Schmidt's noticing hypothesis

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 19 claims (11 for, 6 mixed, 2 against) · 17 studies (5 quant-synthesis, 4 review, 3 qualitative, 2 design, 2 theoretical, 1 causal), q1–q3 · 1 of 17 report an effect size · 17 claims rest on one study

Description

The articles trace the concept of noticing to Schmidt (1990), who stressed the role of noticing in L2 input for acquisition (eric-ej1155586). As Ellis (eric-ed338037) reports it, Schmidt holds that noticing is necessarily conscious ("you can't learn a foreign language through subliminal perception") and that learners "who notice the most, will learn the most". Conscious noticing is not the same as deliberate attending. It can happen intentionally or by chance, and it does not need focal attention: a learner focused on the message can still pick up striking features at the edge of attention. Schmidt and Frota's (1986) diary study of Schmidt learning Portuguese is the case the articles cite. Schmidt often "noticed the gap" between what he said and what he heard, and forms he noticed and compared later appeared in his own speech.

Other theories took noticing in. Ellis made noticing and comparison the processes that interaction helps with, in his revision of the interaction hypothesis. Swain's output hypothesis argues that producing output can also trigger noticing (eric-ej1155586). Research on feedback uses noticing to explain why input-providing feedback such as recasts and explicit correction works: the correct form makes the gap easier to see (Sato, eric-ej1412014, citing Schmidt 1995 and 2001). Vocabulary research treats noticing an unknown word as "the first and important step" in acquiring it from reading (eric-ej1117239, citing Schmidt 1993). Focus-on-form work cites Schmidt (1995) on limited attentional capacity: a learner absorbed in comprehension has little attention left for a new form (eric-ed507438).

The articles also mark the hypothesis's weak points. Barnawi (eric-ej930155) notes that "noticing", "attention", "awareness", "understanding" and "memory" are used almost interchangeably in the L2 literature, which makes studies hard to compare, as Schmidt (1995) himself observed. Geist reports that researchers operationalise noticing in different ways: as language-related episodes in think-aloud protocols, as learners' written notes, or through grammaticality judgements. Noticing is also not the same as uptake. Lv and Liu (eric-ej1361438) cite a study in which learners reported noticing 37% of recasts but took up only 14%.

Implications

Context

• Noticing needs attention to spare. The articles tie it to task demands (eric-ed507438, eric-ej1361438) and to the salience of the form: non-salient, redundant forms such as third-person -s are the least likely to be noticed.
• In the writing studies, the classroom routes to noticing are structured comparison tasks: note-taking while writing, comparison with a model or reformulation, and collaborative feedback (eric-ej930155, eric-ej1155586).

Target Learners

• Second language learners in general. The fetched applications cover EFL college writers (eric-ej930155), German teenage learners of English (eric-ej1155586), primary-age EFL children receiving recasts (eric-ej1361438), and adult learners in the diary study Ellis reports.
• additional language learners from beginner to upper-intermediate

Target Learning Objectives

• Grammatical and lexical accuracy, especially for forms that communication alone leaves unnoticed.
• Vocabulary learned incidentally through reading.
• noticing and improving language form (accuracy) alongside meaning-focused speaking

Claims

• Review reports that asking students to notice particular errors decreased errors in a subsequent draft without reducing overall writing quality (Chandler) [+W]
• Unpressured within-task planning improves accuracy only when attention is guided to form [+W]
• Comprehensible input alone is insufficient for acquisition of high levels of grammatical proficiency [+W]
• Lexical LREs dominate grammar-related LREs in young learners' L2 writing noticing [~M]
• Learners' grammar noticing centers more on syntax than morphology, with syntax issues encountered by all participants [~M]
• Learners resolve grammar-related noticing with intuition, reasoning, rephrasing and explicit rules rather than external resources [~M]
• While producing L2 paragraphs, an EFL learner's self-noticed problems were overwhelmingly lexical (about 79%) rather than grammatical (about 21%) [~M]
• Comparing original texts to model paragraphs prompted noticing that was again focused on lexical features [~W]
• Proactive FOF improved grammar more than reactive FOF at both beginner and upper-intermediate proficiency levels [~M]
• Dialogue journals inherently meet conditions deemed necessary for second language acquisition [+W]
• Successes of form-focused manipulation of input in adult L2 are illusory with respect to linguistic competence, affecting only performance [-M]
• A 1999 conference paper reports, citing White (1991) and Schwartz and Gubala-Ryzak (1992), that explicit negative evidence on English adverb placement produced only superficial change in French learners [-M]
• Children's drawings suggested they noticed the robot's embedded integration elements and shifted attention from the robot to peer communication [+W]
• Attention Shift Meaning To Form Over Cycles [+M]
• Lynch and Maclean's carousel task showed immediate repetition benefits in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar [+W]
• Immediate task repetition benefits oral performance, including fluency, self-correction and reduced anxiety [+W]

