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Richard Schmidt

Definition:

Richard Schmidt (1941–2020) was an American applied linguist and professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he taught for most of his career. He is best known for proposing the Noticing Hypothesis, one of the most widely debated and influential theoretical claims in second language acquisition (SLA) research. His work on consciousness, attention, and the role of awareness in language learning positioned him as a central figure in the field for over three decades.

Academic Background

Schmidt studied linguistics and applied linguistics, with a focus on learner language and the cognitive processes underlying acquisition. He spent the majority of his career at the University of Hawaii, where he was deeply involved in building TESOL and SLA programs. He edited and contributed to foundational volumes on attention and awareness in language learning.

The Noticing Hypothesis

Schmidt’s most influential contribution is the Noticing Hypothesis, introduced primarily in his 1990 paper “The role of consciousness in second language learning” (Applied Linguistics). The core claim:

> Noticing is necessary for acquisition. Linguistic features in the input must be consciously attended to — noticed — before they can be processed as intake and eventually incorporated into the developing interlanguage system.

What “Noticing” Means

Schmidt defined noticing as detection plus awareness at the level of conscious attention. Simply being exposed to a grammatical form does not guarantee learning; the learner must register the form with some degree of conscious awareness. He distinguished between:

  • Noticing: Conscious attention to specific linguistic forms in the input
  • Understanding: Grasping the underlying rule or system (a higher level of processing)

Acquisition requires at minimum the first level (noticing), and may benefit from the second (understanding).

Autobiographical Origin

Schmidt partly based the hypothesis on reflections about his own Portuguese learning experience in Brazil. He observed that forms he received instruction on and actively attended to were acquired faster than forms he encountered without conscious attention — lending initial plausibility to the noticing claim.

Implications

If the Noticing Hypothesis is correct:

  1. Pure immersion without attention is insufficient — massive exposure alone does not guarantee acquisition of all forms, especially those that are low in communicative salience.
  2. Form-focused instruction has value — drawing attention to specific forms (through input enhancement, recasts, explicit feedback) can accelerate acquisition by prompting noticing.
  3. Implicit learning is limited in scope — unlike L1 acquisition, which occurs without awareness, L2 learners may need conscious attention to bootstrap certain features.

The Noticing-the-Gap Variant

Schmidt also coined the phrase noticing the gap — a stronger version of noticing where learners not only attend to a form in the input but also compare it to their own current output and recognize a discrepancy. This version connects noticing to pushed output: when learners are stretched to produce forms they can’t quite manage, they are more likely to notice where their interlanguage falls short.

Criticisms

The Noticing Hypothesis has been extensively debated:

  • Conceptual ambiguity: Critics argue that “noticing” is difficult to operationalize and measure — how do we know when a learner has noticed?
  • The implicit learning challenge: Research on statistical learning and implicit memory demonstrates that humans can acquire patterns without conscious awareness, raising questions about whether noticing is truly necessary.
  • Strong vs. weak versions: Schmidt himself held a nuanced position — not claiming all acquisition requires metalinguistic understanding, only that some level of awareness is required. Debates often hinge on which version is being tested.
  • Classroom research: Empirical studies on input enhancement (e.g., textual input flooding, bold-facing key forms) have yielded mixed results.

Despite the controversy, noticing remains one of the primary theoretical bridges between input exposure and actual acquisition, and continues to generate research in attention, awareness, and L2 development.

Other Contributions

Beyond the Noticing Hypothesis, Schmidt made important contributions to:

  • Aptitude and SLA: Investigating how individual learners differ in their capacity for conscious processing of language forms
  • Pragmatic competence and acquisition: Studying how learners acquire sociolinguistic and pragmatic norms in L2 settings
  • Task-Based Language Teaching theory: Connections between attention and task design

Research

  • Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 129–158.
  • Schmidt, R. (1993). Awareness and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, 206–226.
  • Schmidt, R. (1995). Consciousness and foreign language learning: A tutorial on the role of attention and awareness. In R. Schmidt (Ed.), Attention and Awareness in Foreign Language Learning (pp. 1–63). University of Hawaii Press.
  • Schmidt, R. (2001). Attention. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and Second Language Instruction (pp. 3–32). Cambridge University Press.

Related Terms

See Also

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