A Reading “Din in the Head”: Evidence of Involuntary Mental Rehearsal in Second Language Readers

Abstract

The phenomenon of involuntary mental rehearsal of language, or the “Din in the head,” has been considered by researchers as an indicator of second language (L2) acquisition among acquirers. Previous studies have noted that the Din occurs primarily among beginning and intermediate L2 students after the reception of oral input that is comprehensible, but not after reading. It has been argued that this lack of a reported Din is due to the fact that such students typically do very little reading, and that acquirers who did read would experience a “reading Din.” This study provides evidence for an 12 Din after reading from a survey of two classes of intermediate Spanish students: a “Reading Only” group (TV = 20), whose only source ofL2 input was reading; and a “Reading and Conversation” group (TV = 15), who received both printed and oral input. Both groups reported a Din after L2 reading. The findings lend support to claims made by Krashen concerning the importance of comprehensible input in L2 acquisition. Implications for the use of reading in beginning and intermediate 12 classrooms are discussed.

The Role of the First Language in Second Language Reading

“…The 20 participants for this study included 10 native speakers of Chinese and 10 native speakers of Japanese enrolled in a Midwestern U.S. university. Although this number is not extensive, it is large with respect to the qualitative methodology we are using (as described later in this section) and is in line with other studies that have used a similar methodology (e.g., Anton & DiCamilla, 1999;Block, 1986;Cohen, 1998;McQuillan & Rodrigo, 1995;Roebuck, 1998). Subjects were divided into three groups based on their scores on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP).…”

Letter to the Editor: The Din in the Head Hypothesis: A Response to de Bot (2008)

“…I noted that the Din experience correlates with less reluctance to speak the language, but I did not make any hypothesis about a sudden “critical stage” that leads to a “sudden and massive restructuring,” as de Bot claimed (p. 173). de Bot stated that there is no research providing evidence for his interpretation of the Din. There certainly is published research confirming that the predictions made in Krashen (1983) are correct: Bedford (1985), de Guerrero (1987), McQuillan (1996), McQuillan and Rodrigo (1995), Parr and Krashen (1986), and Sevilla (1996).…”

Exploring the impact of songs on student cognitive and emotional development

“…Murphey, who brought up 'the song stuck in my head phenomenon' (SSIMH), suggested that music or song may activate the language acquisition device (LAD) or be a 'strategy of the LAD' [25]. In his discussion, he argues that SSIMH may be linked to other phenomena that have been reported in connection with language learning, such as 'involuntary rehearsal of a FL' or 'Din in the head' [26], during intense exposure to the FL, egocentric language as observed in children [27], [28] and the inner speech that evolves from egocentric speech and has also been called verbal thought [29]. According to Murphey, the song can trigger similar rehearsal of language and aid FL acquisition, because if 'involuntary rehearsal is the humming of the efficient LAD, music and song may initially play an associative facilitating role in engaging and stimulating it' [30].…”