The evidence by question

• In second-language grammar, does explicit instruction about a form help more than leaving it to implicit exposure? Explicit L2 grammar instruction leads to larger learning effects than implicit instruction, as reported in the reviewed synthesis literature [+S]
• Does corrective feedback on second-language errors improve accuracy, and which form of correction (recast, prompt, metalinguistic clue, explicit correction with or without a rule) works for which target and learner? Corrective feedback on second-language errors has a significant effect on L2 development that is maintained on delayed tests [+S]
• Does writing in the second language make learners notice gaps in their own language, which gaps do they notice, and does comparing with a model help them close them? Review-reported experiment found output performed noticing and hypothesis-testing functions but no apparent metalinguistic function in L2 writing [+W]

Related Theories

• Ellis's revised interaction hypothesis: noticing, comparison, and integration as the basic acquisitional procedures
• Language related episodes (LREs) as the operationalization of noticing in L2 writing
• A three-stage framework for promoting noticing through collaborative feedback tasks (pre-noticing, while-noticing, post-noticing)
• Swain's output hypothesis — the noticing function of output
• Long's interaction hypothesis — later accounts give recasts a noticing role
• Krashen's input hypothesis and Monitor Model of second language acquisition — acquisition as subconscious, the view noticing opposes
• Skehan's limited attention capacity prediction as an account of task complexity effects on child L2 development
• Ellis's revised Interaction Hypothesis: acquisition via noticing, comparison and integration

Examples

• Three-stage writing task: write with problem notes, compare to a model paragraph, then rewrite
• While-noticing stage pairs contrastive-critical framing with transformed practice as interrelated tasks
• Train and model the collaborative feedback process before students notice gaps (pre-noticing stage)
• Close the feedback cycle with guided reflection on what was learned (post-noticing stage)
• Start grammar instruction from the problems learners notice in their own written output
• For child beginner language learners, keep task complexity low or moderate so attention remains available for noticing recasts
• Modeling feedback: an original native-speaker text used as a comparison model
• Pair form-focused instruction with prompts that push learners to self-repair rather than recasts
• Anecdote task (my treasured possession): mingling retelling of a personal story across partner changes
• Decision-making restaurant-choice task: pairs merge into larger groups across cycles while re-choosing a restaurant
• Travel fair carousel task: pairs present a destination to rotating visitors across immediate repetition cycles

Key Sources

• Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 129–158. doi:10.1093/applin/11.2.129
• Schmidt, R. (1995). Consciousness and foreign language learning: A tutorial on the role of attention and awareness in learning. In R. Schmidt (Ed.), Attention and awareness in foreign language learning (pp. 1–63). University of Hawaii, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.
• Schmidt, R. (2001). Attention. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3–32). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524780.003
• Schmidt, R., & Frota, S. (1986). Developing basic conversational ability in a second language: A case study of an adult learner of Portuguese. In R. Day (Ed.), Talking to learn: Conversation in second language acquisition (pp. 237–326). Newbury House.
• Robinson, P. (1995). Attention, memory, and the "noticing" hypothesis. Language Learning, 45(2), 283–331. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1995.tb00441.x
• Rafael Zaccaron. (2019). Ideas for integrating meaningful immediate repetition tasks in the English as an additional language classroom: promoting fluency. BELT, 10(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.15448/2178-3640.2019.2.32988

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	theory
id	schmidt-noticing-hypothesis
title	Schmidt's noticing hypothesis
description	Schmidt's claim that second language acquisition requires conscious noticing of features in the input, that learners who notice more learn more, and that noticing the gap between one's own output and the target is a route to change.
status	review
moved_from	principle/post-task-phase-focus-on-form
canonical	True
generated	by claude/unspecified on 2026-09-30
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — rafael-zaccaron-2019

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