35, 278–87.
Schumann, J. H., Crowell, S., Jones, N., Lee, N., Schuchert, S. A., & Wood, L. A. (2004). The
neurobiology of learning: Perspectives from second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
 4 schumann, john h

Suggested Readings

Chater, N., & Christiansen, M. H. (2009). Language acquisition meets language evolution.
Cognitive Science, 1–27.
Christiansen, M. H., & Chater, N. (2008). Language as shaped by the brain. Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 31, 489–558.
Kuhl, P. (2000). A new view of language acquisition. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 97, 11850–7.

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